Launching the dual degree: creating business-savvy designers

The authors, Jeremy Alexis, Institute of Design Professor and Zia Hassan, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the Stuart School of Business, both of the Illinois Institute of Technology, consider their institution's new dual degree, which combines a Master of Design with a Master of Business Administration. The full time MD/MBA programme is completed in two years plus one summer. The authors stress that the programme is not a joint masters or a hybrid and that students who complete finish with two separate masters which complement each other. The focus of the design aspect is the creative and the synthetic; the business administration degree focuses on analysis and decision-making.