Graduate Bulletin 1999-2001
JOSEPH A. BUTT, S.J., COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
MASTER OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT (MQM)
The Master of Quality management (MQM) is offered through a consortium of the Joseph A. Butt, S.J., College of Business Administration of Loyola University New Orleans and STAT-A-MATRIX Institute (SAM). The MQM is the only international program that prepares working executives for the role of chief quality officer. It provides graduate-level instruction for quality management professionals or other qualified applicants seeking an in-depth education in designing, deploying, and ensuring results in quality, regulatory, and business processes. The two-year, 32 credit hour degree is offered through an innovative combination of on-campus and off-campus experiences.
Quality management is an important management philosophy and competitive strategy. Worldwide recognition that products and services that meet customers’ quality requirements are essential to compete effectively in today’s economy created an awareness that quality is everybody’s business. This recognition resulted in a tremendous need for professionals who have extensive backgrounds in the concepts and tools of quality management to lead organizations through the needed transformations.
The MQM is beginning its eighth year, with over 100 graduates and an impressive list of students and alumni who have received many promotions and job offers at higher levels of responsibility and higher salaries.
Applied projects are integral to every course. These projects are very popular with the organizations that employ the students because the projects provide immediate returns. In fact, some projects yield procedures that are adopted throughout the organization; some have saved the organization millions of dollars.
Students attend the program with a cohort group of 25 to 30 professional colleagues. These cohorts are on the Loyola campus together for eight consecutive days three times a year for two years, and they develop friendships that extend well beyond the program. Students help each other solve work-related problems throughout the year. They stay in touch through telephone, fax, e-mail, and a listserv. Please visit our web page at www.cba.loyno.edu for a list of organizations that have sent students to our program.
The MQM Program
The program requires 32 credit hours, with courses delivered through an innovative combination of on-campus and off-campus experiences. Regular semesters last a total of 20 weeks and consist of three phases: off-campus reading and written assignments, one-week intensive classroom instruction at Loyola University New Orleans, and an in-depth post-classroom applied project at the student’s work site. Each course is team-taught by a full-time Loyola business faculty member and a full-time quality management practitioner/consultant from STAT-A-MATRIX Institute.
The pre-class assignment phase lasts six weeks and consists of a series of readings and written assignments. During this phase, the student satisfies prerequisites for classroom work and achieves course objectives that do not require classroom attendance. Successful completion of these assignments enables the student to gain maximum benefit from classroom instruction.
Students are on the Loyola campus for eight consecutive days three times each year for two years. The classroom instruction phase consists of lectures, discussions, workshops, evening team assignments, and examinations. Attendance in class is full time for one week, from Saturday to Saturday, for 55 contact hours. This phase concentrates on achieving course objectives that require personal contact with an instructor or the opportunity to practice new skills in a team setting.
Prior to the end of the classroom instruction phase, each student prepares a proposal for an application project in consultation with the professors. The projects are practical applications of the course material based on the student’s current professional work. After the classroom instruction phase, each student contacts the professors monthly to discuss the progress of the project and receive additional guidance. The project phase concludes with the submission of a written report approximately 14 weeks after the completion of the classroom instruction phase.
Applications and Admissions
Application procedures are designed to select students with a strong potential to succeed in graduate studies and their careers, without reference to race, sex, or creed. Admissions are competitive based upon undergraduate grade point average, relevant work experience, prior graduate degrees, relevant certifications, and reasons for pursuing the degree.
Applicants for admission must have a four-year bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, a minimum of five years full-time work experience, and sponsorship by the applicant’s employer. Recent completion of a credit course in probability and statistics with a grade of C or better is required before enrollment in the program. GMAT or GRE scores will be accepted as an additional indication of potential success if submitted by the applicant, but these standardized test scores are not required. A minimum TOEFL of 237 is required of applicants whose college education was not in English.
Curriculum
A new curriculum was adopted in 1997 and revised in 1999. This curriculum was developed using quality management tools, especially quality function deployment, to capture the needs of both students and their employing organizations and organize them into a sequence of courses. The resulting curriculum consists of six required courses:
QMGT 601: Principles of Quality Management ... 6 credit hours
QMGT 605 Customer Focus and Satisfaction ... 6 credit hours
QMGT 615 Business Process Management ... 6 credit hours
QMGT 626: Quantitative Analysis for Problem Solving ... 4 credit hours
QMGT 627: Experimental Analysis for Process Improvement ... 4 credit hours
QMGT 680 Strategic Quality Management ... 6 credit hours
STAT-A-MATRIX Institute
STAT-A-MATRIX Institute, a non-profit education and training organization (est. 1975), provides the world’s most extensive series of non-credit courses in quality, regulatory, and business process improvement. It is currently the world leader in ISO/QS 9000 and ISO 14000 training and Lead Auditor Certification training, with its programs accredited by RAB (US), IRCA (UK), and/or EARA (UK). The institute provides a series of senior executive round tables and SME consortia for ISO and regulatory management systems and Baldrige-style business processes.
Related Site: Masters of Quality Management Home Page
1999-2001 Graduate Bulletin > College of Business Administration