New York Institute of Technology MBAs get down to business

Business students’ equivalent of the Stanley Cup playoffs is competing in business-case competitions against peers from other institutions. One of the better known, the ASCM Case Competition, is hosted by the Association for Supply Chain Management in conjunction with Deloitte Consulting LLP. They invite groups of students on five continents to try to produce the best solution to a supply-chain management problem.

This year, a trio of MBA students from the New York Institute of Technology’s Vancouver campus— Sachitanandan Rajendran, Amelia Grania, and Nishant Mishra—won their first round. That means they will advance to a regional round in Chicago. According to NYIT school of management assistant dean Sinan Caykoylu, if the students succeed at this stage, they’ll be invited to participate in the case competition’s international leg in New York.

Caykoylu credited assistant professor Majid Davoodi Makinejad for encouraging this year’s team of students to obtain certification so they could get involved in this type of event.

In the past, having an MBA would almost certainly open doors. But nowadays, Caykoylu emphasized, it’s also important for students to supplement this graduate degree with professional certifications.

“As the assistant dean, my focus is always to make sure that they are employment-ready,” he said.

Caykoylu also mentioned that last year, NYIT students from Vancouver made it to the finals of a case competition put on by Marriott Hotels.

NYIT offers MBAs in management and finance at its Vancouver campus and the school is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. To qualify for this designation, 75 percent of the courses must be offered by full-time assistant or associate professors with a PhD, according to Caykoylu.

The school attracts many international students into its two MBA programs. One is a graduate management degree; the other offers a specialization in finance. Because it operates on a trimester system, students are admitted three times a year: in September, January, and May.

“The foundational courses are the same for both the general MBA and finance concentration,” Caykoylu explained. “The difference starts happening when they have to start selecting their electives.”

Caykoylu said he obtained his PhD from SFU’s Beedie School of Business, where he studied succession planning in family businesses. He pointed out that UBC and SFU’s MBA programs require a significant amount of work experience—often five years or more—and that’s a challenge for many international students.

NYIT, on the other hand, will accept students with an average of three years’ work experience. The entrance requirements call for a “bare minimum” grade-point average of 3, but he noted that the average is “way above 3.3”.

All of the instruction is conducted face to face, apart from teleconferencing sessions with instructors based in New York. Because NYIT has campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and China, it’s possible for a student to attend semesters in each location while working for the same degree.

“We operate under one-university rule,” Caykoylu said, “When they get their degree, there’s no differentiation.”