Background & Research

In 2018, the Cox School of Business formed a committee comprised of senior faculty and administration to develop our NextGen Cox Curriculum.  As leaders and educators, we have a profound responsibility to make certain that our students are not just “job ready” upon graduation but to ensure they are “future prepared” for their third and fourth job in a dynamic and ever-changing work environment. After two years of deliberate and thoughtful planning, moving forward all MBA students will immerse in the STEM-designated MBA curriculum.

To inform the development of the NextGen Cox Curriculum, we conducted numerous structured interviews with corporate partners across a variety of sectors. We sought to understand better the knowledge, skills and abilities that they believe are critical for their employees to succeed in the future at their organizations. The overwhelming consensus among employers is that too many business school graduates lack critical-thinking skills to solve unstructured problems creatively, the ability to communicate effectively, work collaboratively and adapt to changing priorities.

The NextGen Cox Curriculum integrates the three foundational pillars to develop business school graduates who are “future prepared”. Cox graduates demonstrate both technical skills, and people skills to confidently navigate any business environment. Cox graduates are equipped with a curriculum anchored in analytical rigor, refined leadership skills to support complex problem solving, and knowledge with practical application gained through hands-on experiential learning.