Professional MBA

Prepare Yourself to Lead with an MBA degree


Hone your vast potential with a Professional Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Duquesne University. Gain the hands-on expertise and networks necessary to thrive in a competitive global environment with this flexible MBA for working professionals, accredited by AACSB and ranked in the top 3 programs in the region according to the U.S. News and World Report.

Balance your learning experience with your professional commitments through our convenient Professional MBA program structure:

  • Complete the program fully online or with a mix of online and evening classes
  • Start in a fall, spring or summer semester with the option to complete the program in as few as 4 semesters.

Graduate Viewbook

STEM-Designated Option


A STEM-designated MBA highlights your technical skills and competence in a data-driven business world. Set yourself apart in the dynamic market of business professionals with a stackable Certificate in Analytics and Information Management, Finance, or Supply Chain Management. This 10.5-credit addition to your Professional MBA can be adapted to your schedule with online or a mix of hybrid and online classes.

Connect theory and practice to create effective change.


Our program includes a leadership cornerstone experience, signature courses, a streamlined functional core and a capstone project that tackles strategic challenges for a real client. Integrative coursework and experiential learning projects with industry professionals and world-renowned scholars prepare you for a lifetime of success and advancement.

Gain skills to recognize and solve business problems from an ethics perspective and lead with integrity.


Grounded in the Spiritan tradition, our graduates will "do the right thing" when solving business problems and become leaders with integrity who will inspire their organizations. You will learn that being the best in the world-in any field or endeavor-requires being the best for the world. Our philosophy is that responsible, ethical leadership in business not only enhances the bottom line, but also creates a better society for all.

Cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and envision new ways of accomplishing goals.


You will be challenged to make decisions that require innovative thinking and calculated risks. Most importantly, you will be able to recognize and seize outstanding opportunities to solve problems and create value.

Apply sustainability principles in business decisions to drive efficiency, innovation and competitive advantage.


Increasingly, the deep application of sustainability principles is both a necessity and a competitive differentiator. We want all our graduates to view sustainability as a key for long-term business survival and that firms can help create healthy ethical, social, economic, and environmental ecosystems in ways that improve their growth prospects and reduce their costs. Our courses are aligned with the Principles for Responsible Management Education, a UN-backed initiative to advance sustainable social, environmental and economic value in business education.

Lead effectively in a complex global environment characterized by diverse perspectives, values and business practices.


Our goal is to prepare you to become a business leader with the ability to succeed anywhere in the world. Your professors will have rich international experiences to share, and you will meet talented students from all over the world. Throughout the curriculum, you will be asked to address global business issues designed to manage risk, bridge cultural differences and understand international markets.

Acquire the skills needed to build effective teams, motivate people and create innovative organizational change.


Through exposure to C-suite executives, you will gain innovative managerial and leadership skills. These skills are honed through individualized assessments and career practicums with industry leaders addressing the core competencies relevant to the current business climate.

 

Program Information

Our Professional MBA program includes integrative coursework and experiential learning projects with industry professionals and world-renowned scholars to prepare you for a lifetime of success and advancement.

Program Type

Major

Degree

Master's

School

Palumbo-Donahue School of Business

Duration

2-year

Required Credit Hours

36-42

More in this Program

Available On-Campus or 100% Online

This MBA for working professionals provides a variety of course plans to suit your demanding schedule. Each experience-focused course in the Professional MBA program can be taken online* or in the evening on the Duquesne University campus near downtown Pittsburgh.

Students who require or prefer a primarily in-person class schedule are advised to start in the fall semester.

* Most online courses can be completed asynchronously, but the capstone course includes multiple synchronous virtual events.

From Our Alumni

"Being a mother, pharmacist, leader in professional organizations, and MBA graduate, I aim to continue my journey of uniting individuals from various professions and backgrounds and educating future leaders."

Janetta Bekman MBA '22, Senior Medical Outcomes & Science Liaison for AbbVie

Certificates

Within the Professional MBA program, you can expand your career-specific skills with certificates.

A business student raises her hand in class.

Analytics and Information Management Certificate

Demonstrate your analytical skills and earn an in-demand credential.

Learn More
A business student smiles in class.

Entrepreneurship Certificate

Your entrepreneurial mindset will set you apart in the eyes of employers and investors.

Learn More
Two business students cross Rockwell Hall's skywalk.

Executive Leadership Certificate

Learn to lead with vision and a strategic-mindset.

Learn More
A business student studies outside.

Finance Certificate

Gain skills in financial analysis that will give you the knowledge to take the next steps in your career.

Learn More
Two business students study outside.

Supply Chain Management Certificate

Make a difference in your organization with a STEM MBA.

Learn More

Joint Degrees and Certificates

Specialize your degree with the courses that match your career aspirations. Use Duquesne's opportunities for credit sharing between programs to pursue a joint degree alongside your MBA, such as a JD, PharmD or MA in Communication, to obtain two graduate degrees at once.

Within the Professional MBA program, you can expand your career-specific skills with certificates in Analytics and Information Management, Executive Leadership, Finance, Supply Chain Management, or the hybrid Certificate in Entrepreneurship.

Learn more about Duquesne's Professional MBA

The Professional MBA program at Duquesne University offers a top-rated MBA for working professionals. Develop an innovative mindset, establish yourself as a responsible leader and build on experiential learning at a flexible pace and schedule through online and evening courses.

To learn more about Duquesne's Professional MBA, request more info or attend an information session.

Ready to begin your MBA application?

Apply Now

Course Descriptions

Curriculum Guide
This course provides graduate business students with an introduction to fundamentals of accounting for corporations. Topics will include the accounting cycle, an introduction to the basic financial statements of a corporation and determinations of corporate profitability and solvency.
This course provides the necessary foundation in probability and statistics necessary for students looking to go on to study the application of statistics to business. In this course, students will learn the rules of probability, how to identify and use common probability distributions, and how to conduct basic hypothesis tests.
This course is a prerequisite for ECON 520 and covers introductory topics in both microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Financial Management is about decisions firms make in two broad areas: the investments it makes and how it pays for them. The first involves expenditures for physical capital, human capital, technological capability, brand capital, and so forth. The second involves raising money in financial markets. In business decision making, the objective is to maximize shareholder wealth. Why the emphasis on shareholders? Among stakeholders generally (i.e., customers, employees, suppliers, government, communities, etc.), shareholders alone possess a uniquely comprehensive and long-term view of the firm's viability as an ongoing enterprise. This perspective arises from the residual nature of shareholders' claim to earnings and assets. Wealth is created when the return from investing business resources exceeds their opportunity cost.

FINC 501 Finance Fundamentals provides an introduction to fundamental topics which are prerequisite for FINC 530

Financial Management:

• Financial Statements and Ratio Analysis
• Financial Statement Forecasting
• Time Value of Money

Prerequisite: ACCT 501

The primary responsibility of all managers is to make decisions in situations in which there are multiple competing objectives. This course introduces students to a set of tools that can be applied to scenarios in a variety of business environments. Specifically, this set of tools will include data summarization, data visualization, optimization methods, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-criteria decision analysis, and decision trees. Subsequent courses in the program will utilize these analytical methods within their specific decision environments.

PR or CONCURRENT: STAT 501
This course examines the ways in which leaders, managers, and employees can improve employee performance and commitment - key factors underlying competitive organizations. Guided by an examination of contemporary research and real-world cases, students will develop the knowledge and tools needed to help them navigate the opportunities and challenges inherent in managing themselves and others to generate enduring social and financial value, while incorporating long-term sustainable business objectives into the vision for the firm.
In this course, students will learn how to apply statistical methods of inference, produce and interpret statistics that attempt to answer typical business questions, and use probability theory and statistical methods to draw conclusions. Students are required to arrive having a working understanding of basic probability and statistics up through and including hypothesis testing. This course places heavy emphasis on the application of statistical techniques to business problems and the interpretation of results for a non-technical audience.  

PR: STAT 501 
This course provides graduate business students with a deeper understanding of the accounting cycle used in companies to produce both internal and external financial information. Special emphasis is placed throughout the course on understanding, analyzing and interpreting financial statements and related information. Additionally, students will be introduced to decision making tools such as ratio analysis and challenged to utilize them to critically evaluate financial information and make effective decisions. The basics of corporate sustainability reporting will also be covered.  

PR: ACCT 501
The course covers selected topics in microeconomics. It emphasizes the integration of microeconomic theories and tools from a managerial perspective. The applied aspect of the course comes from analyzing case studies and studying empirical evidence of the theories. Topics include both traditional topics in microeconomics (quantitative demand analysis, elasticities, production and costs, market structures and profit maximization), in addition to advanced topics (game theory and pricing strategies).

CO or PR: STAT 510 
The purpose of this course is to provide business professionals with the knowledge needed to manage and utilize information systems and technology within a business organization. As information systems have become critical to the success of modern business organizations, knowledge of information systems has become a key success factor for all business professionals within the organization. This course provides comprehensive and integrative coverage of essential new technologies, information system applications, and their impact on business models. Moreover, this course emphasizes the conceptualization of information systems as structured technology configurations working collectively to serve the information needs of an organization.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the business process that has evolved from the integration of the traditional business disciplines of forecasting, demand planning, materials planning, purchasing, production, operations management, transportation, inventory management, warehousing, packaging, materials handling, customer service, and related information systems. SCM focuses on efficient and effective customer satisfaction from the exchange of goods, services and information to complete the business transaction from supplier's supplier to customer's customer. This course provides insight into the goals and best practices of each business discipline included in the SCM process, and how these disciplines integrate to ensure a competitive advantage and corporate success. Students will assess industry specific differences in managing the flow of materials, goods, services, information and cash via the processes, technologies, and facilities that link primary suppliers through to ultimate customers for both service and product industries.
This course teaches graduate students essential qualitative decision-making skills for analyzing business issues with an ethical dimension. Conflicting and complementary conceptions of the ethical decision-making model are presented that demonstrate how to critically reason through ethical dilemmas in business across all business functions. These rational processes will enable students to effectively recognize, evaluate and resolve ethical conflicts. Throughout the seminar, the analytical frameworks will be applied to common ethical challenges to businesses. The purpose is for students completing this module to be able to identify which ethical framework is most appropriate for addressing a given real world issue and ultimately be able to apply that framework to facilitate responsible decision making. Thus, the course begins with a detailed description and application of each ethical decision-making framework to ensure students understand how and in what contexts these tools are utilized. Then, attention is paid to the various individual, organizational, and institutional factors that affect ethical misconduct in the workplace. Personal cognitive influences, common intra-organizational pressures, regulatory factors, and market forces are discussed in terms of how they moderate ethical behavior in business. Once students learn the sources of ethical indiscretions in organizations, methods for constructing and manipulating organizational environments to increase the likelihood of ethical behavior among the firm's stakeholders are offered.

This course is designed to develop the legal literacy of MBA students by raising their conscious awareness of potential legal problems or challenges as they discharge their professional responsibilities. Because business decisions have legal implications, it is important that managers understand the legal environment in which they must function. In fact, the significance of the law is so great it has been suggested that modern organizations are immersed in a "sea of law."

As a part of an integrated professional MBA program students will come to understand how law affects all aspects of business. This is not a standalone legal course. In this course we will bring a legal sensitivity to the financial, managerial, organizational and strategic dimensions of business. The larger goal of this course is to develop a legally astute manager. Although we tend to think of the law as the exclusive province of lawyers, the reality is that law is too important a matter to be entrusted to lawyers alone. To do so is in effect an abdication of the business professional's responsibilities. The legally astute manager understands that success in business requires, among other things, the development of critical thinking skills. There is no better context in which to develop those skills than in the study of business law. Critical thinking skills honed in the study of law provide a foundation for business professionals who must navigate across a wide range of disciplines in order to achieve business success. Toward that end, MBA students will examine substantive concepts relative to such matters as contract formation, risk management, intellectual property, environmental management, employee relations and corporate form and governance.

As we live in a time in which the law, business and society nexus is so significant, it would be foolhardy to underestimate the importance of legal education in shaping our business leaders.

Financial Management is about decisions firms make in two broad areas: the investments it makes and how it pays for them. The first involves expenditures for physical capital, human capital, technological capability, brand capital, and so forth. The second involves raising money in financial markets. In business decision making, the objective is to maximize shareholder wealth. Why the emphasis on shareholders? Among stakeholders generally (i.e., customers, employees, suppliers, government, communities, etc.), shareholders alone possess a uniquely comprehensive and long-term view of the firm's viability as an ongoing enterprise. This perspective arises from the residual nature of shareholders' claim to earnings and assets. Wealth is created when the return from investing business resources exceeds their opportunity cost.

FINC 530 Financial Management provides an advanced discussion of the analytical techniques used to assess the impact of business decisions on shareholder value. The course covers these topics:
• Valuation-stocks, bonds, corporate valuation
• Interest rates and financial markets
• Investment decision making (capital budgeting analysis)
• Risk, return and the opportunity cost of capital
• Market efficiency
• Capital structure

PR: FINC 501, ACCT 515, STAT 510, GRBU 503
PR or CONCURRENT: ECON 520

This course examines the role of marketing in creating exchanges that satisfy consumer and organizational objectives thereby creating value for the firm. The course focuses on formulating and evaluating marketing strategies. Students learn how marketing mix decisions - product, place, promotion and price - are made as part of a cohesive strategy. Contemporary concepts and theories will be presented with a focus on analytical and financial models that will assist marketing managers in making better decisions. Emerging perspectives on strategic sustainability, marketing management and the impact of digital media are also emphasized.

PR: ECON 501

Strategic sustainability advances students' managerial skills for identifying, researching, evaluating and communicating innovative opportunities involving the efficient and effective management of financial, social, and environmental resources. Building on our commitment to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), this course experience serves as a foundation for strategic sustainability, models and tools across the curriculum. Students work individually, and in teams to frame problems, research and develop training seminars, and manage resources for assigned topics. The focus is inspiring innovation, and creating competitive advantage - both short and long term - for organizations.

Deliverables include presentations of mini training seminars to peer, analytical life cycle assessment along with participation in class discussions while applying critical thinking to identify productivity gains, cost savings, revenue increases, and profit growth when implementing sustainable business practices. The course is taught as a seminar where sharing learning, best practices and sustainability knowledge across teams and individuals enables all to gain insight to emerging issues beyond the scope of a single entity. Students work within an integrated curriculum to analyze internal/external situations, drivers and risks; to identify problems and opportunities; to evaluate return on investment from alternative courses of action; and to value both short- and long-term prosperity. Students independently learn about, apply, and reflect on proven models and methodologies while honing their skills as a researcher, analyst, writer, and speaker.

PR: GRBU 503

This course helps students acquire the knowledge and skills needed to interact and manage effectively in a global business environment. Students will be exposed to international aspects of organizational behavior, human resource management, labor relations, corporate strategy, political risk and ethical issues. Overall, this course is designed to raise students' international business acumen as well as their cultural intelligence. While business is an increasingly global proposition, cultural differences impact everything from how employees are hired to how they are led to how business strategies are formed.
This is a dynamic course that provides an overview of executive leadership and opportunities to interact with senior managers. The course draws on the collective experience and wisdom of distinguished business leaders who visit the class to provide students with executive perspectives on the challenges associated with thinking entrepreneurially, strategic leadership, developing a vision and motivating organizational change. Students use a variety of conceptual frameworks in leadership and related areas to assess and evaluate these "executive insights" (e.g., via papers and projects) with an eye toward developing their own leadership skills, particularly their ability to seize opportunities and create effective solutions for the contemporary challenges facing business leaders.
This course addresses the process of planning and implementing business strategies. In order to develop a future direction for an organization, this class builds on the formulation of a company's mission, industry analysis, an organization's internal assessment, innovation, and strategic planning. This course emphasizes corporate governance, sustainability, and ethics in strategic management.
The second half of our integrative capstone sequence, the Capstone Project involves student teams working with a real company client to develop a set of strategic recommendations for advancing the business. In this course, students will assess the firm's strategic context and diagnose its internal operations as well as its products and/or services as they relate to customer needs. In doing so, students will experience what it is like to make high-stakes and impactful recommendations to top management under time pressure and with high expectations for quality and analysis. Final deliverables for each team include a detailed report that lays out specific action steps and metrics (e.g., for productivity gains, cost savings, increased revenues/profit growth) as well as a sophisticated presentation to company management that highlights the team's analysis and recommendations.

PR or CO MGMT 540

Professional MBA FAQs

The Professional MBA can be completed 100% online. Even in its online format, the Capstone course (MGMT 548) will have several synchronous virtual requirements during the semester.
The Professional MBA Curriculum Guide illustrates when each course meets on campus, as well as the semester when an online format is available.
Fundamental courses may be required in the areas of financial accounting, microeconomics, statistics, and finance. The online fundamental courses are offered each semester and provide a strong foundation for the related classes in the core curriculum. You may waive the fundamental courses if you have taken equivalent coursework in your undergraduate or other graduate studies, and have graduated within the past five years earning a B- or better in the respective course. When your application is reviewed for admission, the admissions committee will make the determination as to whether you qualify for a waiver for specific fundamental courses.
You may start the Professional MBA in the fall (late August), spring (mid-January) or summer (mid-May) semesters.
You may pursue the program part-time or full-time. If you pursue the program part-time, you may complete the program in as little as 6-7 semesters (2-2 ½ years) depending on the need for fundamental courses. As a full-time student, you may complete the program in 4-5 semesters (less than two years) depending on the need for fundamental courses.
You can earn a STEM-designated Professional MBA in just 10.5 additional credits by adding a certificate in Analytics and Information Management or Supply Chain Management to your program of study. For an additional 9 credits, you can complete a certificate in Entrepreneurship.
Yes, Duquesne University offers Corporate Tuition Deferment, a program whereby tuition payments are deferred until after grades are posted. To qualify, each semester you must pay a $35 processing fee and submit a letter on company letterhead from your human resources department to Student Accounts. The tuition balance must be paid in full by the due date, regardless of whether you have received reimbursement from your employer. Should your employment status change or your employer cancel authorization of the student's reimbursement, you are still responsible for payment. Any portion of the tuition and fees not covered by your employer must be paid by the payment due date.
Courses that are three (3) credit hours will meet for the duration of the full semester (15 weeks for spring and fall semesters or 12 weeks for the summer semester). Courses that are 1.5 credit hours will meet for the first half or second half of the semester (7 weeks for fall and spring semesters and 6 weeks for the summer semester).