Sykes College Of Business Again Named One of the World’s Top Business Schools by The Princeton Review and Bloomberg Businessweek

The Princeton Review and Bloomberg Businessweek have both again named The University of Tampa’s Sykes College of Business as one of the best business schools in the world.

For the13th year in a row, Princeton Review named the Sykes College of Business as an outstanding business school and one of the 252 outstanding on-campus MBA programs. The Princeton Review features the school in the book Best Business Schools for 2019.

The Princeton Review tallied its ranking lists based on institutional data and surveys of 18,400 students attending the 252 business schools.

In the Sykes College of Business write up, students are quoted as saying that “the academic experience is excellent. The school has built an environment that pushes the students to talk to each other and ask each other for support,” and that “The University of Tampa does an excellent job preparing you for the business world.”

Students also appreciate the “cheap tuition,” and that “most of the classes require heavy interaction instead of just the instructor speaking.” Lastly, students also praise the “gorgeous, lively campus” that includes “a business building that is top notch, with up-to-date facilities.”

Also, for the third year in a row, the Sykes College of Business was named as one of the top business programs by Bloomberg Businessweek.

The Bloomberg rankings were determined by surveys of students and recent alumni, along with job-placement and compensation data provided by the schools. In the four indexes used for the ranking (compensation, networking, learning and entrepreneurship), the Sykes College of Business scored highest in learning, which focused on whether the curriculum is applicable to real-world business situations; the degree of emphasis on innovation, problem-solving and strategic thinking; the level of inspiration and support from instructors; class size; and collaboration.

In the article, alumni and students stated that the Sykes College of Business “perfectly matched any Ivy League MBAs and quality of delivery is excellent, given the depth of skills of the professors in the program,” and that the program “challenges you to be a better leader and to think like a leader.”

The Sykes College of Business offers both undergraduate and graduate coursework. Graduate students can pursue an MBA, as well as Master of Science degrees in accounting, finance and marketing. There are joint M.S./MBA degrees, as well as part-time, full-time and executive MBA schedules.

Frank Ghannadian, dean of the Sykes College of Business, said the College of Business attracts students from around the globe and is renowned for graduating students who make immediate impact in the business community and within their countries.

“I’m proud of all the business students who work extremely hard to reach their goals, faculty who are outstanding teachers and scholars, and the vibrant business community that supports the College of Business every day,” Ghannadian said.

Ghannadian added that numerous businesses recruit annually at The University of Tampa, including T. Rowe Price, Citigroup, Syniverse Technologies, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Within an 80,000-square-foot facility, the College of Business offers state-of-the-art resources such as the Huizenga Family Foundation Trading Center and more than 1,300 data ports and Wi-Fi for high-speed access. It is also home to the Center for Ethics, TECO Energy Center for Leadership, Naimoli Institute for Business Strategy, the UT Lowth Entrepreneurship Center and the Institute for Sales Excellence.

Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review, said he saluted schools like the Sykes College of Business for the innovative and wide range of MBA programs they offer their students.

“Our purpose is not to rank hundreds of b-schools hierarchically or to crown any single MBA program or school as ‘best’ overall. We compile multiple categories of ranking lists and combine them with detailed profiles of the schools to help applicants identify and successfully apply to the best MBA program for them,” Franek said.

The Sykes College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and is one of the few business schools in the Southeast accredited at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The UT management information systems program recently earned Information Systems accreditation from ABET.