Lundquist College in Top 25 for Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review rank the Lundquist College of Business in the top tier out of more than 2,300 programs.
The Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business has been honored as one of the top fifty programs by Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review. The center ranked number twenty-three in the graduate category of the survey.
For five of the past six years, Entrepreneur has ranked the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship in the top 4 percent of the more than 1,000 entrepreneurship programs evaluated by the magazine. This year the high ranking for the center was consistent, but the competition was more intense, with more than double the number of programs evaluated in 2008.
Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review collected survey data from more than 2,300 undergraduate and graduate schools about their entrepreneurship programs to finalize the rankings. Questions covered academics and requirements, students and faculty, and outside-the-classroom experiences.
"The Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship's recognition as a top program is a tribute to great students, dedicated faculty, a strong link to the business community and innovative programs that have become world class," said Randy Swangard, executive director for the Lundquist center.
The New Venture Championship and Technology Entrepreneurship Programs sponsored by the Lundquist Center have reached levels of national and international reputation. Over the past four years, at least one start-up venture has evolved out of the center's Venture Launch Pathway Program to become a striving business. In addition, entrepreneurship students have gone on to provide leadership in every size of company across the Northwest, throughout the U.S. and internationally.
"The ranking by Entrepreneur magazine is much deserved and most timely as our staff and students are in China for an extended study tour and meetings with leading entrepreneurial firms in three centers for innovation in China," said Dennis Howard, dean, Lundquist College of Business. "Our students are being provided with unique, real world experience and national rankings continue to recognize the efforts."
Representatives from the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and the college's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center and Securities Analysis Center are traveling to China as part of an annual Engaging Asia Study Tour, now in its third year. The groups are visiting Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai to meet with entrepreneurial leaders, visit research and development facilities, spend time with fellow M.B.A. students and faculty, and tour high tech manufacturing operations.
"At the University of Oregon, we aim to excel in our core areas of academic strength and this honor affirms that we're continuing to raise our national profile as a destination for entrepreneurs," said Jim Bean, UO senior vice president and provost. "The fantastic work by our faculty and staff, and the accomplishments of our current students and alumni are significant contributions to the business industry."
The results of the survey, along with the analysis, appear in the October issue of Entrepreneur, which hits newsstands on Sept. 23. Additional information can be found at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.
Accelerating Knowledge
The Department of Finance's biennial conference draws leading scholars to advance understanding of a dynamic and critical industry.
Do the "best ideas" of mutual fund managers typically make money for their clients? If so, what explains the disappointing performance record of so many funds? Are retail mutual fund investors increasingly focusing on short-term fund performance, and does this then induce mutual fund portfolio managers to shorten their investment horizon? Can institutional mechanisms, such as central reporting of transactions in the equity lending market, help to reduce the costs of short-selling stocks?
These were among the several topics investigated at the 2008 Finance Conference, "Institutional Investors and the Asset Management Industry," hosted by the Department of Finance at the University of Oregon's Lundquist College of Business, July 31-August 1. This year's biennial event brought together leading finance scholars to evaluate and debate the implications from the latest empirical research related to the behavior and investment environment of professional investors, such as managers of pension fund and mutual fund assets.
"By bringing together leading academics, our finance conference accelerates scholarship that leads to a better understanding of the complicated interactions between investors, firms that demand capital, and regulators," explained Associate Professor of Finance John Chalmers, the finance department chair.
The conference reinforces the college's strong reputation for empirical finance research and helps build momentum for its Securities Analysis Center, one of four centers of excellence at the Lundquist College of Business offering a uniquely focused graduate curriculum. The Securities Analysis Center and the college's Finance Partners, a group of donors supporting excellence in finance research and education, jointly sponsored this year's conference.
"The Securities Analysis Center is here to both support and benefit from the scholarly work of our faculty, and this was a terrific conference with interesting and important new research. The focus on institutional investing and fund management hits close to home for all investors, thus highlighting the important role that scholarship can play in advancing knowledge in areas that are ultimately critical to all of us," said the center's Managing Director Ben Salm.
More than thirty scholars from business schools, industry groups, and regulatory agencies from around the world--such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Texas, Harvard Business School, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Investment Company Institute--attended the two-day conference, which showcased nine papers chosen from over sixty submissions.