Bloch School graduate program makes top 25 list

Surpassing more than 2,300 schools surveyed by The Princeton Review, University of Missouri-Kansas City Bloch School’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation was recognized as having one of the top 25 graduate entrepreneurship programs in the country.

This marks the first time Bloch has been ranked in the top tier of entrepreneurial colleges and business schools.

The seventh annual ranking reveals the nation’s top 25 graduate and top 25 undergraduate programs for entrepreneurship. Bloch’s ranking can be seen at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges, along with information on overall trends found with social and sustainable entrepreneurship, experiential learning, and entrepreneurship as a means of reaching out both internationally and locally.

“IEI has one of the largest and highest quality entrepreneurship faculties in the world,” said Michael Song, executive director of the institute and the world’s No. 1 scholar for innovation management. “We continue to develop new paradigms for entrepreneurship research and education, creating models others will follow.”

The IEI program was evaluated based on key criteria in the areas of academics and requirements, students and faculty, and outside-the-classroom experiences.

“Each school that made the list demonstrates excellence in one or more areas, including course offerings, the success of students post-graduation and sponsored mentorship programs,” Amy Cosper, vice president and editor-in-chief at Entrepreneur, said. “Inclusion in this ranking solidifies this program’s place in an elite category of institutions offering a superlative level of education and preparedness that will play a key role in ensuring the success of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.”

Henry Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block and Bloch School benefactor, said the importance of the accomplishment is more than just the ranking.

“What the Bloch School and UMKC are doing is creating the next generation of entrepreneurs,” he said. “Now is the perfect time to support the institute and the Bloch School, and help propel their work in entrepreneurship and innovation to the highest levels of excellence.”

As stated in the “Time to Get it Right: A Strategy for Higher Education in Kansas City” report, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation recommended that “(UMKC should) build areas of excellence and promise with the aim of having several programs in the top 25 nationally.”

“Regardless of whether you start a business or go to work for an existing organization, you must think like an entrepreneur and bring innovation to the table to survive in a very global and variable economy,” new Bloch School Dean Teng-Kee Tan said. “Bloch is a business school with an entrepreneurial focus strategy, and we are now one step closer to realizing the Kansas City community’s aspiration to have a world-class business school.”

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