UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School started its new online MBA program this week with a welcome gift: a mostly positive write-up in the Wall Street Journal.

The must-read newspaper for corporate executives noted that UNC is making a "risky online bet," with the "first program of its kind from a top-20 U.S. business school." One big risk is overcoming the stigma that some online MBA programs "are of low quality or aren't as competitive as a regular full-time program."

But the story also predicts that UNC's strong reputation and high admission standards will appeal to busy executives, especially in areas of the country that don't have an MBA program nearby.

UNC announced the MCA@UNC program last fall. Its first class includes 19 students, who will shell out $89,000 for the two-year program. 

The mood among corporate financial executives is improving, a positive sign as the economy continues to slowly rebound.

The latest AICPA/UNC Quarterly Economic Outlook survey showed that 48 percent of CPAs are optimistic about the U.S. economy. That was up from 28 percent in the fourth quarter.

And 57 percent of the 1,168 CPAs are optimistic about their own companies, with 66 percent saying they expect their businesses to expand during the next 12 months.

Still, hiring remains lackluster. Only 13 percent of CPAs said their companies have current hiring plans and only 7 percent expect to return to pre-recession employment levels in the next 12 months.

Financial executives who oversee companies' books and help set strategy are considered a telling indicator of the broader economic climate. 

Financial executives have regained some their optimism about the U.S. economy and the prospects for their own companies, according to a fourth quarter survey released today.

The survey of 1,443 financial officials conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School showed that 51 percent were optimistic about their own organization.

Despite the increased optimism, executives believe any recovery will be slow with only 31 percent believing their companies will return to pre-recession levels by the end of next year.

And expectations for hiring new workers remains soft.
 

UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School announced this morning that it will begin an online MBA program next summer, following the recent news of a similar degree at N.C. State.

The Chapel Hill school is accepting applications for its first class, which will be limited to 50 students and is scheduled to start in July 2011. Tuition will be $89,000 for the two-year program and will include books, texts, student fees and lodging and food costs for four weekend immersions.

N.C. State's College of Management plans to begin taking applications in January and start its program next fall. Its 2-year program will cost $30,600 for in-state residents.

Both schools are betting on the increasing acceptance of online learning, especially among busy professionals who want a business degree. 

For 15 years, UNC-Chapel Hill professor Jack Evans has served as the university's faculty athletics representative, a liaison between the faculty and the athletics department.

It's a role that has come under scrutiny across American higher education as one athletics department after another is investigated for all manner of violation.

In a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Evans said even a university with the best of intentions can get burned.

"There's no way to vaccinate these young men and keep them safe from their own immaturity or willingness to give in to temptation," Evans told the Chronicle.

In saying this, Evans is, of course, speaking from experience. UNC-Chapel Hill is in the middle of its own football investigation now; some football players are believed to have taken improper benefits - like jewelry - from sports agents. And the university is also looking into possible academic cheating.

It's enough to keep Evans up at night.

"I'm uncomfortable with it, you bet I am. I don't like it and the AD doesn't like it, and it happened on my time," he said in the Chronicle story. "Were there warning signals along the way we failed to detect? That's the kind of topic that has had me waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning wondering what was it I didn't see. Was there something I could have spotted?"

You can read the entire story here, but you need a Chronicle of Higher Education premium content password to access it.

Getting a degree from the best B-schools pays off.

That's the main message from a Bloomberg Businessweek report exploring how much graduates from the top 45 business schools stand to earn over their careers.

Duke University's Fuqua school was No. 12 on this year's list, down from No. 10 last year. A Duke MBA can expect to make $2.86 million.  

UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler came in No. 17, up from No. 22, with $2.61 million in estimated career pay.

Harvard Business School is the most expensive full-time MBA program, with tuition and required fees of more than $106,000 for two years. But the payoff is estimated career pay of $3.87 million, putting it at the top of the list compiled by PayScale.

Corporate financial executives remain largely pessimistic about the nation's economic health, according to a quarterly survey out this morning.

About a third of Certified Public Accountant executives do not expect their businesses to return to pre-recession levels until after 2012. Only 4 percent expect conditions will rebound that much this year, reports the survey of 998 corporate CPAs by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Thirty-eight percent were pessimistic about the economy, down slightly from 40 percent in October. A quarter were optimistic.

There were a few positive signs. CPAs' optimism about their own companies continues to improve, with 48 percent expecting their organizations to expand, up from 45 percent in the previous quarter.

James Dean had a great name even before he became a dean.

Yes, now he's Dean Dean. 

Try to keep up. Dean is the dean of the UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, appointed to the top job last August after 12 years teaching at the school.

This week, he's the subject of a profile in the Financial Times, the august English business publication. 

The story's headline is "A Dean for Leaner Times," and gets into the challenges Dean faces in promoting leadership and other business themes at a time of diminishing resources.

As the article points out, the school's endowment, crushed by the weak economy in the same way that so many university investments have been, has dropped in value from $158 million last June to $117 million in March of this year.

Here's the story. 

At UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, students are learning about real-world investing with real money.

The UNC Kenan-Flagler Private Equity Fund is, according to this news release, the first only student-run fund associated with a major business school.

Think a final exam brings pressure? How about managing $1.3 million in other people's money?

A team of students from UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School recently took second place in a national competition at Rice University.

The payoff? A cool $142,000.

The team of Allen Mask, John Lerch, Justin Cross and Stephen Jarrett took the second-place award for presenting a plan for NextRay, a faculty-created product that provides detailed medical imaging with limited radiation use.

 The team won $15,000 for the second-place award but also snared a $100,000 Life Science award and a $20,000 NASA award.