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. 

N.C. State's business school and Campbell University's law school are teaming up to offer a dual law and MBA degree.

Starting this fall, students can earn the dual degree in four years. The universities are seeking to attract more students amid increasing competition from other schools with business and law degrees, including UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University.

"Students in the dual program will be well prepared for careers in business, finance, law, government, nonprofit organizations, teaching and research," said Steve Allen, associate dean for graduate programs at N.C. State's Poole College of Management.

The degree will cost $106,265 for in-state students. That will save a student more than $24,000 and a year of study, compared with getting both degrees separately.

N.C. State doesn't offer a law degree and Campbell has been expanding its law school, including by relocating the campus to downtown Raleigh in Sept. 2009.

"Law is a gateway degree, opening up many doors and careers," said Melissa Essary, dean of Campbell's law school. "If coupled with a great MBA degree, this gateway is widened considerably."

UNC's top executive issued an official response this afternoon rejecting WakeMed's unsolicited offer to buy rival Rex Healthcare for $750 million.

The UNC Health Care System bought Rex in 2000 for $290 million, and is using the Raleigh-based hospital system to expand its operations in Wake County

Here is the prepared statement from UNC President Tom Ross:
 
"Today I received a letter from the CEO and the board chair of WakeMed proposing to purchase Rex Healthcare and all its assets from the UNC Health Care System for $750 million.  The letter offers few specifics and leaves many unanswered questions.
 
UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine have a three-part mission:  providing high-quality medical care to citizens from all over North Carolina, regardless of their ability to pay; conducting cutting-edge research that improves patient treatment and care; and educating the next generation of physicians. 

Carrying out those core responsibilities in today’s complex world requires that we have strong partnerships with a wide range of schools, hospitals, researchers, physicians, and patients. 

That is why Rex and Chatham Hospital joined the UNC Health Care System, why we are expanding our medical school training in Charlotte and Asheville, and why we have a network of cancer researchers and clinicians throughout the state.
 
In this uncertain health care environment, it is critically important that we maintain a long-term vision for the UNC Health Care System that extends beyond the current budget crisis. 

Click read more to read the remainder of Ross' statement.

Triangle college students are getting an unusual message as they return to college this month: Don't go to class.

At least, not if you're coughing. Or sneezing. Or have the chills. 

Are those symptoms vague and general enough for you? Yes, but this fall university medical staffs are bracing for a big swine flu - er, sorry, H1N1 - outbreak and in an attempt to mitigate it, are telling students to stay away if they have any of the symptoms.

Check it out.

An interesting argument here from a couple of higher education experts who draw parallels between American higher education and the dot.com and real estate markets, which peaked and blew up, leaving financial messes in their wakes.

Joseph Marr Cronin, the former education secretary in Massachuetts, and Howard E. Horton, president of Boston's New England College of Business and Finance, argued recently that the higher ed bubble is about to burst, the result of too-rapidly escalating tuition and other factors.

They claim the large universities with several revenue sources will survive but smaller institutions more heavily reliant on tuition dollars will be in jeopardy.

This is an interesting argument to me in part because the dot.com/real-estate market analogy misses one point: Universities - at least most these days - are still non-profit enterprises with different constituencies than search engines were in the late 1990s and subprime lenders were  this decade.

But we also know that in the Triangle, small universities are hurting right now, trying to balance budgets and retain small class sizes and instructional advantages that have long differentiated them from larger institutions. 

You can read more about the struggles those institutions face here.

From President Barack Obama's inaugural speech Tuesday, UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp latched onto 69 words that he believes should provide the nation's higher education system some promise.

Here's what Obama said:

We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Said Thorp Thursday, speaking to campus trustees in Chapel Hill: "There's a lot of opportunity for universities in that paragraph."

In higher education, the promise of a big chunk of a forthcoming economic stimulus package has some in a froth. Consider, for example, the American Council of Education, led by former UNC system President Molly Broad. That group has expressed its support for new spending to higher education. 

Locally, neither the UNC system nor Duke University has jumped vocally into the feeding line for stimulus money.

Here's a lengthy breakdown of how the stimulus money could affect American higher education.

The economy may be in the tank, but isn't stopping the state's universities from asking their alums for money.

So says the Triangle Business Journal, which reports that while private giving may drop a bit in hard economic times, universities don't stop pushing for those donations.