Where We Are 
Bridge-to-Business Program Launched
On June 2, a special group of nine students, all with doctorates, began classes in an innovative program developed by the Pamplin College of Business to help alleviate the critical national shortage of business-school faculty.
The college is among four U.S. business schools that are the first to launch post-doctoral “bridge-to-business” programs approved by AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), the accrediting organization for business schools worldwide. The programs are designed to prepare individuals with Ph.D.s in non-business, but related, disciplines for new careers as business faculty members.
Frank M. Smith, Pamplin’s director of management and professional development, said the college’s eight-week, instructor-led residential program offers two tracks: finance, for those with doctorates in economics, and marketing, for those with doctorates in psychology, sociology, or statistics.
The students who have been admitted to Pamplin’s program hold doctorates in economics, agricultural economics, statistics, philosophy, or educational technology from the following universities: Purdue, Florida, Southern Illinois, SUNY-Stony Brook, SUNY-Binghamton, Texas Tech, Memphis, Kansas State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.
Of the nine, six have been admitted in the finance track and three in marketing. One of the finance students has already secured a job at Georgia State University, Smith said, with the assistance of Pamplin finance professor Dilip Shome. Smith said the inaugural program attracted 150 enquiries and that he has received another 50 enquiries about next year.