Mission and Vision Statements

Vision

The College of Business Administration at UMSL provides research- and practice-based programs that prepare students to enter and succeed locally and globally across a wide range of business professions. We offer quality, value, and access.

Quality.  We are St. Louis’s only research-based public university. We offer business knowledge and quality of instruction. We recruit strong faculty from across the world and hold them to rigorous standards for research productivity and teaching effectiveness. We augment this core faculty with instructors with practical business experience and strong teaching skills. We update our curriculum to address employer concerns, needs of the market, advancements in knowledge, and changes in instructional technology. Advisory boards and alumni ensure we maintain real world relevance.

Value.  We offer the best value in business education in St. Louis. We make quality faculty, programs, and instruction available to every St. Louisan. We are the value-added and bang-for-the-buck leader in St. Louis. This value orientation is critical to our original mission. More recently, it has made us attractive to students outside the St. Louis region, including international students who add to the cultural diversity of our classes and the value of our programs.

Access.  We are St. Louis’s largest public university. We schedule and price our programs to serve the widest population of college-bound and mid-career students. We co-ordinate with area community colleges to facilitate a cost-effective and time-efficient progression to graduation. We work with local employers to facilitate a rapid and successful transition to employment. We use weekend, evening and online formats and alternative locations to provide greater access and convenience. Most of our students are from St. Louis. Forty percent are first generation college students, and most work part time or full time. Most of our graduates stay in St. Louis. We make quality business education possible for the racially and ethnically diverse, place-bound, time-constrained population that we serve.

Mission

• Prepare undergraduate and graduate business students for professional success in technically sophisticated local and global organizations.
• Incorporate best-business-practice and current academic theory into all of our educational programs (certificates and degrees).
• Explore, develop, and adopt new and better teaching methods.
• Perform basic and applied research that advances knowledge and supports the understanding and efficiency of business activities, addresses needs of our business community, and promotes learning of our students. 
• Fully engage with the St. Louis business community in order to meet their workforce needs, support the professional development of their employees, exploit the talent and experience of their managers, and develop mutually beneficial partnerships that serve our college’s instructional and research goals (guest speaker, internships, scholarships, sponsored research, and endowed chairs).
• Help our university fulfill its strategic plan by increasing retention, reducing time to graduation, increasing the number of graduates, garnering more financial and non-financial aid of our alumni, expanding online offerings, and pursuing more interdisciplinary collaborations.