Frostburg State University opened doors to more opportunities to build global community and expand its international education efforts recently when it finalized a plan for a collaborative MBA program between FSU and two institutions in India.

The plan, which has been in progress for the past two years, was finalized June 1 during a meeting between FSU officials and P.K. Rajan, president of INDO-US Education. It paves the way for students from Santhigiri College in the state of Kerala and the Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR) in the city of Mumbai to be able to enroll in FSU’s MBA program beginning in fall 2010. Participants will register for online MBA courses for the first two semesters while staying in their home country, and then come to Frostburg to complete their graduate degrees. The meeting included Dr. John Bowman, Vice Provost; Dr. Ahmad Tootoonchi, Dean of FSU’s College of Business; Dr. Sudhir Singh, Associate Dean of the College of Business; Ron Ross, FSU’s MBA coordinator; Vickie Mazer, director of Graduate Studies; and Karen Treber, University counsel.

“If things move forward as planned, the College of Business will have approximately 50 graduate students from India enrolled in the MBA program by spring 2011,” Tootoonchi said. “The goal is to continue this collaborative program in the years to come, with a possibility of expanding it to other countries around the world. This is a great opportunity for us to continue our progress towards internationalization of our educational programs at Frostburg State University.”

The agreement with India is just the latest development in FSU’s ongoing efforts to expand its international education programs and prepare students to work in a global economy. Frostburg also has partnerships with institutions in China, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands. Other global initiatives under consideration include plans to recruit students to FSU from Brazil, Eastern Europe, Japan and South Africa.