“No Magic” In U.S. Business Administration Courses

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30451, 27 May 1964, Page 14

“No Magic” In U.S. Business Administration Courses

There is ho magic about modem university courses in business administration and no guarantee that they will make an executive of a promising young man—but they help, according to Professor W. J. Vatter, of the University of California School of Business Administration at Berkeley. “The businessman today requires a recruit of trained high intelligence and we try to provide that,’* he said. The broader the background the better.

Professor Vatter said that the University of California had undergraduate and postgraduate courses in business administration. The lower level might include an introduction to economics, accounting, statistics, production, and management. This took about half the first year. The other half concerned the institutions and functions of management. The second year involved more- concentration on, say, accounting, production, marketing, and finance.

Before all this the underi graduate student would have • had two years of general i studies and, at the end of the four years, would get a - bachelor's degree in business ■ administration. , The post-graduate course . was geared for the more ma- ; ture student but previous ■ study of business administra--1 tion was not a prerequisite and neither was experience in I business. At Berkeley these courses • attracted about 600 at the undergraduate level and 400

post-graduates out of the total Berkeley roll of’ more than 28-°OO- .Ko.. Professor Vatter said these courses in no way mined the more traditional studies and degrees in accounting, economics, ana commerce. Business administration was often taken by, say, the engineer, chemist, or other professional who wanted some knowledge of management with an eye on promotion to higher responsibility. , . Professor Vatter is best known for his teaching, books, and other service to accounting. He is chairman of the accounting theory committee of the American Accounting Association and a leader in most aspects of academic accounting. For the last few months he has been in Australia at the invitation of the Society of Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Accountants to report on training there as a Fulbright fellow.