MBA in Creative Enterprise

Purpose at Work

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Degree Description

In order to be prepared for engaging the unprecedented complexities emerging in the world today, the profession of business requires new vision and new perspectives that change the way we see the world to bring about a flourishing future. To follow this call to Creative Enterprise requires the development of our individual and collective complexity capabilities, for example the capabilities of self-awareness, collaboration, dialogue, negotiation, and co-creation. These capabilities are critical for the success of entrepreneurs, organizational leaders, and managers in this age of technical, social, and dynamic complexity. In realizing ourselves as a whole person, we can begin to see a world comprised of whole systems. Your inner call to have a generative impact on the world as an entrepreneur, manager, and executive can be enabled by the capabilities you will develop through the MBA in Creative Enterprise.

Meridian’s MBA in Creative Enterprise offers an innovative approach to the field of business, integrating whole person with whole system competencies to prepare its graduates to develop sustainable, generative practices that ensure the success of the individual, while also serving the greater whole. Part of a third-wave of business education, the program integrates social, technological, and cultural innovation, and develops business leaders who are oriented to the emerging experience-driven transformation economy.

Discover in this master’s program what impact you can have on core business functions, such as management, marketing, finance, operations, and strategy. Explore the profound impact creativity and innovation can have when following ethical principles and wise perspectives. The profession of business can serve to make a critical contribution to transforming culture, society, and global commerce.

There are five dimensions integrated throughout the MBA curriculum. Creative Enterprise occurs at the intersection of these dimensions and offers a more holistic perspective of each dimension in relationship to the others.

These five Meridian MBA dimensions are:

  • Transforming business innovation to integrate and engage social, cultural, and technological challenges.
  • Building purpose and development-driven organization.
  • Engendering Business as a means of regenerating the commons.
  • Empowering companies and non-profits through the theory and practice of living systems.
  • Actualizing entrepreneurship that is locally and globally generative.
MBA Program Overview Video

A Life-Changing Entrepreneurship Scholarship Opportunity

If you've ruled out an MBA for financial reasons, think again. Meridian's Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship goes beyond what you may have come to expect from financial aid. Apply today and explore how an MBA designed for social impact could accelerate your professional goals.

Apply Now
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"My studies at Meridian University gave me not only the capacities to understand systems but also the skill set necessary to design new structures and ways to collaborate."
Claudia Meglin MBA Graduate
Meridian Students

Introducing Unique Impact Scholarships

Available to Meridian University students worldwide, Meridian University's Impact Scholarships represent the University's commitment to supporting graduates to take transformative action in the fields of Business, Education, Leadership, and Psychology.

  • The Meridian Social Entrepreneurship Scholarship
  • The Meridian Developmental Coaching Scholarship
  • The Meridian Collective Trauma Transformation Scholarship
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To explore this program in more detail, please join us for our next Business
Online Information Session

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Educational Objectives

  1. Cultivating Leadership Capacities: To cultivate the leadership capacities that further transformative and ethical engagement within business and cultural contexts.
  2. Practicing Creative Action Inquiry: To develop creative inquiry skills that enable collaboration responsive to high complexity and ambiguity.
  3. Core Business Functions: To identify and implement business methods and practices of human resources, operations, economics, finance, accounting, marketing, management, and strategy, towards building and sustaining a creative enterprise.
  4. Generative Entrepreneurship and Transformative Innovation: To develop the practices and perspectives that link entrepreneurial competencies with impacting the commons in ways that are generative and emancipatory, and to ignite individual and collective creativity to generate emancipatory, disruptive, and transformative innovations.
  5. Transforming Business as a Profession and Regenerating the Commons: To develop competencies required to conceive, build, and lead creative and emancipatory enterprises; to apply the competencies associated with generative entrepreneurship to producing generative globalization in service of thriving local communities, restoration of the earth’s resources, and regenerating the commons.

At A Glance

Applications Accepted:

Quarterly

Highest Degree Required:

Bachelors

Learning Formats:

Hybrid & Online

Program Length:

18-24 Months

Total Credits Required:

64 Credits

Cost Per Credit:

$676

Accreditation:

WASC

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Graduation Requirements

  • Students are expected to complete 64 credits (640 hours).
  • Students are expected to complete a Creative Action Project (capstone).
  • Students have a maximum of five (5) years from their initial date of enrollment to complete this degree.
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Admission Requirements

  • A Bachelor's degree is required for admission to Meridian's graduate degree programs.
  • Students submit an online application form along with documents such as official transcripts, a personal statement, and letters of recommendation. The Admissions Committee reviews all applications and invites select applicants to proceed to an interview. More information is available on the Application Process page.
  • All students are expected to be proficient in the English language as all instruction at Meridian is offered in English.
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Professional Outcomes

The Meridian MBA curriculum is designed to prepare graduates for a professional future in the contexts noted below, with which the MBA concentrations are specifically aligned.

  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Project and Process Management
  • Operations Management
  • Human Resources Management
  • Management Consulting
  • Executive, Developmental, and Performance Coaching
  • Strategic Leadership
  • Organizational Development
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Academic Structure

Meridian’s academic structure gives students the flexibility to navigate the University’s curricular architecture in ways that match their passions, professional goals, and other life commitments.

The structure is designed to serve a diverse student body, who live around the globe, have varied cultural and clinical visions for their careers, and are at different stages in their professional journey.

Students enroll in a degree program, can elect a concentration, and register for one or multiple courses each quarter. In addition to core courses for the specific degree program and anchor courses that represent the Transformative Learning intent of Meridian’s curriculum, students select elective courses that align with their Meridian concentration, background, and career path.

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Learning Format Intro

Learning Formats

Meridian's graduate degree programs are offered in two formats, Hybrid and Online. Each quarter, students take one or multiple seven-week online courses. This schedule provides students with time between quarters to rest, engage, and prepare.

The University's multiple format options are designed to enable students to pursue their graduate education at a flexible pace, combining asynchronous coursework via the University's custom social learning platform, live course video calls with faculty, synchronous student community engagement, and optional onsite or online Transformative Learning Labs in-person.

Students can optionally select Transformative Learning Lab dates, locations, and formats based on their learning style, personal interests, and professional aspirations, if they choose to, based on availability of offerings.

Online Format Learning Format
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Online Format

In Meridian's online learning format, students can complete 100% of their coursework degree requirements online, via Meridian’s unique online learning platform and faculty-led learning model. Meridian’s online format is designed to be highly engaging and deeply human. Students build connections with faculty and fellow graduate students while taking advantage of the flexibility built-in to the University’s online courses model.

Online Transformative Learning Labs are also optionally available (often multiple times a year), sometimes as a 3+ hour live class, and sometimes over multiple days.

Hybrid Format Learning Format
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Hybrid Format

Meridian’s hybrid learning format combines online courses with optional onsite Transformative Learning Labs which are one-week or less. By combining Meridian’s innovative online education methodologies with rich video calls and deep onsite connections, the hybrid format enables students to contribute locally and perceive globally.

When offered, Onsite Labs take place at Meridian’s San Francisco Bay Area Center and other University Centers, based on student interest and availability.

Accreditation and Financial Aid

Meridian University is a degree-granting higher education institution accredited by the Senior Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). As an accreditor, WASC is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. WASC is also an accreditor of the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, and Stanford University.

Meridian is approved by the U.S. Department of Education for participation in the Federal Student Aid programs as well as by the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs for the training of veterans and other eligible persons.

The University is approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide form I-20 to eligible international students, enabling travel to and stay in the United States.

Meridian offers institutional financial aid to qualified international students.

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