The Financial Times recently released its annual rankings of master's of business administration programs, ranking Smeal College of Business Administration 13th among public universities in the United States.

The college was ranked 55th in the world, an increase from last year's ranking of 77th.

"We expect to see continuing upward momentum due to a variety of initiatives that will further enhance the attractiveness of the Smeal MBA program to prospective students across the globe, and the value of our graduates to potential recruiters," Judy Olian, Dean of Smeal College of Business Administration, said in a prepared statement.

The college's faculty was ranked 15th in the United States and 33rd worldwide for published research.

Plans to begin an Executive MBA program for the Fall 2002 Semester are underway. The program allows executives in the greater Philadelphia region to earn an MBA degree in an amount of time equivalent to that spent pursuing a degree at the University Park campus.