By Shehan Jeyarajah
City Editor

Baylor already boasts one of the top undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation. Today, university leadership decided to take the program to the next level.

The Baylor University Board of Regents voted to approve a new Ph.D. program in entrepreneurship at its annual meeting today in Waco, effective in Fall 2016. The program will become only the seventh such doctoral program accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The expansion of the entrepreneurship program comes after existing programs received critical acclaim from national sources. Baylor’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program was rated No. 3 in the nation by both The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine in 2015.

“The Baylor name has long been associated with research and teaching excellence in the field of entrepreneurship,” said Terry Maness, dean of the Hankamer School of Business.

The Hankamer School of Business will join the University of Indiana, University of Calgary, University of Louisville, University of Missouri, Ohio State University and Worcester Polytech Institute as the only programs to offer accredited doctoral programs in entrepreneurship by the AACSB.

“With Baylor’s highly productive research faculty, an already strong undergraduate entrepreneurship program and the unwavering support entrepreneurship initiatives have received from alumni and outside agencies, we will be able to offer our Ph.D. students the distinctive knowledge, resources and capabilities to address systemic problems in our world,” Maness said.

In Fall 2015, the Hankamer School of Business will move from its existing structure to the $100 million Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation.