Aug 25, 2014 04:17 PM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Western Illinois University College of Business and Technology is making the entire master of business administration [MBA] program available this fall semester, school officials announced Thursday.

The degree program, which is fully accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is the same as the current face-to-face program and will have the same requirements and courses, which will have identical content and are taught by the same faculty.

"Location is no longer a constraint for students as they now have access to the entire degree program via distance learning," William Polley, interim associate dean and MBA director of Western Illinois University College of Business and Technology, said in a statement. "This is also attractive for students who begin the program in either Macomb or the Quad Cities, but are unable to finish the degree in-person because of a family move or job transfer."

The institution has been offering online MBA courses; however, a lot of the required courses were not available in this format until now.

"The faculty teaching these courses have done a tremendous job converting their courses to the online format," Polley said. "The conversion is something that takes a good deal of work in order to do it right and provide a quality course. That work has now been done, and we look forward to serving the online market with an MBA from [Western Illinois University]."

The courses will be in rotation so each one is offered periodically face-to-face and online, and students can take courses in either format to complete their degree.

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