Kenan-Flagler Business School – University of North Carolina
History
The University of North Carolina business school was first established in 1919 as the Department of Commerce of UNC Chapel Hill’s College of Arts. Twenty-nine years after becoming fully accredited by the AACSB, the school introduced its MBA program. The school was officially renamed as the Kenan-Flager Business School nearly four decades later in honor of Mary Lily Kenan Flagler and her husband Henry Morrison Flagler, two long-time benefactors to the school. Mary’s great-grandfather, James Kenan, was a member of UNC’s first board of trustees, who helped established the Old East building in the late 1700s.
School Rankings
• U.S. News & World Report: 19 (tie)
• Bloomberg: 18
• Forbes: 16
• Financial Times: 52
• The Economist: 34
Locations
The Kenan-Flagler Business School is located on the south end of UNC’s Chapel Hill campus, which is about 15 miles southwest of Durham, North Carolina and less than 20 miles west of the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Facilities
In 1997, UNC completed construction of the McColl Building, completing the Kenan-Flagler campus. The building is located on the south end of the University of Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus. Along with 18 classrooms, a 500-seat auditorium, a café, and a computer lab, the building also houses classes for the evening MBA for Executives program. The weekend MBA for Executives program, meanwhile, primarily takes places in the Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center, located approximately three miles from the school. While there are housing options available on campus for full-time MBA students, those can be difficult to secure, so most students live in one of 10 apartment complexes near the school.
Faculty
Kenan-Flagler employs more than 150 tenured and tenure-track faculty members, adjunct professors and lecturers across its seven academic areas. These professors also contribute to the business school’s 12 research centers, which vary in focus from real estate to urban investment strategies.
Student Body
The UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA Class of 2020 features an estimated 276 students, with a median GPA of 3.4. The median GMAT score of the class is about 702, with 80 percent of students scoring between 650 and 750. Students entering Kenan-Flagler have a median age of 28, and a median of five years of work experience. Approximately 22 percent of students come from outside the U.S. Finally, women make up approximately 28 percent of the class, while 14 percent of students identify as a member of a U.S. minority group.
The average age of the UNC Kenan-Flager Weekend EMBA is 35-years old, with students averaging 12 years of previous work experience. Students in the Evening MBA class are, on average, 36-years old, and also enroll with 12 years of previous work experience.
MBA Degree Offerings
The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flager Business Schools offers a traditional, full-time MBA, an Executive MBA split into weekend or evening formats, and the online MBA@UNC degree. In addition, the business school also provides a Master of Accounting program and numerous dual degree opportunities.
Videos
Executive MBA Impact Weekend - Future of WorkThree students from the Charlotte, Evening and Weekend Executive MBA programs discuss the relevance of the Impact Weekend curriculum and how it's helping shape their work and skills development in real-time . | Darby Casey (MBA '23), Carolina Women in BusinessUNC Kenan-Flagler MBA student Darby Casey describes how her involvement with Carolina Women in Business helped her make new connections within the School. |