Dean's Message

Welcome to the W. Frank Barton School of Business website. The Barton School is committed to our students by providing high quality programs taught by world class faculty. We offer bachelors and masters programs in business and accounting that are fully accredited by AACSB - International, the premier business accreditation agency worldwide. The Barton School is one of only 165 schools globally to hold both business and accounting accreditation from the AACSB. This places the Barton School in the top 1.5% of all business programs in the world. We have more business majors than any other Kansas business school and offer the broadest choice of majors within business. Wichita is the number one exporting city in the nation (measured by % of GDP) and being located in Kansas' business center, we provide students with the greatest opportunity for internships and cooperative education available in the State of Kansas. Employer surveys indicate a preference for Barton School graduates given their technical expertise, business experience and work ethic.

We are proud of our many successful alumni who have gone on to distinguish themselves and to make a difference in business and society. Many of these alumni are entrepreneurs. The Barton School has a long heritage in Entrepreneurship. Professor Fran Jabara started our Center for Entrepreneurship in 1977 and the center continues to spread entrepreneurship throughout the campus, the Wichita region, and throughout the state. Our entrepreneurship program continues to be nationally ranked.
Our namesake, W. Frank Barton, was an entrepreneur. He started Rent-A-Center with alumnus Tom Devlin, entrepreneur and golf enthusiast. Both Mr. Barton and Mr. Devlin have been very generous to our business school and our university. Our Center for Entrepreneurship building, Devlin Hall, is named after Tom Devlin. The start of Pizza Hut in Wichita is legendary. WSU alumni Dan and Frank Carney started Pizza Hut while students at WSU and the rest is history. The original Pizza Hut building has been moved to our campus as a reminder of our entrepreneurial heritage.

The Barton School's major strength is an outstanding and highly accessible faculty. Alumni surveys indicate that the quality of our faculty and teaching are the main factors that make the Barton School experience special. Our dedicated faculty strive to enhance the learning experience of our students while keeping current with cutting-edge research and working directly with regional and national companies. We continue to build on this strength as quality new faculty are added to our ranks.
The Barton School connection between our faculty, students and the business community is the key to our formula for success. With our Entrepreneurial•Experiential•Enterprise (E3) Learning model we are creating ultra-career ready graduates.  The Barton School’s Faculty-in-Residence Program, imbedding faculty in companies, yields great benefits for companies while giving our faculty up-to-date real world experience.  Our outreach centers allow our faculty and students to be connected with area businesses in many ways including executive and management training, economic forecasting, international trade, economic education, real estate and consulting. This clearly adds to our competitive advantage. We are partners in learning with our students and with the business community.
Our MBA Program has been tailored to meet the needs of our community. The program admits only academically qualified students, allows concentrations in various areas of business, and features a core curriculum including technical competency in production and information technology. Students with non-business undergraduate degrees can generally complete the program in two years. We also have a high quality Executive MBA Program for seasoned fast-track professionals with business experience. This is a cohort program offered on the weekends. The opportunity to study and interact with experienced, fast-track individuals and the resulting lifetime networking opportunities makes this program special.

Whether you are looking for degree programs at the undergraduate or graduate levels, certificate programs, non-credit management training or executive programs offered through our Center for Management Development, economic forecasting offered through our Center for Economic Development and Business Research, or advice, programs, and services offered through our Center for Entrepreneurship, Center for International Business Advancement, Center for Real Estate, or Center for Economic Education, the Barton School of Business is the quality choice. We look forward to serving you and with you making the W. Frank Barton School of Business better than it has ever been.

Doug Hensler
Dean
W. Frank Barton School of Business