Missouri Western State University will be offering Master of Business Administration degrees in 2017.

The university said the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education has authorized the Craig School of Business at Western to offer the MBA classes.

Western will offer three concentrations within the MBA program: forensic accounting, enterprise resource planning, and animal and life sciences. Each concentration will require 18 credit hours of core courses in finance and accounting, marketing, management, analytics and communication, and 12 hours in the concentration area. Classes will be offered in the evening for the convenience of working professionals aiming to advance their careers by earning an advanced degree.

“As with all of our graduate degree programs, the emphasis of the MBA program will be to provide very practical educational opportunities that will equip our students for the workforce of the St. Joseph region,” said Dr. Ben Caldwell, dean of Missouri Western’s Graduate School.

The MBA program will be the second graduate degree of the Craig School of Business. The school began offering a Master of Information Management in Enterprise Resource Planning in 2014.