How to Become a Business Professor
Professionals who excel in business hone their abilities under the direction of a talented business professor. Learning to become a successful business leader requires a unique blend of business acumen, leadership talent, and emotional intelligence.
Whether working at a community college or an Ivy League school, business teachers have a significant impact on the careers of business professionals. They offer their students the theories behind the best approaches to business and ways to put those concepts into practice.
The path to becoming a business professor is long and challenging, but the rewards are worth the effort. As a professor, you get the opportunity to engage and inspire young, ambitious business students, helping shape the next generation of leaders.
Benefits of Business Professor Jobs
Why become a business professor? While many entrepreneurial stories focus on those who forged their own path toward financial success without the benefit of higher education, most had at least attended some college courses in their lives. Earning a degree is a proven pathway to success for making your mark in the modern business world.
That’s why business professors are so important. They train the next generation of leaders in the skills and knowledge they need to excel.
Business professors also enjoy many benefits. They include the following.
Making a Difference
The chief attraction to becoming a business professor is the same as it is with all education positions which is mainly making a significant, positive impact on the lives of others. Business professors play a key role in molding young minds and teaching them the right ways to achieve business success.
Great Demand
The overall demand for postsecondary educators is high. The United States Federal government projects a 9% increase in the number of professors by 2029. More professors are needed to serve the additional students entering college, especially non-traditional adult and returning students.
Great Salary
The salary range for business professors reached an average of $123,646 in March 2021. While salaries vary depending on the size and location of the academic institution, the salary range typically falls between $95,132 and $212,915. Salary is also impacted by years spent teaching, certificates earned, and any additional skills learned over the span of their academic career.
Stable Career
Most business professors enjoy a stable career where they have time for research and sabbaticals. While staff cutbacks are not unheard of, college professors typically endure less volatility caused by economic forces than other professions.
The Path to Becoming a Business Professor
Becoming a business professor requires a commitment to learning all the skills needed to teach others. Many turn to online business degree programs to earn a degree while maintaining their current job.
Typically, the path begins by earning an undergraduate degree. Touro University Worldwide offers an online business degree featuring a variety of concentrations. The Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management allows students to earn a degree with a concentration in accounting, entrepreneurship, human resource management, marketing, project management, homeland security, and criminal justice.
The next step is completing a graduate degree that allows you to start teaching at community colleges. TUW offers a wide variety of graduate degrees in business. They include:
- MS in Human Resource Management
- MA in Dispute Resolution
- MS in Business Analytics
- MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- MA in Public Administration
- MBA with concentrations in Accounting, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Management, Cybersecurity Management, Finance, Global Management, Health Administration Management, Human Resources Management, Marketing, Nonprofit Management and Physicians and Healthcare Executives
Finally, those who aspire to teach at a four-year university must earn a doctorate. TUW offers both a Doctorate of Business Administration and an online Doctor of Management degree program.
TUW’s Doctor of Management Program
The TUW Doctor of Management program is designed to produce graduates ready to take on the challenges of working in academia. The program also serves senior executives and top managers who want to learn advanced theoretical analyses and develop applied research skills.
The 66 credits students earn in the program are divided into Theory, Applied Research, Application of Theory and Research, Proposal Development, and Doctoral Dissertation. Concentrations in the program include Strategic Innovation and Change and Organizational Leadership. Highlights of the Doctor of Management curriculum include:
Evidence-Based Practices in Management. Students examine theoretical methods and the six key domains of Evidence-Based Management (EBM). Students learn about evidence-based practices in management that value ethics in determining solutions to various managerial challenges.
Refining the Research Topic and Literature Review. This course introduces students to the conceptual framework of a dissertation. Students draw upon everything learned in the program to start a preliminary dissertation proposal that hones the research topic, underlying theories, fundamental literature and identifies the proposed research methodology.
Doctoral Dissertation courses. The TUW program includes five courses for the student’s doctoral dissertation, guiding students from the beginnings of research to completing, preparing, and successfully defending their doctoral dissertation.
Students completing the doctoral program are prepared to earn a job as a college business professor. While the academic road is challenging, the result is an opportunity to focus all the lessons learned on teaching future generations of business leaders.
