User:SteveFoerster/ACME

ACME is the Atlantic Centre for Management Education. It is based in Dominica, West Indies. It is purposefully located in the developing world and markets itself to students in the developing world because its ethos is that it is ultimately damaging for developing countries to continue to look to countries on the wealthy side of the development gap for intellectual leadership.

Organisational Structure
Initially, ACME will be structurally split between a non-profit university and an incorporated for-profit consultancy, presumably an IBC. The university will outsource all operations to the consultancy. Generally this will be arranged so that the consultancy ends up with any funds, but when there are funds retained by the university they will be used to provide scholarships to needy students.

Instruction and examination are separated in the ACME model.

Credit comes solely from the student passing examinations designed and administered by the university. The university outsources this to the consultancy, which employs only those holding doctoral degrees as faculty for this purpose.

Students are free to prepare for those exams in any way desired, including independent study, work experience, instruction from a tutorial college with a relationship with the university, or instruction from an entirely independent tutorial college.

Vetted tutorial colleges can be listed on the university's web site, but only one online tutorial college will be, the one that's run by the consultancy.

MBA Programmes
The MBA programmes cover subjects both by courses and by threads that are woven throughout all courses in a programme. Courses include Management, Finance, Accountancy, Economics, and Marketing. Threads include ICTs, Ethics, Globalisation, and whatever major the student may have selected.

Majors in the MBA programme may include:
 * Entrepreneurship, geared toward leading startups and small businesses
 * Public Administration, which includes Development Studies
 * Executive Leadership, geared toward management of mid-sized and large companies
 * (Microfinance? Or should that be an MSc?)

The MBA programme is designed to be completed in 1 1/2 to 2 years.

Other Programmes
ACME will partner with a university in the developing world so that ACME graduates and others can earn a practitioner's doctoral degree designed to qualify them to be ACME faculty, to found or lead a tutorial college, or to be an instructor for the online tutorial college administered by the consultancy.

Free or Cheap Marketing

 * Investigate an equity-for-ads deal with the Times of India
 * Recruiting tutorial colleges, both existing and new
 * Offer referral bonuses to vetted agents
 * Mention it on relevant web forums
 * Direct outreach to large employers in the developing Commonwealth, including utilities, NGOs, and government agencies
 * "Give One, Get One" program for Northerners who might want to study through the university.
 * Partnership with Kiva.org or other microfinanciers to arrange for loans for students.
 * Sponsor a scholarship, e.g., a wealthy donor named John W. Smith pays tuition for a student, and that student becomes the university's John W. Smith Scholar.

Timeframe
list of things to be done, and then when these things can be projected to be complete, for example:


 * June 1, 2008: Curriculum development begins
 * July 1, 2008 : First course complete
 * January 1, 2009 : Incorporation complete for both non-profit and for-profit entities