History of the Program

The idea of a Pharm.D-MBA program was born in early 2006 in discussions between several faculty at the Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business and the Texas Tech University Health Science Center, School of Pharmacy. The central theme to the discussions was the need to develop and train the future leaders of the profession. The Health Organization Management concentration within the MBA program matched what the pharmacy faculty believed were the necessary areas of focus to develop strong leaders in health care organizations.

The curriculum emerged after several rounds of negotiation between the programs keeping in mind the accreditation requirements of business and pharmacy. The curricular design model was determined after reviewing other Pharm.D-MBA programs matched with the teaching schedules and course prerequisites. Rather than adopting the various models currently in use throughout the U.S., the faculty chose to use a dual-degree approach and integrate both programs into a typical 4-year course of study. Since the program was structured to be a dual-degree, it was essential that all of the approved content for both degree plans be met. 

The initial plan was to create several tracks for Pharm.D students to obtain the MBA. The first track would be to offer the opportunity of taking the MBA coursework to rising P-2 (current P1's). The College of Business established admission criteria that was to be reviewed yearly based on the accomplishments of the students. The first students began class in the summer 2009 and continues today.

The second track was viewed as the most desired by the faculty at both colleges. This involved offering the program to P0 students (accepted into pharmacy school but not currently enrolled in pharmacy courses) as well as rising P2 students who had opted not to enter the program as P0 candidates. The P0 students would begin MBA coursework in the summer prior to enrollment in the pharmacy school. The rising P2 students would begin their MBA program in the summer between the P1 and P2 years. The summer 2010 class was the first under this track.

As conceived, lectures in the second year would be delivered by College of Business faculty using live distance learning technologies available at the four campuses of the School of Pharmacy. For the first year, all pharmacy students took class in residence at the College of Business building. This model continued until the summer of 2019 when it was recommended by both colleges that the second year transition to all on-line delivery of instruction. The success of this innovation led to the decision to transition the entire program to on-line instruction beginning with the summer 2020. This eliminated a number of issues that had been recognized by the MBA students without reducing the quality of the program. Fortunately, this transition was well under way when the COVID-19 pandemic hit West Texas. 

At the May 2026 graduation, over 250 pharmacy students will have received their MBA degrees making the Texas Tech program one of the largest, if not the largest of its kind in the U.S. We continue to fulfill the vision of training tomorrow's pharmacy leaders.