NEW ORLEANS – Burkenroad Reports has received recognition from The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), an organization that accredits the world’s business schools.
Elliot Davis, AACSB Research Coordinator, wrote an article called “Experiential Learning in Business School Finance Programs” that highlighted 3 examples of innovations occurring at business schools with a finance focus. He included Tulane’s Burkenroad Reports:
Finance has been a subject long studied within the business school, yet in the past few years we have seen a rise in new, experiential methods of teaching the subject. Having students work directly with an actual investment portfolio managed by the school is just one of the methods being used within business schools to prepare students to confidently and vigorously enter the workforce upon graduation. When AACSB ran its Innovations That Inspire campaign last winter, we were impressed by the number of varied, experiential methods being employed within the classroom to deliver content in entirely new formats. Whether it involves an interesting new student project or an outreach initiative, business schools are adapting their programs to fit the changing times in really inspiring ways.
Burkenroad Reports
Tulane University, A.B. Freeman School of Business (United States) Burkenroad Reports is an immersive learning course that turns Tulane students into equity research analysts covering small-capitalization companies overlooked by research firms. Burkenroad Report’s objective is to prepare students for challenges faced as professional employees in the real world, and to provide students with the skills and knowledge to be extremely competitive in the job market. Teams of four or five students are created and assigned to any one of 40 publicly traded companies under coverage in the Burkenroad Reports program. The student analysts work with a committed group of professors to produce a three-statement financial model, which includes an equity valuation and a supporting analyst research report. Written deliverables produced by students are designed to mimic key topics researched by equity research analysts, and to ensure the students are exposed to as many business applications and research sources as possible. The published reports are mailed to thousands of investors, analysts, and executives. The course culminates in an annual conference held each spring attended by hundreds. Students have the opportunity to network with and introduce executive speakers from the companies they covered to on-site investors.
The student research is also used to fuel the Hancock Horizon Burkenroad Small-Cap Fund (HYBUX), which has nearly 800 million USD under management. Students also make site visits to meet company executives, which provides additional hands-on experience that consistently catapults Burkenroad alumni to successful Wall Street careers. Burkenroad Reports is unique in that the program integrates all these topics and throws in rapidly changing market environments, competing team personalities, and evolving company standards and expectations. The next step for the course is to incorporate professional designations such as the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst).
About Innovations That Inspire
From October 15 through November 20, 2015, AACSB member schools were invited to share ways in which they have challenged the status quo. Nearly 300 innovations were submitted from more than 200 institutions across 35 countries—an array of inspirations that illustrates an impressive commitment to engagement, innovation, and impact. Thirty of these innovations were initially highlighted at the 2016 Deans Conference and are currently available for public browsing.
