BUSINESS ETHICS CASE STUDY

In financial terms, a masters program with low enrolment does not generate value for money, thus is not economical. There has been a talk recently among the deans of various faculties whether RIU should discontinue (stop) the less popular masters programs. If such programs are discontinued then the instructors could be assigned to teach the undergraduate and popular masters programs only. Instructors of a particular department do teach students of other departments as well depending on the programs requirements.

In the most recent faculty meeting, the dean of Faculty of Business said the top management of RIU wants the dean to review closing down his Facultys masters programs that have poor student enrollment. Existing masters programs with student enrolment are shown in Table 1. The bachelors degree programs with student enrolment are shown in Table 2. Number of instructors in each department is shown in Table 3.

The dean asked his heads of department to discuss the matter with their respective colleagues and present each departments recommendation in the next faculty meeting. The decision that each head of department has to make is: Which Masters program(s) need to be discontinued?