Saint Xavier University Master of Business Administration, Fraud Examination and Management: Our 2027 Review

This Chicago Master of Business Administration (MBA) puts three fraud courses inside a business degree, and Saint Xavier University runs the program as an educational partner of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). You'll learn to run an investigation, build a case and support it with expert testimony techniques, and the school says the coursework is designed to help you get the education you need for the CFE exam.

Saint Xavier University is a Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois, and its MBA in Fraud Examination and Management is a 30-credit degree: seven core business courses and three fraud examination courses. Every class is available online, and you can mix in on-campus classes if you like. The program runs as an evening option for working professionals, and you can study full time or part time.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

The Graham School of Management holds accreditation from AACSB, and the school calls that recognition widely known evidence of the quality of this MBA. The Fraud Examination and Management program is an educational partner with the ACFE.

The curriculum was designed to meet ACFE requirements and covers the four major sections of the CFE certification: Financial Transactions and Fraud Schemes, Law, Investigation, and Fraud Prevention and Deterrence. The school also notes the ACFE's finding that more than 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies employ CFEs.

Graduates work at accounting firms, in private industry and at local, state and federal agencies, including the Chicago Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Postal Service.

Where this degree can lead: Forensic Accounting Jobs, Certified Fraud Examiner Certification.

• Working professionals who want evening or online classes, since the program is built for them and runs full time or part time.
• Readers with a bachelor's degree in any major, because the MBA is designed for applicants regardless of major.
• Future CFE candidates, who get a curriculum built around the subject areas of the certification exam.
• Chicago-area undergraduates, who can take up to 12 credit hours of MBA coursework in their senior year through the accelerated Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and MBA path.
• Readers aiming for accounting firms, private industry or government agencies, the employers the school names.

Seven core courses give you the business foundation. That group includes Managing Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, Marketing Management and Strategic Management and Policy, so you finish with a general management toolkit as well as a fraud specialty.

Three major courses carry the fraud work. Fraud Examination covers the nature of fraud, its elements, prevention, detection, investigation, controls that minimize it and the ways fraud gets resolved. Forensic and Investigative Accounting is about fraud auditing, investigation methods, courtroom procedure and litigation support, valuation and cybercrime, with an emphasis on communicating what you find.

Identity Theft and Computer-Related Fraud rounds out the set. It looks at Internet and e-commerce fraud, money laundering, assessing risk and detecting computer-related fraud, and detecting and deterring identity theft, along with the management, legal, ethical and privacy questions that come with new technology.

The school says you also learn to develop a fraud response plan, plan and conduct an investigation, build and present a case, and support it through litigation support and expert testimony techniques. Faculty include Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), CFEs and licensed attorneys.

Courses the School Names

• Identity Theft and Computer-Related Fraud
• Fraud Examination
• Forensic and Investigative Accounting

Standout Features

• Accelerated BBA+MBA dual degree lets students take up to 12 credit hours of MBA coursework during the senior year
• Designed as an evening program for working professionals, available full-time or part-time
• Designed to meet the requirements of the ACFE and help students obtain the education necessary for the CFE exam
• Educational partner with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
• Taught by faculty including CPAs, CFEs and licensed attorneys

Tuition is $799 per credit hour. Saint Xavier lists an approximate cost of $24,000 for the 30 credit hours, which covers the full MBA. There's no application fee.

If you're still an undergraduate at Saint Xavier, the accelerated BBA+MBA path lets you take up to 12 credit hours of MBA coursework alongside your bachelor's courses in your senior year. Ask the admissions office about financial aid and employer tuition help for your situation.

30 credits at $799 a credit comes to $23,970 in tuition, before fees.

All of the classes are available online, and you can also combine online classes with on-campus classes. Small class sizes mean close contact with your professors and classmates.

MBA courses run in accelerated eight-week sessions, with several start terms a year, so you don't have to wait long to begin. The program is an evening program for working professionals, and it's available full time or part time. Depending on the schedule you pick, the school says you can finish in about a year to 20 months.

The MBA also includes internship and mentorship opportunities with faculty, alumni and business leaders.

• An alumnus on the Saint Xavier website says the MBA led to a special agent job with the U.S. Secret Service, and that finishing the degree meant being hired automatically at grade 9 of the federal General Schedule, which paid more because of the graduate degree.

  Source: Saint Xavier University website

• Which on-campus and online sections run each term, and can I mix them in one semester?
• How do I get from the three major courses to the CFE exam, and does the school help with exam preparation?
• Are Financial Statement Fraud and the CFE exam preparation courses in the catalog open to MBA students as electives?
• What internship and mentorship opportunities are available to online students?
• How does the accelerated BBA+MBA path work if I'm finishing a bachelor's degree?
• Which schedule would let me finish near the one-year end of the range while I work?

A Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois; the program page calls it Chicago's first Catholic university.

• Best Forensic Accounting Programs Rank 6 of 27, master's
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• Fraud Examination Programs Rank 2 of 10, master's
• MBA With Forensic Concentration Rank 2 of 6, master's
• CFE Exam Prep Programs Rank 6 of 13, master's
• Cheapest Programs Rank 11 of 15, master's
• Accelerated Programs Rank 5 of 13, master's
• For Working Adults Rank 4 of 13, master's

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