08:48 AM EST on Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Business schools around the nation are including tips from "The Apprentice" in their MBA programs.

Jennifer Graylock / AP Donald Trump attends the Friars Club Roast of Donald Trump, held at the New York Hilton on Oct. 15, 2004, in New York.

The show and its star, billionaire Donald Trump, have been used in the past to spark debate among students. But now professors are using fundamentals from the NBC hit in the lecture halls.

"Business as a discipline and an academic study area is on the rise," Denise Schoenbachler, chair of Northern Illinois University's marketing department told The New York Post in Monday editions. "And things like this that are innovative and unique get students excited."

For example, students in Schoenbachler's Marketing Apprentice class competed for scholarship money by selling football tickets and raising money for troops in Iraq.

Trump himself has said he's impressed with his reality show's classroom appeal at schools such as Babson College in Massachusetts, Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Ohio State University in Columbus.

But there are critics of teaching the tactics used on "The Apprentice."

"I think the show has a place as an illustration," said Sheila Wellington, clinical professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. "I don't think there's enough content there to build a course around."

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