A Brief History of the MBA Although institutions of higher schooling around the globe now offer MBA programs, this degree is American born & bred. The first graduate school of management, the Tuck School of Business, was founded in 1900 at Dartmouth College. According to the school�s net site, it was the original graduate business school to award the Master of Commercial Science degree, which later became known as the Master of Business Administration. This idea of a graduate business schooling quickly caught on & in 1908, the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration enrolled 80 students in the first ever MBA program, according to its net site. Throughout the years, MBA programs have grown in number & range of subject matter.