Students in the GW School of Business can look forward to more co-curricular activities, greater flexibility in courses and a stronger, more research-focused faculty, administrators are pledging after two vice deans were added to the school’s top leadership team.

Murat Tarimcilar will serve as the vice dean of programs and education, and Sok-Hyon Kang will be the new vice dean of faculty and research.

As a way to develop the school in the long run, Tarimcilar, who was formerly the associate dean of graduate programs, said his job will be partly focused on attracting top-tier faculty and students to the school.

“When we are doing these things, we keep telling ourselves it’s not worth doing it if you’re not doing it the best we can,” Tarimcilar said.

Kang’s new position focuses on faculty development and promoting research within the school. In line with Guthrie’s mission to improve the business school’s ranking, Kang hopes to strengthen the effectiveness of current faculty by providing more support for its research, as well as hiring more productive new faculty that will also contribute to research.

Research has become a top priority at GW since 2008, when University President Steven Knapp pledged $5.4 million over a three-year period toward increasing the University’s research efforts.

“We are at the point where we can become a top-tier school,” said Kang, who was a professor of accounting before taking over his new position.

The business school ranked 57th in the Financial Times’ 2010 Global MBA Rankings of the best business programs worldwide, jumping 28 spots from its position at No. 85 in 2009.

“The new leadership is very confident about the school’s present situation, but also very optimistic about the future,” Tarimcilar said.

Kang said that improvements in the business school were important because the entire University benefits from better research and faculty, but he also warned that improvement was not going to happen overnight.

“No academic institution is going to become top five or top 10 in a couple of years,” Kang said. “The advancements… will be gradual. But be patient and we will get there.”