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Date: Tuesday, 01 Sep 2009 16:21
The Queen of England noted in November 2008 how awful the financial crisis was becoming and then asked the economists, "If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?"
It seems clear to us now, with hindsight. However, some commentators have gone a step further than the Queen and described the current financial crisis in more florid terms as the ‘bankruptcy of the intellectual capital of Wall Street’.
Shareholder value principle
Wall Street, of course, is associated with financial innovation, financially engineered managerial incentives, assumptions regarding rationality in economic life, efficient markets, the shareholder value principle, quantitative risk management models, corporate governance metrics and so on. These topics are very familiar to MBA students and academics. Therefore, the business school community –faculty and alumni together- should turn this crisis into an opportunity to re-think some of the core assumptions in MBA curricula.
After the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals, business schools responded by introducing or increasing courses on business ethics and corporate governance. This current crisis also calls for re-visiting the curriculum. Business schools have always been responsive to business trends and changes in the economy and do not wait for a crisis to happen to self-examine.
Globalization, for example, has transformed both pedagogical and epistemological aspects of business education because managers have started to operate in a qualitatively different and much more uncertain business environment. This current crisis is too big and too complicated to be ignored by business school curricula. Although each school will respond in a uniquely different way I believe there are some common lessons to be learned.
Since this crisis highlighted a disconnectedness of a highly interconnected finance industry from its customers and the society at large, business schools need to introduce elements to their programs where the social value of business is as visible as shareholder value principle. This should be done in a much more intellectually robust manner than it is currently observed on various courses on business school curricula. New business school initiatives like courses on social innovation can be further developed to play such central role in MBA teaching.
Social value
In addition to introducing the concept of social value into the curriculum in various innovative ways to counter-balance the shareholder value principle, business schools need to strike an academic balance between utilitarian objectives and critical, out-of-the box thinking. What this crisis has shown is that MBA education as a post-graduate degree has had very little, if any, self-doubt in its curriculum. Of course too much self-doubt leads to indecisiveness and inaction. But unchecked and self-righteous certitude can bring us down as it lacks a critical balance, which was amply in evidence during this crisis.
There was almost religious belief in the market’s ability to deliver solutions to complex economic problems. Recent financial innovations such as synthetic securitization, credit default swaps, and managerial remuneration packages were believed to be universally applicable scientific solutions to the problems of finance. Business school teaching needs to examine the limits of what the market economy can deliver to all stakeholders and reflect this in research and engagement with business.
In the eyes of the society at large, bankers with large bonuses who brought down their banks and caused a historical economic crisis are currently being scapegoated for the world’s current financial and economic problems. Though this seems unfair, it is not, however, unfair to ask the question whether it was a lack of critiquing of the claims of modern finance and management that played a major role in the current crisis.
Managerial relevance
It is not incorrect to say that most business school teaching instills certitude and is prescriptive in most subjects from strategy to finance. In many ways this mode of teaching is suited to the vocational aspects of MBA education and serves the interests of all MBA constituencies well. Of course the managerial relevance of MBA teaching is important and the MBA is not a research degree that leads to an academic career. Nevertheless there is a tendency to cloud business school teaching with scientific discourse mostly borrowed from physical sciences.
However, most business school subjects have affinity with humanities subjects rather than science, where knowledge is usually treated as historical and contingent. Therefore the so-called Faustian pact of business schools with self-interest can and should be broken by introducing to the curriculum subjects like history of science and history of business. Also the emphasis on markets needs to be balanced with considerations about the broader social context of business.
Social responsibility, ecological concerns and social innovation are already on many business school curricula but more investment in these areas is needed. Method of thinking is equally important. Business schools should introduce critical thinking on the curriculum for students to be aware that what they learn may not be applicable to all situations at all times. Students should be encouraged to apply critical thinking on all courses and must be made aware of the normative nature of most social science based courses to which MBA courses belong. Students should be intellectually equipped to deal with complications rather than trained to simplify complex business issues.
One such simplification that has dominated most MBA teaching is the assumption that shareholder value is something that is achievable and can solve the problems of economic efficiency, prosperity and growth all at once. We have seen ample examples of corporate misbehaviour and excessive remuneration in banking that encouraged risky behaviour justified by shareholder value rhetoric. Business school teaching that is based on shareholder value maximization can easily turn it into an ideology where truth becomes a victim of good intentions. This crisis has shown that the vocational and professional priorities on MBA courses that form the basis of educational objectives need to balanced with critical and reflective thinking habits.
It seems clear to us now, with hindsight. However, some commentators have gone a step further than the Queen and described the current financial crisis in more florid terms as the ‘bankruptcy of the intellectual capital of Wall Street’.
Shareholder value principle
Wall Street, of course, is associated with financial innovation, financially engineered managerial incentives, assumptions regarding rationality in economic life, efficient markets, the shareholder value principle, quantitative risk management models, corporate governance metrics and so on. These topics are very familiar to MBA students and academics. Therefore, the business school community –faculty and alumni together- should turn this crisis into an opportunity to re-think some of the core assumptions in MBA curricula.
After the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals, business schools responded by introducing or increasing courses on business ethics and corporate governance. This current crisis also calls for re-visiting the curriculum. Business schools have always been responsive to business trends and changes in the economy and do not wait for a crisis to happen to self-examine.
Globalization, for example, has transformed both pedagogical and epistemological aspects of business education because managers have started to operate in a qualitatively different and much more uncertain business environment. This current crisis is too big and too complicated to be ignored by business school curricula. Although each school will respond in a uniquely different way I believe there are some common lessons to be learned.
Since this crisis highlighted a disconnectedness of a highly interconnected finance industry from its customers and the society at large, business schools need to introduce elements to their programs where the social value of business is as visible as shareholder value principle. This should be done in a much more intellectually robust manner than it is currently observed on various courses on business school curricula. New business school initiatives like courses on social innovation can be further developed to play such central role in MBA teaching.
Social value
In addition to introducing the concept of social value into the curriculum in various innovative ways to counter-balance the shareholder value principle, business schools need to strike an academic balance between utilitarian objectives and critical, out-of-the box thinking. What this crisis has shown is that MBA education as a post-graduate degree has had very little, if any, self-doubt in its curriculum. Of course too much self-doubt leads to indecisiveness and inaction. But unchecked and self-righteous certitude can bring us down as it lacks a critical balance, which was amply in evidence during this crisis.
There was almost religious belief in the market’s ability to deliver solutions to complex economic problems. Recent financial innovations such as synthetic securitization, credit default swaps, and managerial remuneration packages were believed to be universally applicable scientific solutions to the problems of finance. Business school teaching needs to examine the limits of what the market economy can deliver to all stakeholders and reflect this in research and engagement with business.
In the eyes of the society at large, bankers with large bonuses who brought down their banks and caused a historical economic crisis are currently being scapegoated for the world’s current financial and economic problems. Though this seems unfair, it is not, however, unfair to ask the question whether it was a lack of critiquing of the claims of modern finance and management that played a major role in the current crisis.
Managerial relevance
It is not incorrect to say that most business school teaching instills certitude and is prescriptive in most subjects from strategy to finance. In many ways this mode of teaching is suited to the vocational aspects of MBA education and serves the interests of all MBA constituencies well. Of course the managerial relevance of MBA teaching is important and the MBA is not a research degree that leads to an academic career. Nevertheless there is a tendency to cloud business school teaching with scientific discourse mostly borrowed from physical sciences.
However, most business school subjects have affinity with humanities subjects rather than science, where knowledge is usually treated as historical and contingent. Therefore the so-called Faustian pact of business schools with self-interest can and should be broken by introducing to the curriculum subjects like history of science and history of business. Also the emphasis on markets needs to be balanced with considerations about the broader social context of business.
Social responsibility, ecological concerns and social innovation are already on many business school curricula but more investment in these areas is needed. Method of thinking is equally important. Business schools should introduce critical thinking on the curriculum for students to be aware that what they learn may not be applicable to all situations at all times. Students should be encouraged to apply critical thinking on all courses and must be made aware of the normative nature of most social science based courses to which MBA courses belong. Students should be intellectually equipped to deal with complications rather than trained to simplify complex business issues.
One such simplification that has dominated most MBA teaching is the assumption that shareholder value is something that is achievable and can solve the problems of economic efficiency, prosperity and growth all at once. We have seen ample examples of corporate misbehaviour and excessive remuneration in banking that encouraged risky behaviour justified by shareholder value rhetoric. Business school teaching that is based on shareholder value maximization can easily turn it into an ideology where truth becomes a victim of good intentions. This crisis has shown that the vocational and professional priorities on MBA courses that form the basis of educational objectives need to balanced with critical and reflective thinking habits.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Friday, 28 Aug 2009 13:58
Indeed, in the 2009 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey, only 9% - down from 11% in 2006 - of MBA candidates worldwide picked out telecoms as a potential postgraduate career. But things might be changing. While financial services firms and other typically prominent MBA recruiters lick their balance sheet wounds this coming fall, telecommunication companies seem ready for action.
Although they may not be top of mind for MBA graduates, telecoms companies are major competitors in the campus war for talent. In fact, according to the 2008 TopMBA.com Recruitment & Salary Report, the average starting package offered by American and Western European firms in the telecom/hi-tech industry was US$136,000, eclipsing both financial services and consulting. In addition, the world’s growing appetite for improved connectivity through useful devices and fun media have kept the industry relatively strong, and could further increase its prominence on campus.
Lacey Holley, University & Internship Program Manager at T-Mobile, notes that “People need to be connected at all times and we’re in a hot sector even as the economy is soft.” In order to serve the growing market, T-Mobile, a part of Deutsch Telekom, is in a high-growth and innovation phase. Jackie Carpenter, Director of Talent Acquisition at Cricket Communications, a wireless service provider based in San Diego, says “What we do every day matters; putting people in contact with other people. We all want to be connected.”
So has the weakened economy affected the telecommunications industry at all? Yes. Entering their ranks is more competitive than ever. And before MBA graduates stampede towards the application forms they should know that they won’t be alone. “Our numbers [of applications] are probably three times what we’ve seen in the past,” notes Carpenter, “and it takes longer to go through them and make a decision.” A relative newcomer to university recruiting, Cricket is piloting an internship program that includes “green” projects and formalized mentoring. They’ve turned to MBA’s for a pipeline of ambitious and skilled employees to support the company’s rapid growth. “We don’t view [the internship] as a summer job. We’re using it as a pathway into the organization.”
Holley mentions that T-Mobile also experienced a surge in qualified applications this year that allowed her to be more selective for her summer internship program. She was able to secure her first choice ‘perfect’ candidates, and even the second and third choice applicants would have been ‘great hires’. Although T-Mobile hired slightly fewer MBA summer interns this year than in the banner 2008 season, Holley expects that the number of MBA hires at the company will stay the same or grow over the next few years. “We’re a global company so there are a lot of opportunities.”
According to Odesa Stapleton, Director of Talent Management at Verizon Communications, MBA’s are important to the telecommunications industry because they bring an ability to manage the multi-faceted projects that are typical in the space. “There are more of the cross-departmental projects that come into play in the telecommunications industry.” And unlike other industries where new MBA hires may need to take small bites of work before being trusted with a sizable project, Ms. Stapleton notes that with Verizon, new MBA hires “don’t need to wait for the big stuff.”
Verizon runs a number of development and internship programs for MBA students across accounting, finance, HR, sales, marketing and technology.
As for why an MBA graduate might want to consider Verizon, Stapleton says, “We teach, we train, we entertain and we connect our employees to our customers.” Maintaining a close connection to customers is a common theme in the industry. “People need to be customer focused and technically savvy with continuous learning aspirations,” notes Holley.
It’s too early to tell how 2009 recruiting will compare with 2008, but for their part, telecoms are in for another round. As Stapleton notes, “We wouldn’t want any potential MBAs to assume that we are not hiring. We continue to seek top talent across the organization; in good times and bad, we need to be out on the campuses.” That’s good news for MBA students.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Wednesday, 26 Aug 2009 13:27
“I started thinking about going to business school long before I made up my mind to apply,” says Vitaly Osokin, a Russian MBA student at the Fuqua School of Business. “My first boss was an MBA graduate who used to tell me a lot about his business school experience and how important an MBA degree was for his career – he ended up being a McKinsey partner before he left the firm.”
As Osokin’s career progressed, he met and worked with an increasing number of business school graduates. Fascinated by the enormous career opportunities an MBA offers, he eventually got used to the idea that business school would be a self-evident step in his career. “At the time, I didn’t fully understand why I would need the degree,” he says. “I didn’t have any specific goals that an MBA would help to achieve. I considered it more like a quality mark on a person’s career.”
By the time Osokin decided to apply to business school in 2007, he was pretty satisfied with his career. In just a few years, he’d progressed from the position of financial analyst to the head of the strategic projects division at one of the world’s largest aluminium companies.
“It became apparent to me that the higher the position I assumed, the more broad knowledge and skills I required. Since I saw myself in an executive suit in several years I started considering the MBA as a means of achieving the level of knowledge and skills required for an executive position. Furthermore, I always liked studying and learning something new.”
Osokin says applying to business school was an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone. “I would be able to contribute to my career success and enjoy a student environment,” he says. But the last – although not the least – deciding factor was his desire to change his life for a while. “I got a little bit tired of the office environment, of the necessity to work long hours and climb the career ladder. I realised that by 27, I didn’t see much outside my office. So, I wanted to put the brakes on my office life and do something different, keeping in mind that eventually I’ll have to return to work. Business school seemed to be a perfect match with what I wanted at this point of my life.”
It was February 2007 when Osokin decided that it was time to start working on his application for the 2008 intake and the very first thing he did was to check his level of English. “For some reason, I thought it would be pretty good,” he says. “But as I quickly discovered, I was so wrong. My first practice TOEFL gave me around 50 points out of the possible 120 - not surprisingly though, since I only learnt English in high-school and never used it at work. I could read a little bit and was able to write simple emails but the biggest problem was that I couldn’t speak.”
After the realisation of the TOEFL test result hit home, Osokin joined one of the numerous English classes offered in Moscow with a goal to ‘tremendously improve my English language in a short period of time.’
“To my regret, it turned out to be impossible with that level of effort – only three days a week. Furthermore, my instructor told me to forget about applying that year since it was hard to improve my English to the extent I wanted in just several months. By March 2007, I realised that I would probably have to postpone my application until the following year.”
However, Osokin was determined, or stubborn – or both! He didn’t want to wait that long so decided to take some radical steps. In May 2007, he left his company and went to New York to study English there. “The only way to achieve my goal was to completely immerse myself into an English speaking environment,” he says. “I studied English at Kaplan, spending at least 12 hours every day including weekends. My efforts finally paid off: in a three month period I successful prepared myself for TOEFL and scored 107 after the first attempt.”
While preparing for the TOEFL at Kaplan in New York, Osokin started looking into the GMAT as well. He signed up for the two-month GMAT classes that Kaplan offered and did a couple of tests. “Not surprisingly though, the verbal part took some time to master,” he says, although he didn’t have any problems with the math section due to his engineering background.
In September 2007, Osokin returned to Moscow and started working on his GMAT and essays. Since he didn’t work at that time, he had some time advantage. “I continued working with Kaplan’s materials and then moved to other sources of practice tests.”
However, Osokin didn’t have any strategy and that, he says, was his biggest mistake. “I tried to do as many different tests as possible without focusing on my weak areas. That, I believe, partly contributed to my unsatisfactory final GMAT results. In total, I spent approximately three months on GMAT (not including the time I spent at Kaplan), working at least five to six hours every day.”
Choosing the right business school was an extremely important issue for Osokin. So much so that while he was in New York he visited almost all of the top, and many other, business schools on the East Coast. “Almost all schools say in their brochures that they have a collaborative environment, friendly atmosphere and so on. But that just means that the only way to get to know which school is right for you is to go and visit its campus, talk to students, talk to professors and walk around for a while.”
After matching the perception of his school after each visit with his criteria, Osokin narrowed down his list of desired schools to just a few. He also added a few that he didn’t visit but had a pretty good understanding of their cultures after meeting and talking to current students and alumni. “By the time I decided to apply, I knew all the basic information about top US business schools and their ranking positions, but I didn’t want to rely solely upon rankings and established associations. The main criteria for me were friendly people, a collaborative environment, and a family-oriented atmosphere. I am a very laid-back person and don’t like a competitive “cut-throat” environment, so I wanted to make sure that I would spend an enjoyable two years of my life at business school.”
Osokin’s dedication, perseverance and willingness to put himself outside his comfort zone has paid off. He’s now a full-time MBA student at Duke University and has just spent a summer with Chevron in Houston. He’s not sure what his dream job will be just yet, but upon graduation in 2010, he hopes to continue in the energy resource industry working in the business development arena.
The European leg of the QS World MBA Tour begins on October 4th and brings hundreds of schools to 14 cities on the continent. For further details on the tour, and the $1.6m scholarship available, please visit: www.topmba.com/mba_fairs
As Osokin’s career progressed, he met and worked with an increasing number of business school graduates. Fascinated by the enormous career opportunities an MBA offers, he eventually got used to the idea that business school would be a self-evident step in his career. “At the time, I didn’t fully understand why I would need the degree,” he says. “I didn’t have any specific goals that an MBA would help to achieve. I considered it more like a quality mark on a person’s career.”
By the time Osokin decided to apply to business school in 2007, he was pretty satisfied with his career. In just a few years, he’d progressed from the position of financial analyst to the head of the strategic projects division at one of the world’s largest aluminium companies.
“It became apparent to me that the higher the position I assumed, the more broad knowledge and skills I required. Since I saw myself in an executive suit in several years I started considering the MBA as a means of achieving the level of knowledge and skills required for an executive position. Furthermore, I always liked studying and learning something new.”
Osokin says applying to business school was an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone. “I would be able to contribute to my career success and enjoy a student environment,” he says. But the last – although not the least – deciding factor was his desire to change his life for a while. “I got a little bit tired of the office environment, of the necessity to work long hours and climb the career ladder. I realised that by 27, I didn’t see much outside my office. So, I wanted to put the brakes on my office life and do something different, keeping in mind that eventually I’ll have to return to work. Business school seemed to be a perfect match with what I wanted at this point of my life.”
It was February 2007 when Osokin decided that it was time to start working on his application for the 2008 intake and the very first thing he did was to check his level of English. “For some reason, I thought it would be pretty good,” he says. “But as I quickly discovered, I was so wrong. My first practice TOEFL gave me around 50 points out of the possible 120 - not surprisingly though, since I only learnt English in high-school and never used it at work. I could read a little bit and was able to write simple emails but the biggest problem was that I couldn’t speak.”
After the realisation of the TOEFL test result hit home, Osokin joined one of the numerous English classes offered in Moscow with a goal to ‘tremendously improve my English language in a short period of time.’
“To my regret, it turned out to be impossible with that level of effort – only three days a week. Furthermore, my instructor told me to forget about applying that year since it was hard to improve my English to the extent I wanted in just several months. By March 2007, I realised that I would probably have to postpone my application until the following year.”
However, Osokin was determined, or stubborn – or both! He didn’t want to wait that long so decided to take some radical steps. In May 2007, he left his company and went to New York to study English there. “The only way to achieve my goal was to completely immerse myself into an English speaking environment,” he says. “I studied English at Kaplan, spending at least 12 hours every day including weekends. My efforts finally paid off: in a three month period I successful prepared myself for TOEFL and scored 107 after the first attempt.”
While preparing for the TOEFL at Kaplan in New York, Osokin started looking into the GMAT as well. He signed up for the two-month GMAT classes that Kaplan offered and did a couple of tests. “Not surprisingly though, the verbal part took some time to master,” he says, although he didn’t have any problems with the math section due to his engineering background.
In September 2007, Osokin returned to Moscow and started working on his GMAT and essays. Since he didn’t work at that time, he had some time advantage. “I continued working with Kaplan’s materials and then moved to other sources of practice tests.”
However, Osokin didn’t have any strategy and that, he says, was his biggest mistake. “I tried to do as many different tests as possible without focusing on my weak areas. That, I believe, partly contributed to my unsatisfactory final GMAT results. In total, I spent approximately three months on GMAT (not including the time I spent at Kaplan), working at least five to six hours every day.”
Choosing the right business school was an extremely important issue for Osokin. So much so that while he was in New York he visited almost all of the top, and many other, business schools on the East Coast. “Almost all schools say in their brochures that they have a collaborative environment, friendly atmosphere and so on. But that just means that the only way to get to know which school is right for you is to go and visit its campus, talk to students, talk to professors and walk around for a while.”
After matching the perception of his school after each visit with his criteria, Osokin narrowed down his list of desired schools to just a few. He also added a few that he didn’t visit but had a pretty good understanding of their cultures after meeting and talking to current students and alumni. “By the time I decided to apply, I knew all the basic information about top US business schools and their ranking positions, but I didn’t want to rely solely upon rankings and established associations. The main criteria for me were friendly people, a collaborative environment, and a family-oriented atmosphere. I am a very laid-back person and don’t like a competitive “cut-throat” environment, so I wanted to make sure that I would spend an enjoyable two years of my life at business school.”
Osokin’s dedication, perseverance and willingness to put himself outside his comfort zone has paid off. He’s now a full-time MBA student at Duke University and has just spent a summer with Chevron in Houston. He’s not sure what his dream job will be just yet, but upon graduation in 2010, he hopes to continue in the energy resource industry working in the business development arena.
The European leg of the QS World MBA Tour begins on October 4th and brings hundreds of schools to 14 cities on the continent. For further details on the tour, and the $1.6m scholarship available, please visit: www.topmba.com/mba_fairs
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Students' Voices"
Date: Friday, 21 Aug 2009 10:32
The Outlook for top North American full-time MBA programs looks stable as we approach global economic recovery in the next two years. From what I know of other schools, and certainly at Tuck, the top programs will have outstanding incoming full-time MBA classes for the Fall of ’09. Most schools report steady numbers of applications as compared to 2008. Board scores, undergraduate GPAs, quality of work experience, and diversity of the classes all seem roughly on par with recent years and close to all-time highs.
Many colleges and universities do have budgetary problems due to cutbacks by governments, reduced support for part-time programs by companies, reduced endowment earnings and reduced executive education profits; but the budgetary constraints do not seem to have major affects on the actual learning experiences of full-time MBA students in the top programs.
Management education
At Tuck, we will weather the downturn without layoffs or furloughs, and none of our teaching programs are being changed during the crisis. But, as is always the case in a major financial crisis, there are many lessons to be learned for the betterment of business leadership education. I discuss several of these “learnings” and what I believe they mean for management education:
1. While I believe that the current crisis is not fundamentally one of personal ethical violations defined in the traditional way, there was irresponsibility on the part of certain CEO’s, regulators, politicians, etc. They displayed a lack of the full acceptance of and perhaps even the full knowledge of their responsibilities to all constituents. “Ethics” coverage in business schools must be expanded to embrace the full responsibility span a leader takes on. Being unprepared, not having sufficient depth of knowledge of certain employed theories, not being brave enough to protest practices that are not fully understood, and in general not taking a broad enough view of one’s responsibilities, should all be construed as violations of a leader’s business ethics. Business school coverage of the full meaning of ethics therefore must be expanded.
2. Another crucial area of coverage has deteriorated over the last several decades, and that is having MBA students closely and carefully analyze the process by which theories and findings are developed. Helping students develop a “critical analysis mindset” by close exposure to top thinkers should be a goal of all top schools. A business leader, in addition to having a broad knowledge of business issues and the confidence to act decisively, must also have an intellectual approach that is continually curious and questioning. For instance, in the current crisis, accepted theories and findings were given too much unquestioning acceptance—those relating to the value of leverage, free markets being self-correcting, less regulation always being better than more regulation, the adequacy of existing risk analysis techniques, and many more. An MBA program therefore must give students more personal access to faculty expertise and the process by which that expertise is developed. This requires a new kind of coverage where the knowledge creation process is opened up to the students. Students must develop a critical analysis mindset as part of the tool kit they will need in order to grapple with the complexities of the world.
Demographics
Will the crisis change the demographics of the students who apply for full-time MBA programs? I don’t believe so, because the benefits to a 25-year to 30-year-old in terms of career prospects is so great and the ability to change one’s career and life are so powerful, that there will be a continuing demand at the highest level for this type of program. I believe that ample loans and scholarships are available and employers will continue to demand mature, experienced and well-educated young leaders.
Of course, employment opportunities will reflect the real world of business. In bad times for finance, graduates tend to reduce their emphasis in that area as we have seen this last year. But even in the worst of years for financial services, our placements in that area only dropped from 35% to about 25% of the class. Areas as important as financial services and strategic consulting will often shrink in downturns, but they do not disappear and they surely will grow in the good times ahead. In recent years there has been growing interest in health-care related industries and in not-for-profits. The diversity of employment opportunities has grown considerably in recent years. One source of new employers of top MBA graduates is the growing number of large and sophisticated global firms, many of which are not based in North America.
One of the great benefits of the North American two-year MBA programs is the paid summer internship in which students are recruited by businesses to work along with permanent employees for two or three months. MBA students can use this time to test their interest in an industry and quite often interns do get offers of employment after graduation. At Tuck virtually all of our students get summer internships and about 50% of our students take permanent jobs with their summer intern company.
In general, during this crisis and afterwards, I see full-time MBA programs remaining the “flagships” of business education, because of their very positive return on investment and their providing students with such attractive career-changing options. In summary, two reforms that I see as coming out of the crisis are: expanding ethics coverage to include the full span of leadership responsibilities and putting more emphasis on exposing student to faculty expertise in a deeper and more personal way.
Many colleges and universities do have budgetary problems due to cutbacks by governments, reduced support for part-time programs by companies, reduced endowment earnings and reduced executive education profits; but the budgetary constraints do not seem to have major affects on the actual learning experiences of full-time MBA students in the top programs.
Management education
At Tuck, we will weather the downturn without layoffs or furloughs, and none of our teaching programs are being changed during the crisis. But, as is always the case in a major financial crisis, there are many lessons to be learned for the betterment of business leadership education. I discuss several of these “learnings” and what I believe they mean for management education:
1. While I believe that the current crisis is not fundamentally one of personal ethical violations defined in the traditional way, there was irresponsibility on the part of certain CEO’s, regulators, politicians, etc. They displayed a lack of the full acceptance of and perhaps even the full knowledge of their responsibilities to all constituents. “Ethics” coverage in business schools must be expanded to embrace the full responsibility span a leader takes on. Being unprepared, not having sufficient depth of knowledge of certain employed theories, not being brave enough to protest practices that are not fully understood, and in general not taking a broad enough view of one’s responsibilities, should all be construed as violations of a leader’s business ethics. Business school coverage of the full meaning of ethics therefore must be expanded.
2. Another crucial area of coverage has deteriorated over the last several decades, and that is having MBA students closely and carefully analyze the process by which theories and findings are developed. Helping students develop a “critical analysis mindset” by close exposure to top thinkers should be a goal of all top schools. A business leader, in addition to having a broad knowledge of business issues and the confidence to act decisively, must also have an intellectual approach that is continually curious and questioning. For instance, in the current crisis, accepted theories and findings were given too much unquestioning acceptance—those relating to the value of leverage, free markets being self-correcting, less regulation always being better than more regulation, the adequacy of existing risk analysis techniques, and many more. An MBA program therefore must give students more personal access to faculty expertise and the process by which that expertise is developed. This requires a new kind of coverage where the knowledge creation process is opened up to the students. Students must develop a critical analysis mindset as part of the tool kit they will need in order to grapple with the complexities of the world.
Demographics
Will the crisis change the demographics of the students who apply for full-time MBA programs? I don’t believe so, because the benefits to a 25-year to 30-year-old in terms of career prospects is so great and the ability to change one’s career and life are so powerful, that there will be a continuing demand at the highest level for this type of program. I believe that ample loans and scholarships are available and employers will continue to demand mature, experienced and well-educated young leaders.
Of course, employment opportunities will reflect the real world of business. In bad times for finance, graduates tend to reduce their emphasis in that area as we have seen this last year. But even in the worst of years for financial services, our placements in that area only dropped from 35% to about 25% of the class. Areas as important as financial services and strategic consulting will often shrink in downturns, but they do not disappear and they surely will grow in the good times ahead. In recent years there has been growing interest in health-care related industries and in not-for-profits. The diversity of employment opportunities has grown considerably in recent years. One source of new employers of top MBA graduates is the growing number of large and sophisticated global firms, many of which are not based in North America.
One of the great benefits of the North American two-year MBA programs is the paid summer internship in which students are recruited by businesses to work along with permanent employees for two or three months. MBA students can use this time to test their interest in an industry and quite often interns do get offers of employment after graduation. At Tuck virtually all of our students get summer internships and about 50% of our students take permanent jobs with their summer intern company.
In general, during this crisis and afterwards, I see full-time MBA programs remaining the “flagships” of business education, because of their very positive return on investment and their providing students with such attractive career-changing options. In summary, two reforms that I see as coming out of the crisis are: expanding ethics coverage to include the full span of leadership responsibilities and putting more emphasis on exposing student to faculty expertise in a deeper and more personal way.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Monday, 17 Aug 2009 14:18
I have currently just finished the first year of my MBA at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. The grind that many post-MBAs call the “hard part” is behind us. It is now time for internships and the selection of second year’s electives. We are half done. We have gained management knowledge based in the fundamentals of business. We have survived a vastly international environment while taking the usual core set of subjects offered by the school, such as finance, marketing, accounting, economics and operations.
Some courses hovered over my weeks like black clouds ready to burst and others were like little rays of light sprinkled throughout my days. There is still a long road ahead, yet the longest part is behind us. Looking back, I can say that there are many realities consistent with my initial expectations. At the same time, there is a profusion of information that I wish I had known - a number of pointers that I wish someone in my position now had shared with me then.
Preparation
First of all, don't fool yourself. You’re not only going to work hard, you are going to kill yourself. Your brain is constantly working, spinning with ideas and contemplations and information you didn't even know existed. There is no stopping and no rest. It’s not bad…just be ready. An MBA is not a vacation from life, it is life and often, especially during exams, it can seem harder than life. Learn how to ask for things. Get ready to make requests, express your needs and desires. Every single person around you is an incredible resource - utilize them, exploit them. They won’t mind. Get involved. Classes are one thing but the occasions to truly dig into the intimate community of the MBA are abundant. Put some time aside to decide what role you choose to play within your university and amongst the faculty and classmates. Expect to take on more responsibilities, whether it’s with a club, functional area or organization. If what you are looking for doesn't exist, take initiative and do your own thing. Pave your own way - the possibilities are endless. Network. Network within your own university, within both the local MBA and the global MBA community. Network with local businesses and entrepreneurs. Search for projects, enterprises and associations. Some of the most valuable opportunities and contacts can be discovered outside your career service office as well. Learn your competitive advantages
One learns within the MBA, amongst multitudes of strategy modules, workshops and courses - to identify your “competitive advantages,” your competencies that make you stand out from the crowd. Don't get me wrong, every single person around you will be brilliant in their own ways, each student will have their own aptitudes and particular skills. You must differentiate yourself, develop and utilize your talents. Plan to identify the stakeholders and pitch yourself. You are valuable, but that means nothing if no one knows about it. Take risks. Don't be afraid to propose things, utilize your creative energies, and bounce ideas off the people around you. If anything, this is the place to do it as no one is going to judge or criticize you. This is the way to learn, don't let fear get in your way. This is exactly what you are paying for. Don't be fooled, as incredible as an MBA is you will suffer low points along with the highs. You will face failures along with your accomplishments. We are doing an MBA for a reason and you are there for a reason. Your school chose you among numerous applicants because they saw something in you. Your university had faith that you would go out into the world upon graduation and do something worthwhile, with their name emblazoned on your CV. Therefore, don't get down on yourself when everyone around you gets the right answer and yours is wrong. It happens. And the excellent thing about the MBA is that everyone around you will probably do anything they can to help you until you get it right. You may fail a class. I did. But I didn't learn any less and having to retake a class means you have double the chance to learn. Always remember, you are there because you deserve to be there. On the other hand, there are the classes and assignments that will come easy to you. Don't slack off. Don't disregard anything you have the opportunity to study. Work hard, concentrate, you will doubtlessly still get something out of them. Again, remember, you or your company or parents or Fannie Mae is paying for this. Benefit from it while you can. Accompishment
Be prepared to face the same difficulties you may face in the workplace - ethnic diversity, conflicting ideas, adverse reactions, lazy teammates, overly demanding teammates, opposing work ethics, moral standpoints, and the like. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. But when you get over the humps and learn to successfully work together even with all these differences, it seems that there is nothing you can’t accomplish. The last thing, and most important that an MBA candidate must remember is that the experience will be exactly what you make of it, nothing more and nothing less. It is 100% up to each and every student in the program. You can slide through or you can trudge beginning to end. You will realize that those who rally and march will come out on the other end having profited the most from the MBA in its entirety. The first year will go faster than you could have imagined. And when you are knee-deep in books, notes and spreadsheets, it feels like it will last forever. But it won’t. It will be over before you know it and the worst thing that can happen is to look back with regrets.
Embark on the program open-minded, flexible, tolerant and ready to work, network, ask, try, discover and toil. Don't let the low points get in your way and don't let the highs make you complacent. In the end, you have one or two years and it could or could not be the most rewarding experience of your life.
Preparation
First of all, don't fool yourself. You’re not only going to work hard, you are going to kill yourself. Your brain is constantly working, spinning with ideas and contemplations and information you didn't even know existed. There is no stopping and no rest. It’s not bad…just be ready. An MBA is not a vacation from life, it is life and often, especially during exams, it can seem harder than life. Learn how to ask for things. Get ready to make requests, express your needs and desires. Every single person around you is an incredible resource - utilize them, exploit them. They won’t mind. Get involved. Classes are one thing but the occasions to truly dig into the intimate community of the MBA are abundant. Put some time aside to decide what role you choose to play within your university and amongst the faculty and classmates. Expect to take on more responsibilities, whether it’s with a club, functional area or organization. If what you are looking for doesn't exist, take initiative and do your own thing. Pave your own way - the possibilities are endless. Network. Network within your own university, within both the local MBA and the global MBA community. Network with local businesses and entrepreneurs. Search for projects, enterprises and associations. Some of the most valuable opportunities and contacts can be discovered outside your career service office as well. Learn your competitive advantages
One learns within the MBA, amongst multitudes of strategy modules, workshops and courses - to identify your “competitive advantages,” your competencies that make you stand out from the crowd. Don't get me wrong, every single person around you will be brilliant in their own ways, each student will have their own aptitudes and particular skills. You must differentiate yourself, develop and utilize your talents. Plan to identify the stakeholders and pitch yourself. You are valuable, but that means nothing if no one knows about it. Take risks. Don't be afraid to propose things, utilize your creative energies, and bounce ideas off the people around you. If anything, this is the place to do it as no one is going to judge or criticize you. This is the way to learn, don't let fear get in your way. This is exactly what you are paying for. Don't be fooled, as incredible as an MBA is you will suffer low points along with the highs. You will face failures along with your accomplishments. We are doing an MBA for a reason and you are there for a reason. Your school chose you among numerous applicants because they saw something in you. Your university had faith that you would go out into the world upon graduation and do something worthwhile, with their name emblazoned on your CV. Therefore, don't get down on yourself when everyone around you gets the right answer and yours is wrong. It happens. And the excellent thing about the MBA is that everyone around you will probably do anything they can to help you until you get it right. You may fail a class. I did. But I didn't learn any less and having to retake a class means you have double the chance to learn. Always remember, you are there because you deserve to be there. On the other hand, there are the classes and assignments that will come easy to you. Don't slack off. Don't disregard anything you have the opportunity to study. Work hard, concentrate, you will doubtlessly still get something out of them. Again, remember, you or your company or parents or Fannie Mae is paying for this. Benefit from it while you can. Accompishment
Be prepared to face the same difficulties you may face in the workplace - ethnic diversity, conflicting ideas, adverse reactions, lazy teammates, overly demanding teammates, opposing work ethics, moral standpoints, and the like. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. But when you get over the humps and learn to successfully work together even with all these differences, it seems that there is nothing you can’t accomplish. The last thing, and most important that an MBA candidate must remember is that the experience will be exactly what you make of it, nothing more and nothing less. It is 100% up to each and every student in the program. You can slide through or you can trudge beginning to end. You will realize that those who rally and march will come out on the other end having profited the most from the MBA in its entirety. The first year will go faster than you could have imagined. And when you are knee-deep in books, notes and spreadsheets, it feels like it will last forever. But it won’t. It will be over before you know it and the worst thing that can happen is to look back with regrets.
Embark on the program open-minded, flexible, tolerant and ready to work, network, ask, try, discover and toil. Don't let the low points get in your way and don't let the highs make you complacent. In the end, you have one or two years and it could or could not be the most rewarding experience of your life.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Monday, 17 Aug 2009 14:18
I have currently just finished the first year of my MBA at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. The grind that many post-MBAs call the “hard part” is behind us. It is now time for internships and the selection of second year’s electives. We are half done. We have gained management knowledge based in the fundamentals of business. We have survived a vastly international environment while taking the usual core set of subjects offered by the school, such as finance, marketing, accounting, economics and operations.
Some courses hovered over my weeks like black clouds ready to burst and others were like little rays of light sprinkled throughout my days. There is still a long road ahead, yet the longest part is behind us. Looking back, I can say that there are many realities consistent with my initial expectations. At the same time, there is a profusion of information that I wish I had known - a number of pointers that I wish someone in my position now had shared with me then.
Preparation
First of all, don't fool yourself. You’re not only going to work hard, you are going to kill yourself. Your brain is constantly working, spinning with ideas and contemplations and information you didn't even know existed. There is no stopping and no rest. It’s not bad…just be ready. An MBA is not a vacation from life, it is life and often, especially during exams, it can seem harder than life. Learn how to ask for things. Get ready to make requests, express your needs and desires. Every single person around you is an incredible resource - utilize them, exploit them. They won’t mind. Get involved. Classes are one thing but the occasions to truly dig into the intimate community of the MBA are abundant. Put some time aside to decide what role you choose to play within your university and amongst the faculty and classmates. Expect to take on more responsibilities, whether it’s with a club, functional area or organization. If what you are looking for doesn't exist, take initiative and do your own thing. Pave your own way - the possibilities are endless. Network. Network within your own university, within both the local MBA and the global MBA community. Network with local businesses and entrepreneurs. Search for projects, enterprises and associations. Some of the most valuable opportunities and contacts can be discovered outside your career service office as well. Learn your competitive advantages
One learns within the MBA, amongst multitudes of strategy modules, workshops and courses - to identify your “competitive advantages,” your competencies that make you stand out from the crowd. Don't get me wrong, every single person around you will be brilliant in their own ways, each student will have their own aptitudes and particular skills. You must differentiate yourself, develop and utilize your talents. Plan to identify the stakeholders and pitch yourself. You are valuable, but that means nothing if no one knows about it. Take risks. Don't be afraid to propose things, utilize your creative energies, and bounce ideas off the people around you. If anything, this is the place to do it as no one is going to judge or criticize you. This is the way to learn, don't let fear get in your way. This is exactly what you are paying for. Don't be fooled, as incredible as an MBA is you will suffer low points along with the highs. You will face failures along with your accomplishments. We are doing an MBA for a reason and you are there for a reason. Your school chose you among numerous applicants because they saw something in you. Your university had faith that you would go out into the world upon graduation and do something worthwhile, with their name emblazoned on your CV. Therefore, don't get down on yourself when everyone around you gets the right answer and yours is wrong. It happens. And the excellent thing about the MBA is that everyone around you will probably do anything they can to help you until you get it right. You may fail a class. I did. But I didn't learn any less and having to retake a class means you have double the chance to learn. Always remember, you are there because you deserve to be there.
On the other hand, there are the classes and assignments that will come easy to you. Don't slack off. Don't disregard anything you have the opportunity to study. Work hard, concentrate, you will doubtlessly still get something out of them. Again, remember, you or your company or parents or Fannie Mae is paying for this. Benefit from it while you can. Accompishment
Be prepared to face the same difficulties you may face in the workplace - ethnic diversity, conflicting ideas, adverse reactions, lazy teammates, overly demanding teammates, opposing work ethics, moral standpoints, and the like. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. But when you get over the humps and learn to successfully work together even with all these differences, it seems that there is nothing you can’t accomplish. The last thing, and most important that an MBA candidate must remember is that the experience will be exactly what you make of it, nothing more and nothing less. It is 100% up to each and every student in the program. You can slide through or you can trudge beginning to end. You will realize that those who rally and march will come out on the other end having profited the most from the MBA in its entirety. The first year will go faster than you could have imagined. And when you are knee-deep in books, notes and spreadsheets, it feels like it will last forever. But it won’t. It will be over before you know it and the worst thing that can happen is to look back with regrets.
Embark on the program open-minded, flexible, tolerant and ready to work, network, ask, try, discover and toil. Don't let the low points get in your way and don't let the highs make you complacent. In the end, you have one or two years and it could or could not be the most rewarding experience of your life.
First of all, don't fool yourself. You’re not only going to work hard, you are going to kill yourself. Your brain is constantly working, spinning with ideas and contemplations and information you didn't even know existed. There is no stopping and no rest. It’s not bad…just be ready. An MBA is not a vacation from life, it is life and often, especially during exams, it can seem harder than life. Learn how to ask for things. Get ready to make requests, express your needs and desires. Every single person around you is an incredible resource - utilize them, exploit them. They won’t mind. Get involved. Classes are one thing but the occasions to truly dig into the intimate community of the MBA are abundant. Put some time aside to decide what role you choose to play within your university and amongst the faculty and classmates. Expect to take on more responsibilities, whether it’s with a club, functional area or organization. If what you are looking for doesn't exist, take initiative and do your own thing. Pave your own way - the possibilities are endless. Network. Network within your own university, within both the local MBA and the global MBA community. Network with local businesses and entrepreneurs. Search for projects, enterprises and associations. Some of the most valuable opportunities and contacts can be discovered outside your career service office as well. Learn your competitive advantages
One learns within the MBA, amongst multitudes of strategy modules, workshops and courses - to identify your “competitive advantages,” your competencies that make you stand out from the crowd. Don't get me wrong, every single person around you will be brilliant in their own ways, each student will have their own aptitudes and particular skills. You must differentiate yourself, develop and utilize your talents. Plan to identify the stakeholders and pitch yourself. You are valuable, but that means nothing if no one knows about it. Take risks. Don't be afraid to propose things, utilize your creative energies, and bounce ideas off the people around you. If anything, this is the place to do it as no one is going to judge or criticize you. This is the way to learn, don't let fear get in your way. This is exactly what you are paying for. Don't be fooled, as incredible as an MBA is you will suffer low points along with the highs. You will face failures along with your accomplishments. We are doing an MBA for a reason and you are there for a reason. Your school chose you among numerous applicants because they saw something in you. Your university had faith that you would go out into the world upon graduation and do something worthwhile, with their name emblazoned on your CV. Therefore, don't get down on yourself when everyone around you gets the right answer and yours is wrong. It happens. And the excellent thing about the MBA is that everyone around you will probably do anything they can to help you until you get it right. You may fail a class. I did. But I didn't learn any less and having to retake a class means you have double the chance to learn. Always remember, you are there because you deserve to be there.
On the other hand, there are the classes and assignments that will come easy to you. Don't slack off. Don't disregard anything you have the opportunity to study. Work hard, concentrate, you will doubtlessly still get something out of them. Again, remember, you or your company or parents or Fannie Mae is paying for this. Benefit from it while you can. Accompishment
Be prepared to face the same difficulties you may face in the workplace - ethnic diversity, conflicting ideas, adverse reactions, lazy teammates, overly demanding teammates, opposing work ethics, moral standpoints, and the like. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. But when you get over the humps and learn to successfully work together even with all these differences, it seems that there is nothing you can’t accomplish. The last thing, and most important that an MBA candidate must remember is that the experience will be exactly what you make of it, nothing more and nothing less. It is 100% up to each and every student in the program. You can slide through or you can trudge beginning to end. You will realize that those who rally and march will come out on the other end having profited the most from the MBA in its entirety. The first year will go faster than you could have imagined. And when you are knee-deep in books, notes and spreadsheets, it feels like it will last forever. But it won’t. It will be over before you know it and the worst thing that can happen is to look back with regrets.
Embark on the program open-minded, flexible, tolerant and ready to work, network, ask, try, discover and toil. Don't let the low points get in your way and don't let the highs make you complacent. In the end, you have one or two years and it could or could not be the most rewarding experience of your life.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Monday, 17 Aug 2009 10:27
We have witnessed one of the most turbulent years in recent economic history. What has been the impact on MBA applications?
"At NYU Stern, our applications this past year were incredibly robust. To give you some context, the prior year, we experienced a nearly 20% increase in applications to our full-time MBA program, the second highest number of applications received on record. We maintained this application volume this year,” says Isser Gallogly, Executive Director, MBA Admissions, NYU Stern School of Business
J.J. Cutler, Admissions Director at The Wharton School, feels “the financial crisis actually hasn't changed the quality of our applicant pool, which is still as high as ever. We're slightly up in terms of total applications. I think many people thought that we might be up dramatically, and that didn't happen. So that makes us think that for people who are applying to a place like Wharton, it's a pretty well thought through decision that has been planned for quite some time.”
Can you highlight some of the application trend differences by country?
Cutler observes “in some countries, Wharton has seen a decline in applications. In the U.S. our applications are up double digits. Again, overall, we're up in the low single digits, so I think the financial crisis hasn't really impacted that so much.” By contrast, NYU “did not see a dramatic shift in either the domestic or international applicant pool.”
Chris Storer at Boston University reports big country variations. “Overall, we experienced a small decrease in applications (6%). However this was most notable from India (down 34%) and Korea which also saw a sharp fall. As expected for US applicants, we saw a significant increase in applications (up 14%) particularly from the finance sector.”
What is causing the significant variation in application trends by country?
“Last year’s worldwide financial crisis brought about severe restrictions on credit with many lenders reducing or cancelling loan programs and student loans have not been immune to the problems of the credit crisis. Fuqua began exploring other loan options for international students after we discovered the new terms for loans offered by our previous provider were less favourable than we had hoped," says Blair Sheppard, Dean of Fuqua School of Business at Duke.
Cutler agrees, “because of the crisis, on the financial aid side everyone is evaluating the timing and the decision to get an MBA much more carefully, much more surgically and precisely, than they have in the past.”
Have you resolved the loan problem this year?
Sheppard has tackled this issue head on. “At Duke, we are very pleased to announce a pending arrangement with a local lending institution to provide international student loans next year at the very competitive rate of prime plus 5% with no origination fee. With the current prime rate of 3.25%, the rate would be 8.25%. These loans will not require a U.S. co-signer. The agreement proposes that Duke University and the Fuqua School of Business will provide guarantee against loan losses of the lender.”
Wharton has also recently announced a new loan program for international students. “These are the population that is probably feeling the impacts of the global financial crisis the most. Our new loan scheme is essential to attract the best domestic and international students. Our students also receive, on average, about $12,000 in financial aid” says Cutler.
Do you feel that young professionals in employment are worried about giving up secure jobs? What advice would you offer to people in this mindset?
“So far we haven’t actually experienced this trend. In fact, our yield rate (number of admitted students who plan to enrol) is about 5 points above our historical norm, indicating an opposite trend” says Storer.
But Cutler remains optimistic. “We think that this financial crisis is an opportunity too good to waste. There will be new industries and new sectors that emerge that will have a high need for people with MBAs—people who are analytical, people who can solve complex, unstructured problems. We think the skills we teach absolutely have been proven to set up success in new industries, in new economies. And so we think the value proposition is actually quite high. Whether starting salaries hold up or whether the job search will be easy, I don't think we know yet. But now more than ever I think people need to differentiate themselves. They need to think about an investment in themselves.”
Are you looking to grow international application numbers in the future?
“At BU, our plan for the 2010 entering class is to maintain the international percentage between 33 and 35 percent of the incoming class, but continue to increase the diversity of nationalities represented along with depth of professional experience.”
“Wharton is, and has been for some time, the most international of the top-tier U.S. business schools: The class of 2010 had over 40% international students from 72 countries. In addition we have 84,000 alumni in 140 countries.” Ankur Kumar graduated from Wharton in 2007 and has recently joined the MBA Admissions team. She feels strongly that “having an internationally diverse student body was a key differentiator and key attraction of Wharton for me and my fellow class mates. The opportunity to live and go to school with so many interesting people from all around the world is an amazing learning opportunity both professionally and personally.”
Blair Sheppard at Duke says "we intend to become the world’s first truly global business school, and the presence of an effective international student loan program is essential to this strategy. It is our strong belief that the participation of students from outside the United States is essential for both their education and the education of our domestic students.” Duke will be attending over 40 cities on the QS World MBA Tour this Fall, in four continents.
What are predictions for application trends in 2010?
“We don’t expect a sharp cut back in applications next year” says Cutler. “People plan to take an MBA over several years as a key step in their career and short term economic volatility will only put off the less committed candidates. But of course you never know for sure.”
Chris Storer at BU feels “It’s really quite early to predict for 2010, but our plan is to maintain and in some areas increase our recruitment efforts, even during this time of budget-tightening at many business schools. Setting expectations about opportunities to work in the U.S. post-MBA and educating prospective MBA students on the latest and ever-changing visa situation will be essential. That being said, companies want excellent candidates with global experience; many are and will continue to be hired by top firms. We are travelling extensively with the QS World MBA Tour this Fall.”
"At NYU Stern, our applications this past year were incredibly robust. To give you some context, the prior year, we experienced a nearly 20% increase in applications to our full-time MBA program, the second highest number of applications received on record. We maintained this application volume this year,” says Isser Gallogly, Executive Director, MBA Admissions, NYU Stern School of Business
J.J. Cutler, Admissions Director at The Wharton School, feels “the financial crisis actually hasn't changed the quality of our applicant pool, which is still as high as ever. We're slightly up in terms of total applications. I think many people thought that we might be up dramatically, and that didn't happen. So that makes us think that for people who are applying to a place like Wharton, it's a pretty well thought through decision that has been planned for quite some time.”
Can you highlight some of the application trend differences by country?
Cutler observes “in some countries, Wharton has seen a decline in applications. In the U.S. our applications are up double digits. Again, overall, we're up in the low single digits, so I think the financial crisis hasn't really impacted that so much.” By contrast, NYU “did not see a dramatic shift in either the domestic or international applicant pool.”
Chris Storer at Boston University reports big country variations. “Overall, we experienced a small decrease in applications (6%). However this was most notable from India (down 34%) and Korea which also saw a sharp fall. As expected for US applicants, we saw a significant increase in applications (up 14%) particularly from the finance sector.”
What is causing the significant variation in application trends by country?
“Last year’s worldwide financial crisis brought about severe restrictions on credit with many lenders reducing or cancelling loan programs and student loans have not been immune to the problems of the credit crisis. Fuqua began exploring other loan options for international students after we discovered the new terms for loans offered by our previous provider were less favourable than we had hoped," says Blair Sheppard, Dean of Fuqua School of Business at Duke.
Cutler agrees, “because of the crisis, on the financial aid side everyone is evaluating the timing and the decision to get an MBA much more carefully, much more surgically and precisely, than they have in the past.”
Have you resolved the loan problem this year?
Sheppard has tackled this issue head on. “At Duke, we are very pleased to announce a pending arrangement with a local lending institution to provide international student loans next year at the very competitive rate of prime plus 5% with no origination fee. With the current prime rate of 3.25%, the rate would be 8.25%. These loans will not require a U.S. co-signer. The agreement proposes that Duke University and the Fuqua School of Business will provide guarantee against loan losses of the lender.”
Wharton has also recently announced a new loan program for international students. “These are the population that is probably feeling the impacts of the global financial crisis the most. Our new loan scheme is essential to attract the best domestic and international students. Our students also receive, on average, about $12,000 in financial aid” says Cutler.
Do you feel that young professionals in employment are worried about giving up secure jobs? What advice would you offer to people in this mindset?
“So far we haven’t actually experienced this trend. In fact, our yield rate (number of admitted students who plan to enrol) is about 5 points above our historical norm, indicating an opposite trend” says Storer.
But Cutler remains optimistic. “We think that this financial crisis is an opportunity too good to waste. There will be new industries and new sectors that emerge that will have a high need for people with MBAs—people who are analytical, people who can solve complex, unstructured problems. We think the skills we teach absolutely have been proven to set up success in new industries, in new economies. And so we think the value proposition is actually quite high. Whether starting salaries hold up or whether the job search will be easy, I don't think we know yet. But now more than ever I think people need to differentiate themselves. They need to think about an investment in themselves.”
Are you looking to grow international application numbers in the future?
“At BU, our plan for the 2010 entering class is to maintain the international percentage between 33 and 35 percent of the incoming class, but continue to increase the diversity of nationalities represented along with depth of professional experience.”
“Wharton is, and has been for some time, the most international of the top-tier U.S. business schools: The class of 2010 had over 40% international students from 72 countries. In addition we have 84,000 alumni in 140 countries.” Ankur Kumar graduated from Wharton in 2007 and has recently joined the MBA Admissions team. She feels strongly that “having an internationally diverse student body was a key differentiator and key attraction of Wharton for me and my fellow class mates. The opportunity to live and go to school with so many interesting people from all around the world is an amazing learning opportunity both professionally and personally.”
Blair Sheppard at Duke says "we intend to become the world’s first truly global business school, and the presence of an effective international student loan program is essential to this strategy. It is our strong belief that the participation of students from outside the United States is essential for both their education and the education of our domestic students.” Duke will be attending over 40 cities on the QS World MBA Tour this Fall, in four continents.
What are predictions for application trends in 2010?
“We don’t expect a sharp cut back in applications next year” says Cutler. “People plan to take an MBA over several years as a key step in their career and short term economic volatility will only put off the less committed candidates. But of course you never know for sure.”
Chris Storer at BU feels “It’s really quite early to predict for 2010, but our plan is to maintain and in some areas increase our recruitment efforts, even during this time of budget-tightening at many business schools. Setting expectations about opportunities to work in the U.S. post-MBA and educating prospective MBA students on the latest and ever-changing visa situation will be essential. That being said, companies want excellent candidates with global experience; many are and will continue to be hired by top firms. We are travelling extensively with the QS World MBA Tour this Fall.”
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Thursday, 13 Aug 2009 10:56
A high-wage driven economy and a successful history in business and industry in recent years has also seen her develop into a leading finance centre, particularly in Frankfurt, and with an automotive industry that is the envy of the world. Despite this and its population of over 82 million, large by European standards, Germany is not a powerhouse in terms of business schools and MBA programs. The UK, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Italy all have internationally renowned business schools. So why has powerful Germany lagged so far behind?
Bologna Process
The Bologna Process, designed to level the playing field for education across Europe, has had a complex impact in Germany and divided opinion perhaps more than in any other European country. In Spring 2009, ten years after the process began, there were still protests to Chancellor Angela Merkel against the restructuring of the German education system. The changes to the system had to be radical in many cases. German undergraduate programs, which are legally bound not to charge fees, had previously been based on a five- or six-year diploma system. To some minds, this system encouraged many students to take their time with degrees, often changing between courses and not feeling the pressure to complete courses. On the other hand, many Germans valued the system of education for its own sake, and felt that forcing students into the new three-year system was a mistake. Either way, according to Bärbel Schwertfeger of German-based website mba-channel.com, the result was that, under the previous system, too many Germans left university too old to get the work experience necessary for business school. “After six years study and three years of work experience, this didn’t fit with the German culture, which favours education within a company which the employee would then never leave.”
Internationalism
Germany’s problem attracting international students – though it must be said that, proportionately, most MBA programs in Germany have an enviably high proportion of international students – has been partly down to the accreditation process. Currently Mannheim Business School is the only one to have received the enviable triple-accreditation.
The problem is more to do with time than quality, says Dean Professor Wulff Plinke at ESMT in Berlin. “The key international accrediting bodies, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, take at least three years to accredit a course and it can take a school the same time to even be prepared to apply for accreditation. We’re delighted to have the AMBA accreditation for our course so early.” Sabine Weinheimer of Goethe Business School in Frankfurt agrees and shows that this lack of accreditation heavily affects the performance of business school in the rankings. “Before Bologna, there were not many programs held in English. As a consequence the programs are relatively new and they do not show up in the rankings yet, a circle we are currently breaking out of. It will take a few years before prospective students get a real feeling for what they get out of the [German business] schools. Only then will the market get a boost in awareness which it needs to grow further.” Despite recent bad press, Germany is an extremely multi-cultural nation and very welcoming of international students and workers. The level of English is also generally very high, particularly among the younger generation. However, additional problems lie elsewhere. Says Bärbel Schwertfeger, “if you don’t speak German you can forget about a job [in Germany], even in an international bank and even one that is English-speaking.”
Sabine Weinheimer says, “For foreigners the German education system has a good reputation but mainly among those who seek employment and want to stay in Germany.” However, according to more than one MBA graduate interviewed, work is “difficult to find” in Germany at the moment as the nation suffers from the economic downturn, and this is true “especially for non-German speakers.”
Finding her way
Despite a relatively slow start, in business school terms, Germany is beginning to find its way and MBA recruiters are taking notice, choosing six business schools in the top 100 European business schools (see table 1). Dean Plinke of ESMT, a school created by funding from 25 leading German companies and associations and particularly strong in executive education for middle-level employees of those companies, puts this down to Germany’s “great strength in the automotive industry. Germany is well-known to be a technological innovator,” he says. Professor Dr. Stephan Seiter, Dean of MBA Studies at ESB Reutligen Business School provides a more academic approach. “[Students] study in Germany because the education system is well-organised and the quality of the faculty is high due to a strict selection process. Furthermore, many professors show a high level of experience as they worked in companies for many years, which holds true for ESB too. Germany holds many jobs for MBA students because of its export-oriented industries.” Current students feel that they have stumbled upon a fledgling business management education system too, and that this is to their advantage. “Germany has a tradition of high standards and its industry is famous for its technological innovation, both of which were important to me when choosing a business school and its location for my MBA,” says Indian student Ranjith Sirusanagandl at ESMT in Berlin. Students and academics acknowledge that Germany has some way to go to establish itself as a world leader in this regard, however the smaller class sizes, rigorous academic reputation, opportunity to learn a foreign language and close proximity to financial and industrial giants make it a decent bet for MBA education. Table 1. German business schools in the European top 100, according to the QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice.
Source: QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice
The Bologna Process, designed to level the playing field for education across Europe, has had a complex impact in Germany and divided opinion perhaps more than in any other European country. In Spring 2009, ten years after the process began, there were still protests to Chancellor Angela Merkel against the restructuring of the German education system. The changes to the system had to be radical in many cases. German undergraduate programs, which are legally bound not to charge fees, had previously been based on a five- or six-year diploma system. To some minds, this system encouraged many students to take their time with degrees, often changing between courses and not feeling the pressure to complete courses. On the other hand, many Germans valued the system of education for its own sake, and felt that forcing students into the new three-year system was a mistake. Either way, according to Bärbel Schwertfeger of German-based website mba-channel.com, the result was that, under the previous system, too many Germans left university too old to get the work experience necessary for business school. “After six years study and three years of work experience, this didn’t fit with the German culture, which favours education within a company which the employee would then never leave.”
Internationalism
Germany’s problem attracting international students – though it must be said that, proportionately, most MBA programs in Germany have an enviably high proportion of international students – has been partly down to the accreditation process. Currently Mannheim Business School is the only one to have received the enviable triple-accreditation.
The problem is more to do with time than quality, says Dean Professor Wulff Plinke at ESMT in Berlin. “The key international accrediting bodies, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, take at least three years to accredit a course and it can take a school the same time to even be prepared to apply for accreditation. We’re delighted to have the AMBA accreditation for our course so early.” Sabine Weinheimer of Goethe Business School in Frankfurt agrees and shows that this lack of accreditation heavily affects the performance of business school in the rankings. “Before Bologna, there were not many programs held in English. As a consequence the programs are relatively new and they do not show up in the rankings yet, a circle we are currently breaking out of. It will take a few years before prospective students get a real feeling for what they get out of the [German business] schools. Only then will the market get a boost in awareness which it needs to grow further.” Despite recent bad press, Germany is an extremely multi-cultural nation and very welcoming of international students and workers. The level of English is also generally very high, particularly among the younger generation. However, additional problems lie elsewhere. Says Bärbel Schwertfeger, “if you don’t speak German you can forget about a job [in Germany], even in an international bank and even one that is English-speaking.”
Sabine Weinheimer says, “For foreigners the German education system has a good reputation but mainly among those who seek employment and want to stay in Germany.” However, according to more than one MBA graduate interviewed, work is “difficult to find” in Germany at the moment as the nation suffers from the economic downturn, and this is true “especially for non-German speakers.”
Finding her way
Despite a relatively slow start, in business school terms, Germany is beginning to find its way and MBA recruiters are taking notice, choosing six business schools in the top 100 European business schools (see table 1). Dean Plinke of ESMT, a school created by funding from 25 leading German companies and associations and particularly strong in executive education for middle-level employees of those companies, puts this down to Germany’s “great strength in the automotive industry. Germany is well-known to be a technological innovator,” he says. Professor Dr. Stephan Seiter, Dean of MBA Studies at ESB Reutligen Business School provides a more academic approach. “[Students] study in Germany because the education system is well-organised and the quality of the faculty is high due to a strict selection process. Furthermore, many professors show a high level of experience as they worked in companies for many years, which holds true for ESB too. Germany holds many jobs for MBA students because of its export-oriented industries.” Current students feel that they have stumbled upon a fledgling business management education system too, and that this is to their advantage. “Germany has a tradition of high standards and its industry is famous for its technological innovation, both of which were important to me when choosing a business school and its location for my MBA,” says Indian student Ranjith Sirusanagandl at ESMT in Berlin. Students and academics acknowledge that Germany has some way to go to establish itself as a world leader in this regard, however the smaller class sizes, rigorous academic reputation, opportunity to learn a foreign language and close proximity to financial and industrial giants make it a decent bet for MBA education. Table 1. German business schools in the European top 100, according to the QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice.
| School name | Ranking (Europe) | Avg GMAT | Avg years work exp'ce | Class Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESMT (Berlin) | 37 | 620 | 7 | 28 |
| European Business School | 53 | 500 | 1 | n/a |
| GISMA Business School | 60 | 620 | 5 | 72 |
| HHL-Leipzig GSM | 41 | 595 | 4 | 35 |
| Mannheim Business School | 34 | 600 | 4 | 40 |
| WHU-Otto Beisheim GSM | 38 | 600 | 3 | 20 |
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Thursday, 13 Aug 2009 10:56
A high-wage driven economy and a successful history in business and industry in recent years has also seen her develop into a leading finance centre, particularly in Frankfurt, and with an automotive industry that is the envy of the world. Despite this and its population of over 82 million, large by European standards, Germany is not a powerhouse in terms of business schools and MBA programs. The UK, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Italy all have internationally renowned business schools. So why has powerful Germany lagged so far behind?
Bologna Process
The Bologna Process, designed to level the playing field for education across Europe, has had a complex impact in Germany and divided opinion perhaps more than in any other European country. In Spring 2009, ten years after the process began, there were still protests to Chancellor Angela Merkel against the restructuring of the German education system. The changes to the system had to be radical in many cases. German undergraduate programs, which are legally bound not to charge fees, had previously been based on a five- or six-year diploma system. To some minds, this system encouraged many students to take their time with degrees, often changing between courses and not feeling the pressure to complete courses. On the other hand, many Germans valued the system of education for its own sake, and felt that forcing students into the new three-year system was a mistake. Either way, according to Bärbel Schwertfeger of German-based website mba-channel.com, the result was that, under the previous system, too many Germans left university too old to get the work experience necessary for business school. “After six years study and three years of work experience, this didn’t fit with the German culture, which favours education within a company which the employee would then never leave.”
Internationalism
Germany’s problem attracting international students – though it must be said that, proportionately, most MBA programs in Germany have an enviably high proportion of international students – has been partly down to the accreditation process. Currently Mannheim Business School is the only one to have received the enviable triple-accreditation. The problem is more to do with time than quality, says Dean Professor Wulff Plinke at ESMT in Berlin. “The key international accrediting bodies, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, take at least three years to accredit a course and it can take a school the same time to even be prepared to apply for accreditation. We’re delighted to have the AMBA accreditation for our course so early.” Sabine Weinheimer of Goethe Business School in Frankfurt agrees and shows that this lack of accreditation heavily affects the performance of business school in the rankings. “Before Bologna, there were not many programs held in English. As a consequence the programs are relatively new and they do not show up in the rankings yet, a circle we are currently breaking out of. It will take a few years before prospective students get a real feeling for what they get out of the [German business] schools. Only then will the market get a boost in awareness which it needs to grow further.” Despite recent bad press, Germany is an extremely multi-cultural nation and very welcoming of international students and workers. The level of English is also generally very high, particularly among the younger generation. However, additional problems lie elsewhere. Says Bärbel Schwertfeger, “if you don’t speak German you can forget about a job [in Germany], even in an international bank and even one that is English-speaking.”
Sabine Weinheimer says, “For foreigners the German education system has a good reputation but mainly among those who seek employment and want to stay in Germany.” However, according to more than one MBA graduate interviewed, work is “difficult to find” in Germany at the moment as the nation suffers from the economic downturn, and this is true “especially for non-German speakers.”
Finding her way
Despite a relatively slow start, in business school terms, Germany is beginning to find its way and MBA recruiters are taking notice, choosing six business schools in the top 100 European business schools (see table 1). Dean Plinke of ESMT, a school created by funding from 25 leading German companies and associations and particularly strong in executive education for middle-level employees of those companies, puts this down to Germany’s “great strength in the automotive industry. Germany is well-known to be a technological innovator,” he says. Professor Dr. Stephan Seiter, Dean of MBA Studies at ESB Reutligen Business School provides a more academic approach. “[Students] study in Germany because the education system is well-organised and the quality of the faculty is high due to a strict selection process. Furthermore, many professors show a high level of experience as they worked in companies for many years, which holds true for ESB too. Germany holds many jobs for MBA students because of its export-oriented industries.” Current students feel that they have stumbled upon a fledgling business management education system too, and that this is to their advantage. “Germany has a tradition of high standards and its industry is famous for its technological innovation, both of which were important to me when choosing a business school and its location for my MBA,” says Indian student Ranjith Sirusanagandl at ESMT in Berlin. Students and academics acknowledge that Germany has some way to go to establish itself as a world leader in this regard, however the smaller class sizes, rigorous academic reputation, opportunity to learn a foreign language and close proximity to financial and industrial giants make it a decent bet for MBA education. Table 1. German business schools in the European top 100, according to the QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice.
Source: QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice
The Bologna Process, designed to level the playing field for education across Europe, has had a complex impact in Germany and divided opinion perhaps more than in any other European country. In Spring 2009, ten years after the process began, there were still protests to Chancellor Angela Merkel against the restructuring of the German education system. The changes to the system had to be radical in many cases. German undergraduate programs, which are legally bound not to charge fees, had previously been based on a five- or six-year diploma system. To some minds, this system encouraged many students to take their time with degrees, often changing between courses and not feeling the pressure to complete courses. On the other hand, many Germans valued the system of education for its own sake, and felt that forcing students into the new three-year system was a mistake. Either way, according to Bärbel Schwertfeger of German-based website mba-channel.com, the result was that, under the previous system, too many Germans left university too old to get the work experience necessary for business school. “After six years study and three years of work experience, this didn’t fit with the German culture, which favours education within a company which the employee would then never leave.”
Internationalism
Germany’s problem attracting international students – though it must be said that, proportionately, most MBA programs in Germany have an enviably high proportion of international students – has been partly down to the accreditation process. Currently Mannheim Business School is the only one to have received the enviable triple-accreditation. The problem is more to do with time than quality, says Dean Professor Wulff Plinke at ESMT in Berlin. “The key international accrediting bodies, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, take at least three years to accredit a course and it can take a school the same time to even be prepared to apply for accreditation. We’re delighted to have the AMBA accreditation for our course so early.” Sabine Weinheimer of Goethe Business School in Frankfurt agrees and shows that this lack of accreditation heavily affects the performance of business school in the rankings. “Before Bologna, there were not many programs held in English. As a consequence the programs are relatively new and they do not show up in the rankings yet, a circle we are currently breaking out of. It will take a few years before prospective students get a real feeling for what they get out of the [German business] schools. Only then will the market get a boost in awareness which it needs to grow further.” Despite recent bad press, Germany is an extremely multi-cultural nation and very welcoming of international students and workers. The level of English is also generally very high, particularly among the younger generation. However, additional problems lie elsewhere. Says Bärbel Schwertfeger, “if you don’t speak German you can forget about a job [in Germany], even in an international bank and even one that is English-speaking.”
Sabine Weinheimer says, “For foreigners the German education system has a good reputation but mainly among those who seek employment and want to stay in Germany.” However, according to more than one MBA graduate interviewed, work is “difficult to find” in Germany at the moment as the nation suffers from the economic downturn, and this is true “especially for non-German speakers.”
Finding her way
Despite a relatively slow start, in business school terms, Germany is beginning to find its way and MBA recruiters are taking notice, choosing six business schools in the top 100 European business schools (see table 1). Dean Plinke of ESMT, a school created by funding from 25 leading German companies and associations and particularly strong in executive education for middle-level employees of those companies, puts this down to Germany’s “great strength in the automotive industry. Germany is well-known to be a technological innovator,” he says. Professor Dr. Stephan Seiter, Dean of MBA Studies at ESB Reutligen Business School provides a more academic approach. “[Students] study in Germany because the education system is well-organised and the quality of the faculty is high due to a strict selection process. Furthermore, many professors show a high level of experience as they worked in companies for many years, which holds true for ESB too. Germany holds many jobs for MBA students because of its export-oriented industries.” Current students feel that they have stumbled upon a fledgling business management education system too, and that this is to their advantage. “Germany has a tradition of high standards and its industry is famous for its technological innovation, both of which were important to me when choosing a business school and its location for my MBA,” says Indian student Ranjith Sirusanagandl at ESMT in Berlin. Students and academics acknowledge that Germany has some way to go to establish itself as a world leader in this regard, however the smaller class sizes, rigorous academic reputation, opportunity to learn a foreign language and close proximity to financial and industrial giants make it a decent bet for MBA education. Table 1. German business schools in the European top 100, according to the QS Global 200 Business Schools 2009: The Employers’ Choice.
| School name | Ranking (Europe) | Avg GMAT | Avg years work exp'ce | Class Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESMT (Berlin) | 37 | 620 | 7 | 28 |
| European Business School | 53 | 500 | 1 | n/a |
| GISMA Business School | 60 | 620 | 5 | 72 |
| HHL-Leipzig GSM | 41 | 595 | 4 | 35 |
| Mannheim Business School | 34 | 600 | 4 | 40 |
| WHU-Otto Beisheim GSM | 38 | 600 | 3 | 20 |
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2009 09:08
Racism, when and wherever it rears its ugly head, is inexcusable, yet it is particularly deplorable when one specific nationality is singled out for verbal or physical assaults. This indicates a level of ignorance from which, sadly, almost all countries suffer to some extent. Australia is no exception.
Popularity
Indians have been going to Australia for decades to study. It is relatively close geographically, it is Anglophone, well developed and with a high level of opportunities for postgraduate careers and affordable, high quality education. Indeed, Indians responding to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009 – the most exhaustive survey of its kind, surveying thousands of MBA candidates worldwide – shows that Australia comes joint third with Canada, behind only the US and UK, in terms of business school popularity for candidates considering studying overseas.
The reasons for these attacks will be long discussed, both within and without the Australian education sphere, but their severity prompted thousands of Indians to take to the streets of Melbourne in late June 2009 to protest about their complaints going unheeded, not just over recent weeks but for years. Alleged police insensitivity to the attacks further alienated the Indian population when the police allegedly used a heavy-handed approach during the Melbourne demonstration.
Reputation
There seems little doubt that these recent attacks have done some well-documented and perhaps long-term damage to Australia’s reputation among Indian students considering studying there. Professor John Glynn of the University of Wollongong, Sydney, says: “We are of course concerned that such incidents will damage brand ‘Australia’.”
Australian educators have every right to be concerned. There are upwards of 90,000 Indian students in Australia already and, if QS topmba.com projections are accurate, this figure would in normal conditions continue to increase year on year. It is a highly lucrative industry for the country’s economy too, and the government is taking the situation seriously enough that the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, commented on the problem and spoke to the Indian Prime Minister about it. “I speak on behalf of all Australians when say I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks," he said.
"I said to Prime Minister Singh that the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country.”
The situation is serious. One student, Resham Singh, was attacked in Melbourne where youths tore off his turban and tried to cut off his hair, while taunting him verbally. "They were saying, 'you Indians, we hate you, we will kill you,'" the 22-year-old hospitality student said. "How can we stay here? I can't feel safe here. I have never seen police here (at the train station)."
Safety
However, heads of educational establishments in Australia are going to great lengths to emphasize the high levels of safety for international students on their campuses. Professor Glyn Davis, of the University of Melbourne, says: “While Melbourne's reputation in this regard has, unfortunately, been tarnished by these recent events, it is my hope that our school will remain a welcoming and safe place for people of all nations.”
Professor Glynn at the University of Wollongong concurs: “We will be doubling our efforts to assure all international students that they can expect a very positive experience with our School. Two of my colleagues will be at both rounds of the QS World MBA fairs to be held later this year in India to underline this commitment and to address any concerns personally.”
Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of QS and the QS World MBA Tour and is firm on the company’s zero tolerance approach to racism: “QS as a company places cultural sensitivity and tolerance as a core value, reflecting the attitudes of the education industry as a whole. Australian universities have a long history of being very welcoming to international students of all nationalities, and providing excellent support services. Incidents of racial discrimination will be condemned by those in positions of responsibility in the Australian university system.
In Australia itself, both sides of the debate are trying to play down the racist element of the attacks. In Sydney, Assistant Police Commissioner Dave Owens said: "I don't believe at this point in time it is racially motivated. I believe these were random acts which unfortunately have escalated.”
Some members of the Indian community concur: Dr Yadu Singh, a prominent member of Sydney's Indian community, said: "I don't think really there is a war going on between two races or two communities. But Indian students are not starting the fight, they are not going out to commit crime, so who is doing it? That is what the police have to find out.''
At the highest levels, the suggestion of racism is being downplayed. Sujatha Singh, India's High Commissioner to Australia, said she didn't believe that Australia is a racist country.
"There have been remarks in the press to that effect - I don't think that Australia is a racist society,'' she said. However, she added that there were elements in Australia that held "racist attitudes'' and that Victoria Police had sometimes displayed a "lack of sensitivity'' towards Indian students who had been victims of crime.
Future
While this has inflamed some passions – there are those who believe that the attacks are fundamentally racially motivated – the result for potential students going to Australia remain the same. Whether Indian students find their belief in the Australian system deeply shaken remains to be seen, but educators and the media will be keeping a close eye on developments over the forthcoming months.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, from QS, an expert in the education world, believes that the problem will be dealt with in Australia. “My expectation is that the Australian authorities will act to stamp out racism on campuses and that the thousands of Indian students in Australia will continue to have a very positive educational experience. If the Australian authorities act decisively now, then it is unlikely there will be any long term damage to Indian student recruitment into Australian universities. However, if the situation does persist, universities in other countries will gladly welcome additional Indian students.”
Popularity
Indians have been going to Australia for decades to study. It is relatively close geographically, it is Anglophone, well developed and with a high level of opportunities for postgraduate careers and affordable, high quality education. Indeed, Indians responding to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009 – the most exhaustive survey of its kind, surveying thousands of MBA candidates worldwide – shows that Australia comes joint third with Canada, behind only the US and UK, in terms of business school popularity for candidates considering studying overseas.
The reasons for these attacks will be long discussed, both within and without the Australian education sphere, but their severity prompted thousands of Indians to take to the streets of Melbourne in late June 2009 to protest about their complaints going unheeded, not just over recent weeks but for years. Alleged police insensitivity to the attacks further alienated the Indian population when the police allegedly used a heavy-handed approach during the Melbourne demonstration.
Reputation
There seems little doubt that these recent attacks have done some well-documented and perhaps long-term damage to Australia’s reputation among Indian students considering studying there. Professor John Glynn of the University of Wollongong, Sydney, says: “We are of course concerned that such incidents will damage brand ‘Australia’.”
Australian educators have every right to be concerned. There are upwards of 90,000 Indian students in Australia already and, if QS topmba.com projections are accurate, this figure would in normal conditions continue to increase year on year. It is a highly lucrative industry for the country’s economy too, and the government is taking the situation seriously enough that the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, commented on the problem and spoke to the Indian Prime Minister about it. “I speak on behalf of all Australians when say I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks," he said.
"I said to Prime Minister Singh that the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country.”
The situation is serious. One student, Resham Singh, was attacked in Melbourne where youths tore off his turban and tried to cut off his hair, while taunting him verbally. "They were saying, 'you Indians, we hate you, we will kill you,'" the 22-year-old hospitality student said. "How can we stay here? I can't feel safe here. I have never seen police here (at the train station)."
Safety
However, heads of educational establishments in Australia are going to great lengths to emphasize the high levels of safety for international students on their campuses. Professor Glyn Davis, of the University of Melbourne, says: “While Melbourne's reputation in this regard has, unfortunately, been tarnished by these recent events, it is my hope that our school will remain a welcoming and safe place for people of all nations.”
Professor Glynn at the University of Wollongong concurs: “We will be doubling our efforts to assure all international students that they can expect a very positive experience with our School. Two of my colleagues will be at both rounds of the QS World MBA fairs to be held later this year in India to underline this commitment and to address any concerns personally.”
Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of QS and the QS World MBA Tour and is firm on the company’s zero tolerance approach to racism: “QS as a company places cultural sensitivity and tolerance as a core value, reflecting the attitudes of the education industry as a whole. Australian universities have a long history of being very welcoming to international students of all nationalities, and providing excellent support services. Incidents of racial discrimination will be condemned by those in positions of responsibility in the Australian university system.
In Australia itself, both sides of the debate are trying to play down the racist element of the attacks. In Sydney, Assistant Police Commissioner Dave Owens said: "I don't believe at this point in time it is racially motivated. I believe these were random acts which unfortunately have escalated.”
Some members of the Indian community concur: Dr Yadu Singh, a prominent member of Sydney's Indian community, said: "I don't think really there is a war going on between two races or two communities. But Indian students are not starting the fight, they are not going out to commit crime, so who is doing it? That is what the police have to find out.''
At the highest levels, the suggestion of racism is being downplayed. Sujatha Singh, India's High Commissioner to Australia, said she didn't believe that Australia is a racist country.
"There have been remarks in the press to that effect - I don't think that Australia is a racist society,'' she said. However, she added that there were elements in Australia that held "racist attitudes'' and that Victoria Police had sometimes displayed a "lack of sensitivity'' towards Indian students who had been victims of crime.
Future
While this has inflamed some passions – there are those who believe that the attacks are fundamentally racially motivated – the result for potential students going to Australia remain the same. Whether Indian students find their belief in the Australian system deeply shaken remains to be seen, but educators and the media will be keeping a close eye on developments over the forthcoming months.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, from QS, an expert in the education world, believes that the problem will be dealt with in Australia. “My expectation is that the Australian authorities will act to stamp out racism on campuses and that the thousands of Indian students in Australia will continue to have a very positive educational experience. If the Australian authorities act decisively now, then it is unlikely there will be any long term damage to Indian student recruitment into Australian universities. However, if the situation does persist, universities in other countries will gladly welcome additional Indian students.”
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Destinations, International Study A..."
Date: Friday, 07 Aug 2009 09:08
Racism, when and wherever it rears its ugly head, is inexcusable, yet it is particularly deplorable when one specific nationality is singled out for verbal or physical assaults. This indicates a level of ignorance from which, sadly, almost all countries suffer to some extent. Australia is no exception.
Popularity
Indians have been going to Australia for decades to study. It is relatively close geographically, it is Anglophone, well developed and with a high level of opportunities for postgraduate careers and affordable, high quality education. Indeed, Indians responding to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009 – the most exhaustive survey of its kind, surveying thousands of MBA candidates worldwide – shows that Australia comes joint third with Canada, behind only the US and UK, in terms of business school popularity for candidates considering studying overseas.
The reasons for these attacks will be long discussed, both within and without the Australian education sphere, but their severity prompted thousands of Indians to take to the streets of Melbourne in late June 2009 to protest about their complaints going unheeded, not just over recent weeks but for years. Alleged police insensitivity to the attacks further alienated the Indian population when the police allegedly used a heavy-handed approach during the Melbourne demonstration.
Reputation
There seems little doubt that these recent attacks have done some well-documented and perhaps long-term damage to Australia’s reputation among Indian students considering studying there. Professor John Glynn of the University of Wollongong, Sydney, says: “We are of course concerned that such incidents will damage brand ‘Australia’.”
Australian educators have every right to be concerned. There are upwards of 90,000 Indian students in Australia already and, if QS topmba.com projections are accurate, this figure would in normal conditions continue to increase year on year. It is a highly lucrative industry for the country’s economy too, and the government is taking the situation seriously enough that the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, commented on the problem and spoke to the Indian Prime Minister about it. “I speak on behalf of all Australians when say I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks," he said.
"I said to Prime Minister Singh that the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country.”
The situation is serious. One student, Resham Singh, was attacked in Melbourne where youths tore off his turban and tried to cut off his hair, while taunting him verbally. "They were saying, 'you Indians, we hate you, we will kill you,'" the 22-year-old hospitality student said. "How can we stay here? I can't feel safe here. I have never seen police here (at the train station)."
Safety
However, heads of educational establishments in Australia are going to great lengths to emphasize the high levels of safety for international students on their campuses. Professor Glyn Davis, of the University of Melbourne, says: “While Melbourne's reputation in this regard has, unfortunately, been tarnished by these recent events, it is my hope that our school will remain a welcoming and safe place for people of all nations.”
Professor Glynn at the University of Wollongong concurs: “We will be doubling our efforts to assure all international students that they can expect a very positive experience with our School. Two of my colleagues will be at both rounds of the QS World MBA fairs to be held later this year in India to underline this commitment and to address any concerns personally.”
Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of QS and the QS World MBA Tour and is firm on the company’s zero tolerance approach to racism: “QS as a company places cultural sensitivity and tolerance as a core value, reflecting the attitudes of the education industry as a whole. Australian universities have a long history of being very welcoming to international students of all nationalities, and providing excellent support services. Incidents of racial discrimination will be condemned by those in positions of responsibility in the Australian university system.
In Australia itself, both sides of the debate are trying to play down the racist element of the attacks. In Sydney, Assistant Police Commissioner Dave Owens said: "I don't believe at this point in time it is racially motivated. I believe these were random acts which unfortunately have escalated.”
Some members of the Indian community concur: Dr Yadu Singh, a prominent member of Sydney's Indian community, said: "I don't think really there is a war going on between two races or two communities. But Indian students are not starting the fight, they are not going out to commit crime, so who is doing it? That is what the police have to find out.''
At the highest levels, the suggestion of racism is being downplayed. Sujatha Singh, India's High Commissioner to Australia, said she didn't believe that Australia is a racist country.
"There have been remarks in the press to that effect - I don't think that Australia is a racist society,'' she said. However, she added that there were elements in Australia that held "racist attitudes'' and that Victoria Police had sometimes displayed a "lack of sensitivity'' towards Indian students who had been victims of crime.
Future
While this has inflamed some passions – there are those who believe that the attacks are fundamentally racially motivated – the result for potential students going to Australia remain the same. Whether Indian students find their belief in the Australian system deeply shaken remains to be seen, but educators and the media will be keeping a close eye on developments over the forthcoming months.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, from QS, an expert in the education world, believes that the problem will be dealt with in Australia. “My expectation is that the Australian authorities will act to stamp out racism on campuses and that the thousands of Indian students in Australia will continue to have a very positive educational experience. If the Australian authorities act decisively now, then it is unlikely there will be any long term damage to Indian student recruitment into Australian universities. However, if the situation does persist, universities in other countries will gladly welcome additional Indian students.”
Popularity
Indians have been going to Australia for decades to study. It is relatively close geographically, it is Anglophone, well developed and with a high level of opportunities for postgraduate careers and affordable, high quality education. Indeed, Indians responding to the QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey 2009 – the most exhaustive survey of its kind, surveying thousands of MBA candidates worldwide – shows that Australia comes joint third with Canada, behind only the US and UK, in terms of business school popularity for candidates considering studying overseas.
The reasons for these attacks will be long discussed, both within and without the Australian education sphere, but their severity prompted thousands of Indians to take to the streets of Melbourne in late June 2009 to protest about their complaints going unheeded, not just over recent weeks but for years. Alleged police insensitivity to the attacks further alienated the Indian population when the police allegedly used a heavy-handed approach during the Melbourne demonstration.
Reputation
There seems little doubt that these recent attacks have done some well-documented and perhaps long-term damage to Australia’s reputation among Indian students considering studying there. Professor John Glynn of the University of Wollongong, Sydney, says: “We are of course concerned that such incidents will damage brand ‘Australia’.”
Australian educators have every right to be concerned. There are upwards of 90,000 Indian students in Australia already and, if QS topmba.com projections are accurate, this figure would in normal conditions continue to increase year on year. It is a highly lucrative industry for the country’s economy too, and the government is taking the situation seriously enough that the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, commented on the problem and spoke to the Indian Prime Minister about it. “I speak on behalf of all Australians when say I say that we deplore and condemn these attacks," he said.
"I said to Prime Minister Singh that the more than 90,000 Indian students in Australia are welcome guests in our country.”
The situation is serious. One student, Resham Singh, was attacked in Melbourne where youths tore off his turban and tried to cut off his hair, while taunting him verbally. "They were saying, 'you Indians, we hate you, we will kill you,'" the 22-year-old hospitality student said. "How can we stay here? I can't feel safe here. I have never seen police here (at the train station)."
Safety
However, heads of educational establishments in Australia are going to great lengths to emphasize the high levels of safety for international students on their campuses. Professor Glyn Davis, of the University of Melbourne, says: “While Melbourne's reputation in this regard has, unfortunately, been tarnished by these recent events, it is my hope that our school will remain a welcoming and safe place for people of all nations.”
Professor Glynn at the University of Wollongong concurs: “We will be doubling our efforts to assure all international students that they can expect a very positive experience with our School. Two of my colleagues will be at both rounds of the QS World MBA fairs to be held later this year in India to underline this commitment and to address any concerns personally.”
Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of QS and the QS World MBA Tour and is firm on the company’s zero tolerance approach to racism: “QS as a company places cultural sensitivity and tolerance as a core value, reflecting the attitudes of the education industry as a whole. Australian universities have a long history of being very welcoming to international students of all nationalities, and providing excellent support services. Incidents of racial discrimination will be condemned by those in positions of responsibility in the Australian university system.
In Australia itself, both sides of the debate are trying to play down the racist element of the attacks. In Sydney, Assistant Police Commissioner Dave Owens said: "I don't believe at this point in time it is racially motivated. I believe these were random acts which unfortunately have escalated.”
Some members of the Indian community concur: Dr Yadu Singh, a prominent member of Sydney's Indian community, said: "I don't think really there is a war going on between two races or two communities. But Indian students are not starting the fight, they are not going out to commit crime, so who is doing it? That is what the police have to find out.''
At the highest levels, the suggestion of racism is being downplayed. Sujatha Singh, India's High Commissioner to Australia, said she didn't believe that Australia is a racist country.
"There have been remarks in the press to that effect - I don't think that Australia is a racist society,'' she said. However, she added that there were elements in Australia that held "racist attitudes'' and that Victoria Police had sometimes displayed a "lack of sensitivity'' towards Indian students who had been victims of crime.
Future
While this has inflamed some passions – there are those who believe that the attacks are fundamentally racially motivated – the result for potential students going to Australia remain the same. Whether Indian students find their belief in the Australian system deeply shaken remains to be seen, but educators and the media will be keeping a close eye on developments over the forthcoming months.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, from QS, an expert in the education world, believes that the problem will be dealt with in Australia. “My expectation is that the Australian authorities will act to stamp out racism on campuses and that the thousands of Indian students in Australia will continue to have a very positive educational experience. If the Australian authorities act decisively now, then it is unlikely there will be any long term damage to Indian student recruitment into Australian universities. However, if the situation does persist, universities in other countries will gladly welcome additional Indian students.”
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Destinations, International Study A..."
Date: Tuesday, 04 Aug 2009 08:37
The Outlook for top North American full-time MBA programs looks stable as we approach global economic recovery in the next two years. From what I know of other schools, and certainly at Tuck, the top programs will have outstanding incoming full-time MBA classes for the Fall of ’09. Most schools report steady numbers of applications as compared to 2008. Board scores, undergraduate GPAs, quality of work experience, and diversity of the classes all seem roughly on par with recent years and close to all-time highs.
Many colleges and universities do have budgetary problems due to cutbacks by governments, reduced support for part-time programs by companies, reduced endowment earnings and reduced executive education profits; but the budgetary constraints do not seem to have major affects on the actual learning experiences of full-time MBA students in the top programs.
Management education
At Tuck, we will weather the downturn without layoffs or furloughs, and none of our teaching programs are being changed during the crisis. But, as is always the case in a major financial crisis, there are many lessons to be learned for the betterment of business leadership education. I discuss several of these “learnings” and what I believe they mean for management education:
1. While I believe that the current crisis is not fundamentally one of personal ethical violations defined in the traditional way, there was irresponsibility on the part of certain CEO’s, regulators, politicians, etc. They displayed a lack of the full acceptance of and perhaps even the full knowledge of their responsibilities to all constituents. “Ethics” coverage in business schools must be expanded to embrace the full responsibility span a leader takes on. Being unprepared, not having sufficient depth of knowledge of certain employed theories, not being brave enough to protest practices that are not fully understood, and in general not taking a broad enough view of one’s responsibilities, should all be construed as violations of a leader’s business ethics. Business school coverage of the full meaning of ethics therefore must be expanded.
2. Another crucial area of coverage has deteriorated over the last several decades, and that is having MBA students closely and carefully analyze the process by which theories and findings are developed. Helping students develop a “critical analysis mindset” by close exposure to top thinkers should be a goal of all top schools. A business leader, in addition to having a broad knowledge of business issues and the confidence to act decisively, must also have an intellectual approach that is continually curious and questioning. For instance, in the current crisis, accepted theories and findings were given too much unquestioning acceptance—those relating to the value of leverage, free markets being self-correcting, less regulation always being better than more regulation, the adequacy of existing risk analysis techniques, and many more. An MBA program therefore must give students more personal access to faculty expertise and the process by which that expertise is developed. This requires a new kind of coverage where the knowledge creation process is opened up to the students. Students must develop a critical analysis mindset as part of the tool kit they will need in order to grapple with the complexities of the world.
Demographics Will the crisis change the demographics of the students who apply for full-time MBA programs? I don’t believe so, because the benefits to a 25-year to 30-year-old in terms of career prospects is so great and the ability to change one’s career and life are so powerful, that there will be a continuing demand at the highest level for this type of program. I believe that ample loans and scholarships are available and employers will continue to demand mature, experienced and well-educated young leaders.
Of course, employment opportunities will reflect the real world of business. In bad times for finance, graduates tend to reduce their emphasis in that area as we have seen this last year. But even in the worst of years for financial services, our placements in that area only dropped from 35% to about 25% of the class. Areas as important as financial services and strategic consulting will often shrink in downturns, but they do not disappear and they surely will grow in the good times ahead. In recent years there has been growing interest in health-care related industries and in not-for-profits. The diversity of employment opportunities has grown considerably in recent years. One source of new employers of top MBA graduates is the growing number of large and sophisticated global firms, many of which are not based in North America.
One of the great benefits of the North American two-year MBA programs is the paid summer internship in which students are recruited by businesses to work along with permanent employees for two or three months. MBA students can use this time to test their interest in an industry and quite often interns do get offers of employment after graduation. At Tuck virtually all of our students get summer internships and about 50% of our students take permanent jobs with their summer intern company.
In general, during this crisis and afterwards, I see full-time MBA programs remaining the “flagships” of business education, because of their very positive return on investment and their providing students with such attractive career-changing options. In summary, two reforms that I see as coming out of the crisis are: expanding ethics coverage to include the full span of leadership responsibilities and putting more emphasis on exposing student to faculty expertise in a deeper and more personal way.
Management education
At Tuck, we will weather the downturn without layoffs or furloughs, and none of our teaching programs are being changed during the crisis. But, as is always the case in a major financial crisis, there are many lessons to be learned for the betterment of business leadership education. I discuss several of these “learnings” and what I believe they mean for management education:
1. While I believe that the current crisis is not fundamentally one of personal ethical violations defined in the traditional way, there was irresponsibility on the part of certain CEO’s, regulators, politicians, etc. They displayed a lack of the full acceptance of and perhaps even the full knowledge of their responsibilities to all constituents. “Ethics” coverage in business schools must be expanded to embrace the full responsibility span a leader takes on. Being unprepared, not having sufficient depth of knowledge of certain employed theories, not being brave enough to protest practices that are not fully understood, and in general not taking a broad enough view of one’s responsibilities, should all be construed as violations of a leader’s business ethics. Business school coverage of the full meaning of ethics therefore must be expanded.
2. Another crucial area of coverage has deteriorated over the last several decades, and that is having MBA students closely and carefully analyze the process by which theories and findings are developed. Helping students develop a “critical analysis mindset” by close exposure to top thinkers should be a goal of all top schools. A business leader, in addition to having a broad knowledge of business issues and the confidence to act decisively, must also have an intellectual approach that is continually curious and questioning. For instance, in the current crisis, accepted theories and findings were given too much unquestioning acceptance—those relating to the value of leverage, free markets being self-correcting, less regulation always being better than more regulation, the adequacy of existing risk analysis techniques, and many more. An MBA program therefore must give students more personal access to faculty expertise and the process by which that expertise is developed. This requires a new kind of coverage where the knowledge creation process is opened up to the students. Students must develop a critical analysis mindset as part of the tool kit they will need in order to grapple with the complexities of the world.
Demographics Will the crisis change the demographics of the students who apply for full-time MBA programs? I don’t believe so, because the benefits to a 25-year to 30-year-old in terms of career prospects is so great and the ability to change one’s career and life are so powerful, that there will be a continuing demand at the highest level for this type of program. I believe that ample loans and scholarships are available and employers will continue to demand mature, experienced and well-educated young leaders.
Of course, employment opportunities will reflect the real world of business. In bad times for finance, graduates tend to reduce their emphasis in that area as we have seen this last year. But even in the worst of years for financial services, our placements in that area only dropped from 35% to about 25% of the class. Areas as important as financial services and strategic consulting will often shrink in downturns, but they do not disappear and they surely will grow in the good times ahead. In recent years there has been growing interest in health-care related industries and in not-for-profits. The diversity of employment opportunities has grown considerably in recent years. One source of new employers of top MBA graduates is the growing number of large and sophisticated global firms, many of which are not based in North America.
One of the great benefits of the North American two-year MBA programs is the paid summer internship in which students are recruited by businesses to work along with permanent employees for two or three months. MBA students can use this time to test their interest in an industry and quite often interns do get offers of employment after graduation. At Tuck virtually all of our students get summer internships and about 50% of our students take permanent jobs with their summer intern company.
In general, during this crisis and afterwards, I see full-time MBA programs remaining the “flagships” of business education, because of their very positive return on investment and their providing students with such attractive career-changing options. In summary, two reforms that I see as coming out of the crisis are: expanding ethics coverage to include the full span of leadership responsibilities and putting more emphasis on exposing student to faculty expertise in a deeper and more personal way.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, MBA News, USA and Canada"
Date: Tuesday, 04 Aug 2009 08:28
Finding the right business school out of a list that tops 8,000 internationally isn’t easy. For every MBA candidate there are numerous reasons for short-listing one school and not another. At QS topmba.com, the world’s leading website for MBA information, we encourage candidates to spend significant time thinking about their personal interests and limitations to ensure their chosen school is the right one for them. Not every school suits every candidate, no matter how high their GMAT score or how well-ranked the school might be.
Accreditation is a process that business schools volunteer for in order to get public recognition they have achieved a certain standard of education. Most business schools are accredited to some level, so it is worth asking an unaccredited school why they haven’t chosen that route. There are three international accreditation bodies. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), started as a body accrediting US and Canadian business schools, although it now accredits schools outside North America.
The European Fund for Management Development (EFMD), has its accrediting body, EQUIS, which now accredits outside the European Union. Both accreditation bodies look at, and accredit, the school as a whole, taking in big picture issues such as resources, quality of faculty, and programs on offer. Generally speaking EQUIS has a strong focus on business school diversity, largely as a result of its pan-European background. It also includes Executive MBA and part-time programs. For the AACSB, which accredits full-time MBAs, how a school uses its resources to bring it up to a top level is more important. The third body, the Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in the UK, accredits individual MBA programs rather than the school as a whole. There are other accrediting bodies but these operate on a local level. The Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), for example, accredits business schools in the Central European region.
So how important is it for an MBA candidate to consider accredited programs above unaccredited ones? Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of the QS World MBA Tour. For the last 14 years, QS has taken top-level accredited business schools on tour to over 65 cities worldwide to meet MBA candidates. For Quacquarelli, accreditation is important, as long as the candidate’s expectations are realistic. “Accreditation provides a threshold of standard for business schools,” he says. “The specific focus of each board is quite different so they are measuring different things. A candidate needs to understand what accreditation a school or program has received and why, before making their decision. It is important that a school is accredited either locally or internationally.” Durham Business School in the UK, is one of only 34 international business schools, of which 29 regularly attend the QS World MBA Tour, to be triple-accredited by the AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. The school’s Dean, Rob Dixon, says attaining all three kitemarks takes a business school a great deal of commitment and hard work but it is something that many top MBA programs strive for, at significant cost and effort. “There is no doubt that the independent endorsement and credibility of an accreditation kitemark is a standard of excellence worth striving for,” Dixon says. “In today’s crowded MBA market it [accreditation] provides students with a useful benchmark and starting point when deciding which schools to consider. However, one of the most important points about any accreditation is that it demonstrates a real commitment to quality and a process of continuous improvement and development.” Jerry Trapnell, chief accreditation officer from the AACSB, based in Florida, stresses that accrediting bodies are co-operative and not in competition with each other, due to their different philosophies and methodologies. “We have great respect for EQUIS accreditation and the schools that have earned it. EQUIS accreditation standards have a strong focus on how schools address internationalization among curricula, faculty, and students of the business school as well as relationships with corporations/businesses. AACSB clearly expects schools to prepare their graduates for work in the global economy and to seek appropriate input and counsel from various stakeholders to include employers, alumni, students, and faculty; however, we grant significant latitude on how this is accomplished.” The accreditation process is extremely involved, from start to finish, and can take schools years to rise to the specific challenges set. In return, schools get the benefit of peer review by three top-level deans from other business schools, says Xavier Mendoza, Director General of ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a long-term member of the AACSB. “A school will have a say in which deans become members of their peer review team and so top schools attract very interesting/experienced deans to review them. The advice those deans bring to the school seeking accreditation is very valuable.” Critics Accreditation is not without its critics. Some senior members of business schools question the long-term results of accreditation. One senior business school representative in Europe speculated whether a hidden result of accreditation could be that schools, which thrive on differentiating themselves in terms of school culture and education, “might be at risk of becoming too similar to one another as a result of the system of benchmarking so regularly and deeply.” This is not a concern for Mendoza, however, who believes that the good outweighs the bad. “Accreditation is a system of governance by the education industry in order to raise standards by allowing a framework of accountability within a school and also with its peers. While it does make schools conform to a pre-requisite level, accreditation also makes schools compete on quality and not simply on cost, which can only be a good thing. And it creates a need for top-quality second and third tier schools to cater for the students who don’t make it into the very highest sphere of business schools.” IE’s Michael Aldous agrees. “Frankly, I do not believe that top accreditation systems jeopardise the identity of schools. The accredited schools under AMBA, for example, vary substantially in terms of mission, program range and resources. Some are more innovative and others more traditional. This diversity contributes to the richness of the system.” Accreditation, while important, is not the only criteria that candidates should look for. It’s impossible to accredit a school culture, for example, and it can only offer hints about the quality of non-faculty staff, such as careers advisors who also play a part in the MBA experience. “Accreditation harmonizes on the quality of education, but candidates can, and should, still choose on any number of other issues which accreditation does not touch on. For example their approach to CSR and sustainability issues,” Mendoza says. To learn more about accreditation and to visit hundreds of accredited business schools from around the world, go to www.topmba.com and register for the QS World MBA Tour at a city near you.
The European Fund for Management Development (EFMD), has its accrediting body, EQUIS, which now accredits outside the European Union. Both accreditation bodies look at, and accredit, the school as a whole, taking in big picture issues such as resources, quality of faculty, and programs on offer. Generally speaking EQUIS has a strong focus on business school diversity, largely as a result of its pan-European background. It also includes Executive MBA and part-time programs. For the AACSB, which accredits full-time MBAs, how a school uses its resources to bring it up to a top level is more important. The third body, the Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in the UK, accredits individual MBA programs rather than the school as a whole. There are other accrediting bodies but these operate on a local level. The Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), for example, accredits business schools in the Central European region.
So how important is it for an MBA candidate to consider accredited programs above unaccredited ones? Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of the QS World MBA Tour. For the last 14 years, QS has taken top-level accredited business schools on tour to over 65 cities worldwide to meet MBA candidates. For Quacquarelli, accreditation is important, as long as the candidate’s expectations are realistic. “Accreditation provides a threshold of standard for business schools,” he says. “The specific focus of each board is quite different so they are measuring different things. A candidate needs to understand what accreditation a school or program has received and why, before making their decision. It is important that a school is accredited either locally or internationally.” Durham Business School in the UK, is one of only 34 international business schools, of which 29 regularly attend the QS World MBA Tour, to be triple-accredited by the AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. The school’s Dean, Rob Dixon, says attaining all three kitemarks takes a business school a great deal of commitment and hard work but it is something that many top MBA programs strive for, at significant cost and effort. “There is no doubt that the independent endorsement and credibility of an accreditation kitemark is a standard of excellence worth striving for,” Dixon says. “In today’s crowded MBA market it [accreditation] provides students with a useful benchmark and starting point when deciding which schools to consider. However, one of the most important points about any accreditation is that it demonstrates a real commitment to quality and a process of continuous improvement and development.” Jerry Trapnell, chief accreditation officer from the AACSB, based in Florida, stresses that accrediting bodies are co-operative and not in competition with each other, due to their different philosophies and methodologies. “We have great respect for EQUIS accreditation and the schools that have earned it. EQUIS accreditation standards have a strong focus on how schools address internationalization among curricula, faculty, and students of the business school as well as relationships with corporations/businesses. AACSB clearly expects schools to prepare their graduates for work in the global economy and to seek appropriate input and counsel from various stakeholders to include employers, alumni, students, and faculty; however, we grant significant latitude on how this is accomplished.” The accreditation process is extremely involved, from start to finish, and can take schools years to rise to the specific challenges set. In return, schools get the benefit of peer review by three top-level deans from other business schools, says Xavier Mendoza, Director General of ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a long-term member of the AACSB. “A school will have a say in which deans become members of their peer review team and so top schools attract very interesting/experienced deans to review them. The advice those deans bring to the school seeking accreditation is very valuable.” Critics Accreditation is not without its critics. Some senior members of business schools question the long-term results of accreditation. One senior business school representative in Europe speculated whether a hidden result of accreditation could be that schools, which thrive on differentiating themselves in terms of school culture and education, “might be at risk of becoming too similar to one another as a result of the system of benchmarking so regularly and deeply.” This is not a concern for Mendoza, however, who believes that the good outweighs the bad. “Accreditation is a system of governance by the education industry in order to raise standards by allowing a framework of accountability within a school and also with its peers. While it does make schools conform to a pre-requisite level, accreditation also makes schools compete on quality and not simply on cost, which can only be a good thing. And it creates a need for top-quality second and third tier schools to cater for the students who don’t make it into the very highest sphere of business schools.” IE’s Michael Aldous agrees. “Frankly, I do not believe that top accreditation systems jeopardise the identity of schools. The accredited schools under AMBA, for example, vary substantially in terms of mission, program range and resources. Some are more innovative and others more traditional. This diversity contributes to the richness of the system.” Accreditation, while important, is not the only criteria that candidates should look for. It’s impossible to accredit a school culture, for example, and it can only offer hints about the quality of non-faculty staff, such as careers advisors who also play a part in the MBA experience. “Accreditation harmonizes on the quality of education, but candidates can, and should, still choose on any number of other issues which accreditation does not touch on. For example their approach to CSR and sustainability issues,” Mendoza says. To learn more about accreditation and to visit hundreds of accredited business schools from around the world, go to www.topmba.com and register for the QS World MBA Tour at a city near you.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA"
Date: Friday, 31 Jul 2009 12:58
Finding the right business school out of a list that tops 8,000 internationally isn’t easy. For every MBA candidate there are numerous reasons for short-listing one school and not another. At QS topmba.com, the world’s leading website for MBA information, we encourage candidates to spend significant time thinking about their personal interests and limitations to ensure their chosen school is the right one for them. Not every school suits every candidate, no matter how high their GMAT score or how well-ranked the school might be.
Accreditation is a process that business schools volunteer for in order to get public recognition they have achieved a certain standard of education. Most business schools are accredited to some level, so it is worth asking an unaccredited school why they haven’t chosen that route. There are three international accreditation bodies. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), started as a body accrediting US and Canadian business schools, although it now accredits schools outside North America.
The European Fund for Management Development (EFMD), has its accrediting body, EQUIS, which now accredits outside the European Union. Both accreditation bodies look at, and accredit, the school as a whole, taking in big picture issues such as resources, quality of faculty, and programs on offer. Generally speaking EQUIS has a strong focus on business school diversity, largely as a result of its pan-European background. It also includes Executive MBA and part-time programs. For the AACSB, which accredits full-time MBAs, how a school uses its resources to bring it up to a top level is more important. The third body, the Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in the UK, accredits individual MBA programs rather than the school as a whole. There are other accrediting bodies but these operate on a local level. The Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), for example, accredits business schools in the Central European region.
So how important is it for an MBA candidate to consider accredited programs above unaccredited ones? Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of the QS World MBA Tour. For the last 14 years, QS has taken top-level accredited business schools on tour to over 65 cities worldwide to meet MBA candidates. For Quacquarelli, accreditation is important, as long as the candidate’s expectations are realistic. “Accreditation provides a threshold of standard for business schools,” he says. “The specific focus of each board is quite different so they are measuring different things. A candidate needs to understand what accreditation a school or program has received and why, before making their decision. It is important that a school is accredited either locally or internationally.” Durham Business School in the UK, is one of only 34 international business schools, of which 29 regularly attend the QS World MBA Tour, to be triple-accredited by the AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. The school’s Dean, Rob Dixon, says attaining all three kitemarks takes a business school a great deal of commitment and hard work but it is something that many top MBA programs strive for, at significant cost and effort. “There is no doubt that the independent endorsement and credibility of an accreditation kitemark is a standard of excellence worth striving for,” Dixon says. “In today’s crowded MBA market it [accreditation] provides students with a useful benchmark and starting point when deciding which schools to consider. However, one of the most important points about any accreditation is that it demonstrates a real commitment to quality and a process of continuous improvement and development.” Jerry Trapnell, chief accreditation officer from the AACSB, based in Florida, stresses that accrediting bodies are co-operative and not in competition with each other, due to their different philosophies and methodologies. “We have great respect for EQUIS accreditation and the schools that have earned it. EQUIS accreditation standards have a strong focus on how schools address internationalization among curricula, faculty, and students of the business school as well as relationships with corporations/businesses. AACSB clearly expects schools to prepare their graduates for work in the global economy and to seek appropriate input and counsel from various stakeholders to include employers, alumni, students, and faculty; however, we grant significant latitude on how this is accomplished.” The accreditation process is extremely involved, from start to finish, and can take schools years to rise to the specific challenges set. In return, schools get the benefit of peer review by three top-level deans from other business schools, says Xavier Mendoza, Director General of ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a long-term member of the AACSB. “A school will have a say in which deans become members of their peer review team and so top schools attract very interesting/experienced deans to review them. The advice those deans bring to the school seeking accreditation is very valuable.” Critics Accreditation is not without its critics. Some senior members of business schools question the long-term results of accreditation. One senior business school representative in Europe speculated whether a hidden result of accreditation could be that schools, which thrive on differentiating themselves in terms of school culture and education, “might be at risk of becoming too similar to one another as a result of the system of benchmarking so regularly and deeply.” This is not a concern for Mendoza, however, who believes that the good outweighs the bad. “Accreditation is a system of governance by the education industry in order to raise standards by allowing a framework of accountability within a school and also with its peers. While it does make schools conform to a pre-requisite level, accreditation also makes schools compete on quality and not simply on cost, which can only be a good thing. And it creates a need for top-quality second and third tier schools to cater for the students who don’t make it into the very highest sphere of business schools.” IE’s Michael Aldous agrees. “Frankly, I do not believe that top accreditation systems jeopardise the identity of schools. The accredited schools under AMBA, for example, vary substantially in terms of mission, program range and resources. Some are more innovative and others more traditional. This diversity contributes to the richness of the system.” Accreditation, while important, is not the only criteria that candidates should look for. It’s impossible to accredit a school culture, for example, and it can only offer hints about the quality of non-faculty staff, such as careers advisors who also play a part in the MBA experience. “Accreditation harmonizes on the quality of education, but candidates can, and should, still choose on any number of other issues which accreditation does not touch on. For example their approach to CSR and sustainability issues,” Mendoza says. To learn more about accreditation and to visit hundreds of accredited business schools from around the world, go to www.topmba.com and register for the QS World MBA Tour at a city near you.
The European Fund for Management Development (EFMD), has its accrediting body, EQUIS, which now accredits outside the European Union. Both accreditation bodies look at, and accredit, the school as a whole, taking in big picture issues such as resources, quality of faculty, and programs on offer. Generally speaking EQUIS has a strong focus on business school diversity, largely as a result of its pan-European background. It also includes Executive MBA and part-time programs. For the AACSB, which accredits full-time MBAs, how a school uses its resources to bring it up to a top level is more important. The third body, the Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in the UK, accredits individual MBA programs rather than the school as a whole. There are other accrediting bodies but these operate on a local level. The Central and East European Management Development Association (CEEMAN), for example, accredits business schools in the Central European region.
So how important is it for an MBA candidate to consider accredited programs above unaccredited ones? Nunzio Quacquarelli is managing director of the QS World MBA Tour. For the last 14 years, QS has taken top-level accredited business schools on tour to over 65 cities worldwide to meet MBA candidates. For Quacquarelli, accreditation is important, as long as the candidate’s expectations are realistic. “Accreditation provides a threshold of standard for business schools,” he says. “The specific focus of each board is quite different so they are measuring different things. A candidate needs to understand what accreditation a school or program has received and why, before making their decision. It is important that a school is accredited either locally or internationally.” Durham Business School in the UK, is one of only 34 international business schools, of which 29 regularly attend the QS World MBA Tour, to be triple-accredited by the AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. The school’s Dean, Rob Dixon, says attaining all three kitemarks takes a business school a great deal of commitment and hard work but it is something that many top MBA programs strive for, at significant cost and effort. “There is no doubt that the independent endorsement and credibility of an accreditation kitemark is a standard of excellence worth striving for,” Dixon says. “In today’s crowded MBA market it [accreditation] provides students with a useful benchmark and starting point when deciding which schools to consider. However, one of the most important points about any accreditation is that it demonstrates a real commitment to quality and a process of continuous improvement and development.” Jerry Trapnell, chief accreditation officer from the AACSB, based in Florida, stresses that accrediting bodies are co-operative and not in competition with each other, due to their different philosophies and methodologies. “We have great respect for EQUIS accreditation and the schools that have earned it. EQUIS accreditation standards have a strong focus on how schools address internationalization among curricula, faculty, and students of the business school as well as relationships with corporations/businesses. AACSB clearly expects schools to prepare their graduates for work in the global economy and to seek appropriate input and counsel from various stakeholders to include employers, alumni, students, and faculty; however, we grant significant latitude on how this is accomplished.” The accreditation process is extremely involved, from start to finish, and can take schools years to rise to the specific challenges set. In return, schools get the benefit of peer review by three top-level deans from other business schools, says Xavier Mendoza, Director General of ESADE Business School in Barcelona and a long-term member of the AACSB. “A school will have a say in which deans become members of their peer review team and so top schools attract very interesting/experienced deans to review them. The advice those deans bring to the school seeking accreditation is very valuable.” Critics Accreditation is not without its critics. Some senior members of business schools question the long-term results of accreditation. One senior business school representative in Europe speculated whether a hidden result of accreditation could be that schools, which thrive on differentiating themselves in terms of school culture and education, “might be at risk of becoming too similar to one another as a result of the system of benchmarking so regularly and deeply.” This is not a concern for Mendoza, however, who believes that the good outweighs the bad. “Accreditation is a system of governance by the education industry in order to raise standards by allowing a framework of accountability within a school and also with its peers. While it does make schools conform to a pre-requisite level, accreditation also makes schools compete on quality and not simply on cost, which can only be a good thing. And it creates a need for top-quality second and third tier schools to cater for the students who don’t make it into the very highest sphere of business schools.” IE’s Michael Aldous agrees. “Frankly, I do not believe that top accreditation systems jeopardise the identity of schools. The accredited schools under AMBA, for example, vary substantially in terms of mission, program range and resources. Some are more innovative and others more traditional. This diversity contributes to the richness of the system.” Accreditation, while important, is not the only criteria that candidates should look for. It’s impossible to accredit a school culture, for example, and it can only offer hints about the quality of non-faculty staff, such as careers advisors who also play a part in the MBA experience. “Accreditation harmonizes on the quality of education, but candidates can, and should, still choose on any number of other issues which accreditation does not touch on. For example their approach to CSR and sustainability issues,” Mendoza says. To learn more about accreditation and to visit hundreds of accredited business schools from around the world, go to www.topmba.com and register for the QS World MBA Tour at a city near you.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA News, MBA"
Date: Monday, 20 Jul 2009 13:27
In the summer of 2009, Juwah will graduate with an MBA from Manchester Business School. For the last 10 years, she’s been working at Cadbury Nigeria Plc in Lagos, Nigeria, in a variety of roles, most recently as HR Manager for Resourcing and Talent. Juwah had no plans to leave the company, but she needed to acquire a sound grasp of executing business strategy, so she embarked on her MBA via distance learning.
Balancing study and work is a challenge for anyone and Juwah says she’s had to become an extremely organised person. “Maximising weekends and bank holidays has also helped a lot” she says.
Many MBA candidates enrol in the qualification to gain managerial and leadership expertise, business strategy or a change in career - Juwah is no exception. “I had already made a career change from Information Systems to Human Resources. The MBA has given me an edge in my new role as my ability to grasp and execute business challenges from a human capital point of view is clearly above that of my HR peers,” she says.
“The best things about business school are the new knowledge, networking and the analytical approach. But, it’s also stressful, expensive and unpredictable. I wish I’d known the art of speed-reading books and documents before I started,” she says.
Juwah is one of the fortunate MBA candidates who has been able to pay her way through business school from her earnings, as well as the full support of her spouse, who has often paid for her workshop trips.
In 10 years time, she hopes her MBA, combined with her work experience, will see her become an HR director of a multinational enterprise. And, with the best piece of business advice she’s received being, “Never say never, every problem has a solution,” Juwah is well on her way to achieving her goal.
Balancing study and work is a challenge for anyone and Juwah says she’s had to become an extremely organised person. “Maximising weekends and bank holidays has also helped a lot” she says.
Many MBA candidates enrol in the qualification to gain managerial and leadership expertise, business strategy or a change in career - Juwah is no exception. “I had already made a career change from Information Systems to Human Resources. The MBA has given me an edge in my new role as my ability to grasp and execute business challenges from a human capital point of view is clearly above that of my HR peers,” she says.
“The best things about business school are the new knowledge, networking and the analytical approach. But, it’s also stressful, expensive and unpredictable. I wish I’d known the art of speed-reading books and documents before I started,” she says.
Juwah is one of the fortunate MBA candidates who has been able to pay her way through business school from her earnings, as well as the full support of her spouse, who has often paid for her workshop trips.
In 10 years time, she hopes her MBA, combined with her work experience, will see her become an HR director of a multinational enterprise. And, with the best piece of business advice she’s received being, “Never say never, every problem has a solution,” Juwah is well on her way to achieving her goal.
Author: "--" Tags: "Students' Voices"
Date: Monday, 20 Jul 2009 13:27
Nkechi Juwah has aspirations of growing into a top class manager, so what better way to begin than with an MBA. She speaks with TopMBA.com about study, stress and strategy.
In the summer of 2009, Juwah will graduate with an MBA from Manchester Business School. For the last 10 years, she’s been working at Cadbury Nigeria Plc in Lagos, Nigeria, in a variety of roles, most recently as HR Manager for Resourcing and Talent. Juwah had no plans to leave the company, but she needed to acquire a sound grasp of executing business strategy, so she embarked on her MBA via distance learning.
Balancing study and work is a challenge for anyone and Juwah says she’s had to become an extremely organised person.
“Maximising weekends and bank holidays has also helped a lot,” she says.
Many MBA candidates enrol in the qualification to gain managerial and leadership expertise, business strategy or a change in career - Juwah is no exception.
“I had already made a career change from Information Systems to Human Resources. The MBA has given me an edge in my new role as my ability to grasp and execute business challenges from a human capital point of view is clearly above that of my HR peers,” she says.
“The best things about business school are the new knowledge, networking and the analytical approach. But, it’s also stressful, expensive and unpredictable. I wish I’d known the art of speed-reading books and documents before I started,” she says.
Juwah is one of the fortunate MBA candidates who has been able to pay her way through business school from her earnings, as well as the full support of her spouse, who has often paid for her workshop trips.
In 10 years time, she hopes her MBA, combined with her work experience, will see her become an HR director of a multinational enterprise. And, with the best piece of business advice she’s received being, “Never say never, every problem has a solution,” Juwah is well on her way to achieving her goal.
____________________________________________________________________________
The QS World MBA Tour comes to Lagos on Saturday 28 March. For more information, or to register, go to www.topmba.com
In the summer of 2009, Juwah will graduate with an MBA from Manchester Business School. For the last 10 years, she’s been working at Cadbury Nigeria Plc in Lagos, Nigeria, in a variety of roles, most recently as HR Manager for Resourcing and Talent. Juwah had no plans to leave the company, but she needed to acquire a sound grasp of executing business strategy, so she embarked on her MBA via distance learning.
Balancing study and work is a challenge for anyone and Juwah says she’s had to become an extremely organised person.
“Maximising weekends and bank holidays has also helped a lot,” she says.
Many MBA candidates enrol in the qualification to gain managerial and leadership expertise, business strategy or a change in career - Juwah is no exception.
“I had already made a career change from Information Systems to Human Resources. The MBA has given me an edge in my new role as my ability to grasp and execute business challenges from a human capital point of view is clearly above that of my HR peers,” she says.
“The best things about business school are the new knowledge, networking and the analytical approach. But, it’s also stressful, expensive and unpredictable. I wish I’d known the art of speed-reading books and documents before I started,” she says.
Juwah is one of the fortunate MBA candidates who has been able to pay her way through business school from her earnings, as well as the full support of her spouse, who has often paid for her workshop trips.
In 10 years time, she hopes her MBA, combined with her work experience, will see her become an HR director of a multinational enterprise. And, with the best piece of business advice she’s received being, “Never say never, every problem has a solution,” Juwah is well on her way to achieving her goal.
____________________________________________________________________________
The QS World MBA Tour comes to Lagos on Saturday 28 March. For more information, or to register, go to www.topmba.com
Author: "--" Tags: "Students' Voices"
Date: Wednesday, 15 Jul 2009 09:10
“The MBA is not as well known in France as it could be,” says Reyre, a student of EMLYON Business School. “Companies have an overview of what an MBA is, but they don’t always see the added value it could bring.”
As a young graduate, Reyre was already thinking of studying for his MBA. But it was after he spent six and a half years in Russia, working for Auchan, a French international retail group, that he embarked on the business qualification. “The MBA was, and still is, the best way to capitalise and maximise my international exposure.”
Reyre’s most admired businessman is Marco Polo, the trader and explorer responsible for opening new commercial roads and building cultural and commercial bridges between Asia and Europe which have lasted for centuries. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that Reyre’s main criterion for an MBA was entrepreneurship and everything that revolved around this topic such as finance, strategy, marketing and management. “Most important was the notion of “making things happen”. This is what I’ve experienced in my career and what I wish to achieve in the future. That is why EMLYON was my first choice and I haven’t been disappointed.”
One of Reyre’s chief characteristics is his desire to face new challenges – and his MBA has been one of them. “I am married with two children (eight and five-years-old), so the balance of personal life and study is highly important, but to be honest, not easy to achieve. The program is really demanding - learning, involvement, readings, research, group work - so I’ve spent a lot of time working. As my MBA has been a family project, my wife and my children have been helping me a lot by giving me free time when it was necessary.”
Reyre acknowledges he’s lucky when it comes to the financing of his MBA. He’s been one of the few to have a “FONGECIF”, which is a free period of paid study. “You must have an institution, the agreement from your company, and the most difficult, the agreement of the FONGECIF. Only a few MBA applications are accepted, and I was one of them, so they have taken care of the tuition fee, and I have the equivalent of 90% of my salary during my MBA studies.”
In ten years time, Reyre has his sights set on a position as a director on the board of a multinational company, helping to drive the company, and its CEO, in their strategies. “My MBA is helping me to free my mind and acquire new knowledge, to come back better, stronger, and better prepared for future challenges.
“The best things about business school are the learning, the sharing of experiences, and the long lasting worldwide relation you build. Some say the worst things are being so far from the daily life of the firm, and they could be right, but my answer, is that when you do a full-time MBA you know everything upfront.
“I take this year as gift which will change my future career."
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Students' Voices, MBA Programs, Eur..."
Date: Wednesday, 15 Jul 2009 09:10
“The MBA is not as well known in France as it could be,” says Reyre, a student of EM Lyon Business School. “Companies have an overview of what an MBA is, but they don’t always see the added value it could bring.”
As a young graduate, Reyre was already thinking of studying for his MBA. But it was after he spent six and a half years in Russia, working for Auchan, a French international retail group, that he embarked on the business qualification. “The MBA was, and still is, the best way to capitalise and maximise my international exposure.”
Reyre’s most admired businessman is Marco Polo, the trader and explorer responsible for opening new commercial roads and building cultural and commercial bridges between Asia and Europe which have lasted for centuries. So, it’s perhaps no surprise that Reyre’s main criterion for an MBA was entrepreneurship and everything that revolved around this topic such as finance, strategy, marketing and management. “Most important was the notion of “making things happen”. This is what I’ve experienced in my career and what I wish to achieve in the future. That is why EM Lyon was my first choice and I haven’t been disappointed.”
One of Reyre’s chief characteristics is his desire to face new challenges – and his MBA has been one of them. “I am married with two children (eight and five-years-old), so the balance of personal life and study is highly important, but to be honest, not easy to achieve. The program is really demanding - learning, involvement, readings, research, group work - so I’ve spent a lot of time working. As my MBA has been a family project, my wife and my children have been helping me a lot by giving me free time when it was necessary.”
Reyre acknowledges he’s lucky when it comes to the financing of his MBA. He’s been one of the few to have a “FONGECIF”, which is a free period of paid study. “You must have an institution, the agreement from your company, and the most difficult, the agreement of the FONGECIF. Only a few MBA applications are accepted, and I was one of them, so they have taken care of the tuition fee, and I have the equivalent of 90% of my salary during my MBA studies.”
In ten years time, Reyre has his sights set on a position as a director on the board of a multinational company, helping to drive the company, and its CEO, in their strategies. “My MBA is helping me to free my mind and acquire new knowledge, to come back better, stronger, and better prepared for future challenges.
“The best things about business school are the learning, the sharing of experiences, and the long lasting worldwide relation you build. Some say the worst things are being so far from the daily life of the firm, and they could be right, but my answer, is that when you do a full-time MBA you know everything upfront.
“I take this year as gift which will change my future career."
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Students' Voices, MBA Programs, Eur..."
Date: Tuesday, 14 Jul 2009 09:04
QS is working with CNBC to promote an exciting new competition – The Good Entrepreneur. The competition aims to identify entrepreneurs across Europe with environmentally responsible business concepts. These should be concepts that are based on making a contribution to the protection of the environment.
The competition has been created in a partnership between CNBC, the leading business and financial news television channel and Allianz, one of the leading integrated financial services providers worldwide.
The competition kicks off at the beginning of June and the individual named “The Good Entrepreneur of 2009” will receive a prize package worth more than €250,000. The package includes exposure on CNBC as well as comprehensive business support from Allianz.
From 8 June, anyone who is based in Europe can enter through the website, www.goodentrepreneur.com. You’ll be asked to fill out an application form and submit a 60 second video pitching your idea. The video doesn’t have to be fancy - you could film it on your mobile phone - it’s the idea that counts.
Bonnie Flaws - Bonnie.flaws @ cnbc.com
Applications close on 31 July 2009, and the three finalists will be announced in August 2009.
The finalists will then be filmed to feature in a four-part televised series on CNBC, documenting the progress of each person. In the series finale, a panel of high profile judges will reveal the winner of the competition. The series will be broadcast across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and in Asia during the autumn of 2009. If you’d like more information about entering the competition or how you can get involved as an organisation, please visit us online at www.goodentrepreneur.com or get in touch with someone from The Good Entrepreneur production team at CNBC. Victoria Crawford - Victoria.crawford @ cnbc.comBonnie Flaws - Bonnie.flaws @ cnbc.com
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA Careers"
Date: Friday, 03 Jul 2009 08:52
QS Leadership Scholarship
Yan QiuAn accountant and business control specialist, Yan Qiu will swap mergers and acquisitions for the MBA classroom in 2010 when he joins a number of other MBA candidates at Washington University in St. Louis. Yan Qiu is the recipient of the QS Leadership Scholarship, worth $10,000.
QS Community Scholarships
Brittany SandersWith a passion for mathematics and a flair for tutoring, Brittany, an American MBA candidate finishes her studies at Carnegie Mellon in 2010. Brittany is a recipient of a QS Community Scholarship, worth US$2,000.
Kelly Chavez
Involved in a local non-profit food program, Food for All, in Washington DC, Kelly will head to Europe for her MBA studies at ESADE Business School in Barcelona. The American student is a recipient of a QS Community Scholarship, worth US$2,000.
Kunal Guha
Throughout his career Kunal’s been a student, teacher, marketer and educator. Now the Indian MBA student studies at Cambridge Judge Business School in the UK. Kunal is a recipient of a QS Community Scholarship, worth US$2,000.
Jinho Lee
When encountering a challenge, Jinho Lee simply asks “Why not?” That philosophy has seen him successfully change the way business is done in his organization, and be a recipient of a QS Community Scholarship, worth US$2,000. In 2010, Jinho will graduate from Wharton. Click here to read about his experience at Wharton.
Each of the QS scholarship winners attended a QS World MBA Tour fair in their home country. The Tour travels with more than 250 of the world’s leading business schools to 41 countries and is the largest program of business school events.
To become eligible for a QS Scholarship, register for the QS World MBA Tour in a city near you and submit your application by 20 April, 2009.
Author: "--" Tags: "MBA, Finance, Scholarships"
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