MBA Schools Go International By Nunzio Quacquarelli THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES | September 10, 2002 http://www.sptimesrussia.com/archive/times/802/sb/s_7339.htm (Nunzio Quacquarelli is the editor of www.topmba.com and the MBA Career Guide.) The make-up of your class at business school can have an important effect on the education that you receive there - the greater the number of nationalities and cultures represented, the greater the number of opportunities for the sharing of cultural experiences and the development of the learning process that can result. Across the board, the raising of the "internationalism" of MBA programs is a tendency that can be clearly observed. GOING INTERNATIONAL "I chose the Wharton MBA not only for its top-notch education, but also for its vibrant international community," says Victor Calanog, a Filipino who graduated from The Wharton School in Philadelphia in 2000. Over the last three years, the percentage of international students at The Wharton School has increased, from less than 30 percent of the class of 750 students in 1997, to 46 percent of the class in 2000. Wharton is not the only school to have begun internationalizing its MBA program. Many schools have made a commitment to internationalizing their student pool, the faculty at their school and the content of the teaching materials within their programs, in the belief that this will enhance the reputation of the school around the world and improve the learning experience for their students. Research shows that the Arthur D. Little School of Management (ADL) is by far the most international school in the U.S. "We are a small boutique business school, specializing in experienced international professionals," says William Harper, the dean at ADL. "In an increasingly global economy, we are very aware of the need to ensure that MBA education is relevant, that it is applied and that it is responsive to their business and cultural needs." Some MBA programs offer experience in several locations. Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Institute de Gestion Sociale in Paris co-branded an International MBA where the students, depending on their academic background, study four to seven months in Paris, six months in Philadelphia and one month in Tokyo. The courses are taught in English, the curriculum was specially designed with global and comparative approaches to business practices and it is taught by faculty selected for their international experience and exposure. U.S. GO SLOW But U.S. schools in general are not that international in their make up of students or faculty. The Universiy of South Carolina, in Columbia, and Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, are the only other U.S. business schools to have more than 70 percent of their class made up of overseas students. One notable absentee from the list is Harvard Business School. HBS has maintained a more traditional admissions policy, with only 25 percent of the class originating from outside the United States. Evidence suggests that parochialism is not reflected just in student numbers at many U.S. schools. "One of our professors at IGS, who teaches seminars at Harvard, recently told me that he had, after years of trying, at last convinced the school to include an EU perspective within the law courses at the business school," says Jarlath Dillon, director of the MBA at IGS. " The dean of another major East Coast business school visited a few years ago. He nearly had to cancel his trip because he had not realized he needed a passport to visit Europe." Does internationalism really matter? What are the benefits to an MBA candidate of having a highly international MBA program? AGSIM- Thunderbird in Arizona was a pioneer in international MBA education in the 1940s and focused on international, rather than traditional, domestically-oriented course content; learning a foreign language and mixing many nationalities in the program. Other schools have followed and begun developing new models. Douglas Dunn, dean of Carnegie-Mellon (C-M) University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, places a focus on international teams that deal with change and entrepreneurship. "Global business leaders, today, need to be able to lead and contribute effectively to diverse teams in multicultural settings," he argues. "A highly international class creates opportunities for the teaming and sharing of cultural experiences." He adds that the experience of studying overseas encourages a "willingness to embrace change as second nature and an ability to see opportunities to develop new entrepreneurial businesses - 40 per cent of C-M alumni start their own business." Many schools now also offer guaranteed internships abroad, or attending study tours at foreign business centers. By many of these dimensions, European business schools can claim to hold a lead. THE MELTING POT Research reveals that European schools have much higher percentages of international students than their U.S. counterparts. Whereas only four U.S. schools have over 50 percent of their students from abroad, over 30 European schools can make this claim. IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland, is a small program for 85 very experienced international managers, originating from forty different countries. Internationalism runs deep at IMD, which has a 1:2 student- faculty ratio and professors from 21 different countries. In the same city, Business School Lausanne has also adopted a highly international focus, achieving a 95-percent international make-up in its students, albeit with less diversity of nationalities. Theseus Institute is a small, specialist technology MBA, based in Sophia Antipolis near Nice, France, which has 90 percent international students. But a school does not have to be small to be highly international. 90 percent of the 650 students at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, originate from outside France. Dean Hawawini confirms the strategy laid out by his predecessor, Antonio Borges: "INSEAD's strategy for the last forty years has been to build a truly global business school." "As a logical next step, in 2000, INSEAD opened a fully-fledged campus in Singapore, continuing to build on the schools multicultural philosophy, free of any dominant culture," he says. Many British business schools have a tradition of being highly international. Yibing Ma has just completed an MBA at Royal Holloway College, University of London, after eight years in the petroleum industry. "The one year of MBA study has benefited me considerably," he says. "My classmates from different countries taught me a great deal about their own idiosyncratic cultural backgrounds." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> �������������������������������������������������������� This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! 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