There is no substitute
for the experience of living and working abroad.
Learning to adapt to the social and business cultures
of another country is a key skill for those likely
to work with overseas partners. The Association
of MBAs reports that there is a growing trend
amongst overseas executives to supplement their
international business experience by studying
for an MBA within the UK.
So how does the UK school fare internationally?
The age of global business requires business schools
to show that they are international. Only then
will they attract the best MBA students - those
with sufficient experience, ability and ambition,
and who can pay the course fees or get sponsorship.
So all business schools claim to be international.
But what do they mean?
"It's really about your interpretation of
the word 'international', says Peter Calladine,
education services manager of the Association
of MBAs. "It could mean a major programme
for overseas students, it could mean that you
have a genuinely multinational faculty, it could
mean that students take part of their MBA course
outside the UK, it could mean links with overseas
schools. In the best cases it could mean all four."
For instance, at London Business School (LBS),
two out of every three members of the faculty
come from outside the UK, mainly from the US,
India, France, Italy and Germany. Last year, only
one in six of its new full-time MBA students was
British. A quarter came from Asia, one in five
from North America, one in five from Europe, with
a handful from Central and South America, Australia
and New Zealand. In total, LBS has exchange programmes
with 32 business schools in fifteen countries.
Manchester Business School also has links with
numerous places. It is associated with schools
in fifteen countries, including three prestigious
US institutions. Only about one-third of its MBA
students are British, and half of them have the
opportunity to spend three or four months at an
overseas partner school. All students get a chance
to compare international management issues in
Eastern and Western Europe.
Cranfield School of Management runs exchange
programmes throughout the world, as well as a
double degree with a French business school in
which participants follow the core curriculum
at one of the two schools and spend terms three
or four at the other. Two-thirds of its seventy
visiting professors and fellows are from outside
the UK, and it aims to have a mix of half its
MBA students from Britain and half from elsewhere.
A high number of Imperial College's faculty are
British, but most of them have international experience,
and the business school uses a great many international
case studies in its program. Many of its overseas
students are sponsored by their companies or by
the British Council, and Imperial prizes these
students, because you have to be first-rate to
get that sort of sponsorship.
Birmingham Business School's three full-time
MBA courses are also international. Every student
on its European MBA course spends one term in
Montpellier and one term in Birmingham, with a
third term doing a project in either Britain or
France.
More than 90% of Birmingham's MBA students are
from overseas, the second-highest proportion of
any business school in the world (the highest
is at the International Institute for Management
Development in Lausanne, Switzerland).
Of course, overseas business schools are just
as keen to break into the UK market as British
schools are to get high-paying overseas students
to study here. For example, the Instituto de Empresa
in Madrid, a Spanish business school, runs an
international MBA that is taught in English for
the first term and Spanish subsequently. It also
offers intensive Spanish classes before the main
course starts. Half of the students come from
outside Spain.
As a result of globalisation, you can learn wherever
you are by downloading teaching materials and
communicating with tutors and fellow students
on the Internet. You can study the Open University
Business School MBA from anywhere in the world,
and the OU recently announced an agreement with
the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris
to translate and adapt one of its courses for
French-speaking markets.
Henley Management College has 22 overseas associated
schools, all of which allow study for a Henley
MBA. Henley runs an in-company MBA for 250 IBM
managers in Europe entirely by distance-learning,
and even claims that it can get the students thinking
and working as a team by creating a virtual classroom
environment.
Warwick Business School's (WBS) treatment of
e-learning gives students the opportunity to work
with, and learn from other students across the
globe. WBS has also launched its own on-line e-business
course for its distance learning MBA. This will
give international groups of students the opportunity
to tackle real e-business issues and problems
with input from e-business practitioners.
E-business MBAs extend the length of time used
for learning, and are convenient for those who
find it difficult to travel to the business school.
However, many of the business schools believe
that a cornerstone of the MBA program is the face-to-face
interaction. Peter Calladine says that some subjects
are better suited to on-line learning than others.
These tend to be subjects where interaction is
not so essential. On an MBA programme this would
include quantitative methods and accounting. For
the most 'touchy-feely' subjects such as HRM,
strategy and so forth, peer group discussion and
interaction are essential.
Many business schools still believe there is
a key part of the MBA experience that cannot be
captured in distance learning. But the method
is attracting an increasing share of the market.
It may be that in the next century, students will
cease to worry about how international their local
business school is, because they can just as easily
do their MBA at a school on the other side of
the world.
Before embarking on an international
MBA, seek advice from the Association of MBAs,
who have information on all reputable business
schools. The Association annually publishes The
Official MBA Handbook, which explains everything
you need to know about MBA study, including: how
to select the right school, apply for a place,
and what you can achieve with an MBA. There is
also a world-wide listing of individual schools,
giving essential details such as size, culture,
programme content, faculty, student body and facilities.
Author
Peter Calladine
Association of MBAs
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