MBA-Curriculum: The Year After

Their arguments are well known: failed firms such as Lehman Brothers used to be full of alumni of prestigious schools, who were complacent and greedy. “But regardless of whether such criticisms are valid,” reports The Economist, “it is certainly true that the crisis has fundamentally changed attitudes towards both business schools and the art of management itself.”
But a year later school directors are still pondering a proportionate response to save their sinking reputation. Most settled for modest adjustments. Columbia Business School in New York for example is introducing just two new modules, one on the future of finance and another on the collapse of the auto industry. At Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, students on the Global MBA course are to wrap up their programme with a final module on global citizenship.

This is not exactly revolutionary and also typical for academia: In this world of books it usually takes a long time to implement changes. When professors want to introduce new classes they need to win over their faculty, prove academic competency and demonstrate that the course meets the quality threshold of the school and accreditation bodies. Many see it as a flaw if a school’s curriculum changes too radically or too quickly. Terry Ilott, course director at City University’s Cass Business School in London claims that he would be “very suspicious of a school that could chop-and-change its curriculum at short notice.” Many believe that the basic tools of business haven’t changed just because of the crisis. The fundamentals of marketing, economics or finance remain valid.

Others feel that it is the key to teach them now in the context of corporate failure. Randall Kroszner, a former governor of the Federal Reserve and an economics lecturer at Chicago University’s Booth school, says that his MBA students will notice a change of emphasis, if not a radical new curriculum. “If I just taught my money class as I did four years ago I wouldn’t have the same emphasis on the housing market or the inter-connections between the banking and non-banking financial systems.” Monetary policy is another example of change. Five years ago, the possibility of zero interest rates may have been mentioned in passing, but most students saw it as such a low-probability event that they didn’t pay much attention. Now it is a real issue. One other area in which the crisis seems to be having a deeper effect on curricula is a renewed interest in economic history, for example examining the lessons from America’s Great Depression in the 1930s.

But it is not just the academic curriculum that is changing. Equally as important as teaching theory is imparting the “soft skills” needed to brave a difficult job market after the programme. Noticeable is a greater emphasis on personal development. Some business schools started to test their new intake of students psychometrically to alert them to their strengths and weaknesses, making them more employable when they leave. “With a sceptical world awaiting them,” comments “The Economist”, “they may need all the help they can get.”

www.economist.com