I've written before about the significant quality control challenges that law school study-abroad programs pose. Here are some perspectives, courtesy of the Chronicle of Higher Education, from the business school side about global MBA programs and exchanges, from a recent meeting of 400 business school deans last week, where they raised questions "about whether the sweeping globalization of management education amounted to more rhetoric than reality." Bullets below are direct quotations from the article:
- Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor of global strategy at IESE Business School... argued that most of the international collaborations business schools have been touting on their Web sites are limited to student and faculty exchanges, with little meaningful exchange in the curriculum. "If that's all we do, we risk becoming a specialized segment of the travel and hospitality industry."... He also dismissed a "globaloney" the premise that global borders matter little today in solving the world's business problems. "If you're an MBA student, what could be more seductive than being told the world is one, and you're now perfectly equipped, once you get your degree, to go out and stamp out global management programs, wherever they spring up -- kind of a global SWAT team."
- "It's time to stop pretending that we're doing more than we really are," Edward A. Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told a packed audience at the annual deans' meeting.... "Given the worldwide economic meltdown, fewer MBA programs will be able to recruit students from around the world, educate them at an overseas campus, and then place them in high-level jobs, Mr. Snyder said. "The good number of jobs that will justify the cost of bringing people in will decline."
- Blair H. Sheppard, dean of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, said Duke is moving ahead this summer with an expanded version if its "cross-continent MBA," in which students will do much of their work over the Internet, but also spend periods working and studying at campuses in Britain, China, India, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Duke's main campus in North Carolina."
Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. Read more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, recently updated and available as an e-book. Follow Anna on Twitter (@annaivey).