Business school is experiencing a refreshing surge of diversification.
We hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. There’s a lot to discuss as we kick off the new year. Here’s what’s trending on the MBA landscape: Business school deans are making 2017 resolutions. MBA students are predicting changes. Some female MBA’s have unique challenges and opportunities. China holds opportunities for American schools.
Business school dean’s dream
Business school deans have a lot on their minds as they welcome in 2017: New goals, new plans, new year’s resolutions. “One resolution I have is to keep asking myself and our team at Michigan Ross if we are taking enough risks,” says Scott DeRue, who became dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business last spring.
“I resolve to foster greater collaboration not just within our school, but across Stanford’s seven world-class schools—Business, Law, Medicine, Engineering, Education, Earth, and Humanities and Sciences,” said Jonathan Levin, Stanford Graduate School of Business’s dean.
Added Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University: “I resolve to help Kelley School students, faculty, staff, and alumni live our brand by showing them how to take individual moments and turn them into momentum.”
MBAs predict change
Business school deans aren’t the only ones predicting and hoping for change in 2017. MBA students also see new shakeups on the horizon. One trend worth watching: more MBA programs being one year instead of two year. “More and more people want the full MBA experience in a shorter time period,” says Rosalind Tay, a current student on the University of Edinburgh Business School’s one-year MBA.
Note: while applications for two-year programs have been stagnating, applications to one-year MBA programs are increasing.
MBAs also think technology will play a great role in the business education experience. “We’ll see a switch from learning about the traditional economy to looking at the sharing economy and the Internet of Things (IoT). And a shift from gaining bookish academic knowledge to more implementable knowledge,” says Musheer Ahmed, an MBA graduate from the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
Making it as a female MBA
Even as women overtake men in the raw number of students in law school and medical school, women lag far behind their male counterparts among business school students. While, women do make up over 40 percent of students in some top business schools, overall that number is only 36 percent. Business schools are eager to change that.
Joyce Russell, dean of Villanova School of Business, for example, stressed collaboration over competition when it comes to recruiting female students, but of course you’ll have many female prospective students who actually thrive on competition.
Elissa Sangster, executive director for the Forté Foundation, which advocates for more women pursuing business education, encourages women, once their enrolled, to leave their comfort zones. “Don’t shy away from courses that may seem uncomfortable.”
Looking east for opportunity
With well over one billion people within its massive borders, the People’s Republic of China is also the number two source of GMAT-takers across the globe. This also makes them a massive source of MBA applicants—and business schools in the U.S. are eager to take advantage of this opportunity.
For many Chinese students, brand and reputation are everything, especially given the fact that campus visits are probably nearly impossible for most. “Reputation is extremely important in China, and so U.S. schools, especially Hopkins, schools like this that are big brands, business students want to go to these schools,” said one student at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School.
Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business is excited about the potential. “China is a very attractive partnership opportunity for American schools because of the size of the market. There are so many universities and so many of them are high-quality, it’s easy to find partners,” Kathy Getz, Sellinger’s dean.
Keep checking back for more big savings on GMAT prep throughout the New Year.
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