New MBA Programs

The Henley Business School will officially launch its new MBA in the Music Industry in Hollywood in May. The programme is a core MBA based around experiential learning and a contextualized application for the Music Industry.

The University of Arts London has announced the first MBA course in fashion. The programme will start in September and will open doors for students to network with leading industry figures. The 18-month MBA-programme will cover all business areas of the industry - from PR, to production, to buying.

Demand for part-time MBA programmes has held steady through the financial crisis, as the degree attracts people who want to study without giving up a job. This is the outcome of the Application Trend Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council or GMAC. Amongst the surveyed part-time MBA programmes 44 per cent saw an increase in applications from 2011 and 14 per cent reported no change.

Belgian business school’s rebranding campaign

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has changed its name to Vlerick Business School. The change in name is part of a rebranding process that also gave the school’s logo a bold new typeface and a bright colour-setting.

The case method is a key teaching tool in most business schools. A case study provides students with mostly real events and challenges from the corporate world. These can be 30 pages on the introduction of a new frequent flyer programme or a company’s re-branding campaign for example … During a case students have to turn into decision makers, they are confronted with a problem and need to solve it.
For years this method has been praised but in recent times, more and more criticism has sprung up.

A generous donation of $60m will see Northeastern University’s business school renamed. Two alumni of Northeastern University, Richard D’Amore and Alan McKim, are the sponsors, and the school’s new name will accordingly be the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. The business school plans to invest the donation in the undergraduate, graduate and executive programmes at the school. Money will also go towards overseas programmes and teaching in entrepreneurship.

Weatherhead combines forces with China and India for global MBA

A new three-country MBA programme will be launched in 2013, allowing students to gain knowledge from an American, Chinese and Indian business school. The three participating schools, the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western University, in Cleveland in the US, the School of Economics and Management at Tongji University, in Shanghai in China, and Xavier Labour Relations Institute, in Jamshedpur in India, will start by enrolling 20 students each for this full-time MBA programme.

The tremendous growth of the Chinese economy has created high demand for well-trained managers, causing many middle managers, executives, and business owners in China to go back to school to seek business education, writes Shu-Hsing Li, dean and professor of accounting from the College of Management at National Taiwan University in a recent essay. Due to the sheer size of China’s population this could mean a large number of students will be applying for part-time EMBA programmes in the near future.

Stephen Greer started his own business straight after college, at the ripe old age of 24. He moved on to create a global scrap metal company, which he eventually sold for 250 million dollars. After Harvard Business Review had written about him and he had published his experiences in the book “Starting From Scratch”, Greer was invited to tour a number of business schools to talk about his life.

Online MBAs have become more and more popular over the years. Online MBAs mean flexible learning wherever and whenever you want to. These courses don’t force you to attend class regularly and at one location. And a point that has proven crucial in the aftermath of the financial crisis: They don’t force you to resign your job and tuition is much more cost-efficient. On the downside, employers have been hesitant in the past to recruit online MBA graduates.

Whilst applications to full time MBAs have decreased, online degrees are a growing market for b-schools. Top schools have opened up their offers to online students and more and more second- and third-tier business schools are trying to grab a piece of the growing online degree market.

According to a study published in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration employers are increasingly open to hiring graduates from online programmes. The authors of the survey interviewed 20 hiring managers from some of the leading companies in Wisconsin, including those in the health-care, financial, and insurance industries. Half of the employers surveyed said that the format the degree was earned in, whether online or in a traditional MBA classroom, would not be a significant factor in their decision to hire or promote a job candidate.

Stephen Greer started his own business straight after college, at the ripe old age of 24. He moved on to create a global scrap metal company, which he eventually sold for 250 million dollars. After Harvard Business Review had written about him and he had published his experiences in the book “Starting From Scratch”, Greer was invited to tour a number of business schools to talk about his life. On campus he was always presented with the same question, he writes: “You didn’t get an MBA, nor did many other successful entrepreneurs, so if I want to start my own company, is business school a worthwhile experience? Is it worth paying all this tuition — or will my degree just be a resume-builder?”

News from the Schools is all about new forms of learning, new offers and new opportunities this month. As more and more MBA programmes are flourishing in emerging markets, the U.S. is arming itself as well, it seems.

Not long ago the Master of Business Administration (MBA) was a university degree that taught managers not entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship wasn’t existent in business schools until the 1980s and only recently it stepped into the limelight and became a major focus for many students.