[photopress:arizona_state_uni.jpg,full,alignright]A new move in business schools. Instead of your company sponsoring you to go to university to get an MBA how about the company getting a custom-designed MBA program for you?
It is happening in a major way. Faced with increased competition, business-schools are tailoring entire degree-granting MBA programs to the needs of specific companies.
Next May, the University of Maryland will graduate its first group from Otis Elevator in China. And Arizona State University’s program for Motorola in China has graduated three groups of students so far.
Business schools say a made-to-order graduate business degree meets the needs of fast-growing multinationals interested in developing and retaining local talent. ASU Associate Dean Buck Pei, said, ‘You can only send so many expats to China.’
There are other pluses. Open enrollment courses usually exclude sensitive company information. Not so custom MBAs. As students participate in class discussions and projects, they absorb business theory while solving their own company problems.
Custom programs help business-schools expand their global knowledge. Professors get inside information about specific industries and countries that they can bring back to their classrooms in the United States.Arizona State’s custom program for Motorola led to the development of the school’s successful Shanghai MBA, and the University of Michigan’s program for Cathay Pacific Airways has morphed into the East Asia Management Development Center.
Source: Business Week
You must log in to post a comment.