Practical learning is replacing the old-fashioned way of teaching in Business Schools Recently, there is different trend throughout business schools. Courses have placed a greater focus on experiential projects, believing that people learn effectively by doing. It has been widely acknowledged that the case study approach of teaching was the most successful throughout the world in the past, with students evaluating real-world company difficulties and obstacles. This was regarded as a conventional method of instruction at the heart of MBA programs at business institutions. Ewa Maciejewski, director of strategic initiatives, corporate partnerships, and careers at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, proposed boosting experiential learning in their MBA programs. “There has been a considerable expand in experiential learning in our MBA program over the last many years”, she continues. “Our objective is to encourage students to come out of their shells and experience something they haven’t experienced before.” Furthermore, she went on to say, “It is normal to encounter MBA participants with prior experience. They intend to build on that by broadening their skills, rather than relying on textbooks and traditional teaching techniques. MBA students seek and emphasize hands-on, real-life business cases with their core centered in a local business environment.” According to Stefanos Zarkos, associate dean of academic programs at Alba Graduate Business School in Athens, Greece, students are clearly interested in the relationship between theory and business practice. They are constantly looking for new methods to use information to help them gain useful abilities that they can apply in real life. “Our students have given us great feedback on the immersive courses we offer,” Zarkos remarked. "Not only is it confined to genuine case studies, but it may also incorporate other methods of education, such as open talks with industry professionals and informal means of learning like games and simulations." Michael Price Student Investment Fund, established in 2000 by NYU Stern School of Business in New York City, is an example of an early use of the experiential approach. It is a family of funds that was founded over two decades ago by MBA students. Experiential learning has grown by more than 180 percent in the preceding four years, with 650 students taking such courses each year. Stern Solution, for example, comprises of projects in which students collaborate with a professor to address business problems for major corporations like as Amazon, Estee Lauder, and BMW. With such fast changes in today's business and society, Stern feels that experimenting is an important component of the MBA program and advises students to fail without fear because it is a fundamental and necessary part of their learning experience. According to Bryan Ramos, NYU Stern's assistant dean in the global education department, “We believe it is critical for students to have the ability to reform what they learn during the course, much like muscle memory.” He added “By learning and improving via the experiential learning cycle, they will have a strong foundation for improved future learning environments.” Successful career after MBA is accompanied by an experiential learning Cornuel, the executive director of the European Foundation for Management Development in Brussels, underlined the importance of teaching experiential learning. “Companies are moving further away from organizational structure and toward cross-functional connections of interlinked teams, all in an exceedingly unique context,”. He adds, “This change demands a deeper knowledge of the complexity governing organizational culture and information flow, which experiential learning significantly enhances.” Georgetown MBA established the Global Business Experience consulting initiative as a method of experiential learning. This program was created about three decades ago with the school’s strong emphasis and attention on experiential learning. Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington, DC, has launched multiple experiential opportunities in recent years, including the Venture Fellowship Program, which positions students in a year-long apprenticeship with a local investment firm. Another experiential opportunity can be found at the Real Estate Clinic, where students participate working on live real estate investments by cooperating with commercial real estate firms. Prashant Malaviya, senior associate dean for the MBA program at Georgetown, suggested that experiential learning is what develops student’s ability to combine what they learnt in classroom into something else. “I believe experiential learning is equivalent to muscle memory. By achieving academic through experiential learning, it builds the core of instincts for students to collaborate their learnings skills into use to communicate and cooperate with fellow students as team. It emphasizes on the accomplishments and downfalls at the same time.”. Why experiential learning is becoming fundamental for post-MBA careers Experiential learning can also assist students gain marketability. Mr. Malaviya states that "The more students to take part in hands-on education, the better they are at exhibiting their abilities and talents to potential employer.". 13 Global Client Projects were offered to its MBA and executive MBA students this year by the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. These are electives and opportunities that allow small groups of students to deliver consultancy services to a multinational firm. “The situation is more complicated because those suggestions and actions will have a genuine impact for the stakeholders with whom the students are working with,” addressed by Katherine Beach, executive director of Darden's Center for Global Initiatives. “Moving to a collegiate environment during Covid has enable us to arrange projects with businesses and organizations in regions that would be impractical for students to attend in person,” she stated. Even though onshore visits were suspended last year and will be reduced this year due to Coronavirus, technology can help students to participate in intensive sessions from a distance. Even with all the problems caused by Covid, the experiential teaching parts of the MBA have strengthened rather than weakened, according to Florian Kraus, academic director of the MBA at Germany's Mannheim Business School. He does, however, underline the pervasiveness of the traditional teaching through textbooks. “Experiential learning benefits are only effective if the various training aspects, such as lectures or case studies, are tightly integrated,” Kraus says. “Only in this fashion can MBA programs provide excellent and long-term success.” Read More: UC’s highest number of Applicants due to Diverse Racial Groups  

The vaccine mandate has incited different responses from students, faculty, and staff

As the MBA admission cycle starts, applicants are often concerned about their GMAT scores, letters of recommendation, and other parts of their application package. Now, applicants for the U.S. business schools have another factor to prepare for their admissions: proof of full vaccination for Covid-19. After months of online lectures to prevent the spread of the virus, a considerable number of MBAs in the U.S. are now returning to in-person lectures. However, students who wish to attend in-person classes this fall are required to show proof of full vaccination. Although it can be expected that many students will feel safer returning to campus with the new policy instated, some students and faculty show strong dissatisfaction with the mandate as they believe compulsory vaccinations infringe their freedom. Having witnessed the conflicts between the American MBAs and their students and faculty about the new rules, institutions across the world are becoming wary of the potential issues they may also experience in the process of returning to in-person MBA programs. While a large share of the U.S. population has already received the vaccine as the government introduced many policies to encourage vaccination, such measures have not been adopted in other countries, such as the U.K. and many of continental Europe. [caption id="attachment_1881" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Duke's graduate schools followed the university's decision to require vaccination. Photo: Warren LeMay / Licensed under CC0 1.0[/caption] For instance, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business requires all of its students and employees to be vaccinated, following the university’s policy. Only those who have verifiable medical or religious reasons to forgo vaccination can be exempted from the requirement. Russ Morgan, senior associate dean of the school, underlines that the new policies mandating vaccination should be considered ethical, rather than unethical, especially now that the science clearly shows the importance of shared effort from the individuals in the community. He further emphasizes that those who wish to be a part of the school’s community should “do their part in supporting the collective safety and security of the community.” He adds, “for those who don’t share this view or commitment, I would suggest we are not the right community for them.” Morgan clarifies that there were only a few who expressed concerns about the university’s new requirement or applied for the exemption on medical or religious grounds. Meanwhile, students and parents across the U.S. protested against the new measures at campuses, including those of Rutgers University and the University of Maryland. Many MBA programs declined to comment on the issue due to the controversiality of the topic. One of the reasons for objection against the new policy is regarding its impact on students of color, who are relatively more reluctant to get vaccinated. However, the Fuqua School of Business reports that it had a different experience. “We are exceptionally pleased to have welcomed our most diverse first-year MBA cohort in the school’s history this year,” Morgan says. While acknowledging that incentives played an important role for some people to get the shots, Morgan adds that he did not see any hesitancy from the students. [caption id="attachment_1882" align="alignnone" width="1024"] MBAs worldwide implement similar Covid-19 policies and yet receive different responses from people. Photo: Alfredo Urdaci, PromoMadrid / Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0[/caption]

How do schools in other countries deal with vaccination-related issues?

Business schools in European countries and the U.K. have largely shied away from mandatory vaccination, opting instead for encouraging students to receive vaccines. Some business schools have also opened temporary vaccination centers on campus for easier access. Yet, as strict rules are still in place including social distancing and mask-wearing, the institutions are far from returning to pre-pandemic campus life. For instance, HEC Paris business school in France provides free vaccinations to international students at a vaccination site near its campus, even if the students have not yet received a social security number in France. Also, for the unvaccinated, the school has created a PCR test center on campus to provide students with free Covid tests. PCR test result is requested upon students’ visit to restaurants, bars, and indoor sports facilities on campus. Andrea Masini, associate dean of MBA programs, clarifies that the health pass is not mandatory to attend class or to access some facilities such as study rooms and the main cafeteria. Nevertheless, Masini adds that the school strongly advises students to complete vaccination to “enjoy the full MBA experience.” Similarly, IESE Business School in Madrid, Spain, encourages students, faculty, and staff to submit official proof of full vaccination. Those who do not meet this requirement must submit weekly proof of a negative Covid test and complete a daily health survey to be on campus. There is a shared opinion from all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their vaccination status, about the general policy on health and safety, such as restricted access to campus facilities, temperature monitoring, and mask use in communal spaces. Marta Escardo, a director of IESE Business School’s MBA program, says, “By putting in place a set of rigorous protocols that went above and beyond what was legally required at the start of the pandemic, we were able to open up our campus for in-person teaching back in June 2020.” She particularly notes that the students appreciate the school’s effort to make campus safe, while they understand their continuing crucial role to keep it so.   Read More: The Return of International MBA Students

An increasing number of MBA students request new university facilities to be sustainable, collaborative and digitalized Business schools across the world have joined the competition to collect funds and build unprecedentedly grand campuses for their schools in recent years. The IE Tower, which is technologically sophisticated in the vertical form but also sustainable, was built in September 2021 by IE Business Schools located in Madrid. This facility has the capacity to hold students with 180 high and 35 floors that encompass 50,000 square meters, plus 7,000 square meters of green areas. Columbia Business School also plans to build its own premium facility, having raised $75m to the newly build Manhattan campus. The two facilities, which were due to be completed by early January 2022 for students’ access, will add multiple the square footage of the school. Director MBA programs, Rhoda Davidson, at Emlyon Business School in France emphasizes the significance of spatial organization based on the existing studies, saying “These studies interestingly demonstrate the extent to which one’s creativity can be affected by the space arrangement”. Echoing this statement, Business schools are committed to opening varying kinds of buildings that include airy and bright areas which can help students improve their capability of collaborative learning. After its 50 years of relocation in the outskirts of the city, Emlyon Business School itself is due to be moved to a new campus in the urban area by 2024 where it was originally established 150 years ago. The new facilities are aimed to provide students with approximate 30,000 square meters, involving 7,000 square meters of areas designed to stimulate students’ collaboration and experience. Davidson emphasizes that being located close to large-scaled corporations merits their students in terms of professional opportunities, saying that MBA students would be able to join the strategic consulting projects and demonstrate their aptitude to the senior management.   Providing both online and offline sessions [caption id="attachment_1287" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Davidson implies the necessity of having a tangible space despite the ongoing digital innovation[/caption] Given the dramatically growing online educational platforms, particularly due to the COVID-related circumstances, it seems questionable why the physical facilities are being developed rather than online technologies. Davidson finds the answer in the necessity of having a tangible space despite the ongoing digital innovation, underlying that “a physical dimension, human contact, and in-person meetings are essential components to higher education and research [therefore] We still need a campus to learn, discuss, share and collaborate”. Despite the relatively low budgets as an outcome of the extended lockdowns, business schools can afford the construction of their luxurious new buildings because of the increased tuition fee income. During the Covid pandemic, according to schools, the demands of MBA degrees have been multiplied and accordingly enlarged budgets, coming from the tuition fees, made their new building projects financially feasible. On the other side, the funds from affluent donors take large parts of the budget for the constructions. For instance, the Tepper School of Business has collected cash over a decade for its $201m campus facilities from 1,250 alumni and wealthy entrepreneur, David Tepper. The construction of technologically sophisticated buildings is to meet the MBA students’ needs. For instance, IE Tower provides students with learning areas set up with technological tools that are designed to give both in-person and digital lectures. The president of IE University, Santiago Iñiguez, ensures that IE Tower will enrich the students’ experience not only within the institution but also outside of it. This way of digitally connecting students is aimed to combine the tangible and digital learning experiences, simultaneously having some students attended in a physical classroom and others in a digital space, as well as asynchronous programs to support individual work.   Recently-built facilities allow interdisciplinary ways of learning The new campus of Columbia is currently in use for improving partnerships with the school, the New York tech community, in the same university. This reflects business schools’ purpose in opening up new teaching areas that is to stress collaborations between the schools of different disciplines. The dean of Columbia Business School, Costis Maaglaras, emphasizes that “Modern business is predicated on the expanded adoption of technology, data, and advanced analytics alongside the fundamentals of traditional business education”. For the same reason, the new facilities of the Tepper School of Business will allow the active collaborations open to the other six Carnegie Mellon colleges and schools. Former dean of the Tepper, Robert Dammon, who was one of the figures leading the innovation of school buildings, highlights “Today’s business leaders must address challenges with creative and interdisciplinary approaches”. Behind the popularity of new buildings, there are also the demands for eco-friendly facilities that can reduce carbon impact caused by business schools. Emlyon’s new facilities with a 9,000 square meter landscape, for instance, which will be built on its currently brownfield land, are expected to contribute to restoring the environment and biological diversity. Furthermore, these environmentally sustainable buildings will achieve the optimization of the energy consumption of the campus. Yet, the ultimate goal of schools is to foster the enrolment of new students and subsequently to increase tuition fee income. Read More: Australia’s Struggle to Regain its International Student Population    

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, a demand for MBA programs have greatly increased, leading to soaring GMAT -Graduate Management Admission Test- scores. For example, for the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the average score of applicants reached 738 this year, compared to 733 from last year. Also, application to Indiana University Kelley School of Business’s MBA course in 2021 has increased 61% compared to application numbers in 2020. This movement is quite different from what was happening in 2020. Due to the continuous drop of GMAT scores annually till 2020, colleges had to come up with diverse requirements of MBA entrances. Even though Covid-19 increased GMAT scores dramatically this year, there still exists movement to diversify MBA requirements. The first example is that of Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Kelley School has been using both GMAT and GRE -Graduate Record Exam- as entrance examinations. Jim Holmen, a director of admissions said that the soaring GMAT scores does not mean that GMAT is gaining back its suitability as an entrance requirement. He also said, “We value both exams....... MBA candidates should choose the test they are most comfortable with — the test where they believe they can achieve the most competitive scores.” NYU Stern School of Business also adopted new admission test options — LSAT, MCAT and DAT — this year. Furthermore, Stern School accepts Executive Assessment along with GMAT and GRE. This movement of abandoning standardized test requirement - GMAT - was also affected by 2020 Covid-19 crisis, which precluded application tests from being held as it has done before. This favored many applicants with comparatively low GMAT scores. According to Stacy Blackman, an admission consultant in Los Angeles, “Applicants would be wise to consider alternative test options unless they have GMAT scores that are at or above average, unless their profile has true differentiating qualities.” Georgetown McDonough School of Business in Washington, DC admits that although the average score of GMAT soared dramatically, 48% of the admitted students to 2021 MBA course had taken a GRE instead. The trend of GMAT waiver can be seen at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business as well. Robinson College decided to eliminate every test requirement this year. Brian Jennings, an associate dean for graduate programs, said that “GMAT or GRE scores are not necessary to predict classroom success; the tests are a barrier to entry and perpetuate systemic inequities; and test performance is immaterial to the ultimate measure — career outcomes and market demand for our students.” A GMAT waiver is foreseen to diversify the pool of MBA applicants in terms of demographic, industry, function, nationality, etc. With this aim, many colleges are adopting diverse options for MBA entrance requirement. However, not every college is jumping into this movement, some of them still relying on GMAT purely.   Read More: No More SAT/ACT for CSU Admissions    

Due to the border shutdown and other preventive measures of Covid-19, many harbors and airlines have frequently been closed. Freight handling delays combined with people trying to buy up products had caused a shortage of necessities. In order to gain the supply chain’s resilience back, many companies are trying to remake Supply Chain Management (SCM) strategies.

Apple used to adopt the Just-In-Time inventory management tactic, which aims to minimize the amount of inventory on hand to meet demand. Now, however, they are diversifying supplying countries rather than focusing only on China. IBM is also adopting a new strategy, called Rapid Supplier Contact (RSC), to combine new supply companies with ordering companies.

As an increasing number of companies care and focus more on SCM, the demand for SCM consultants is rapidly growing internationally. According to SCM Map Europe, 53 percent of SCM consultant firms in Europe have been hired in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic.

MBA schools are also focusing on the importance of SCM. Srikant Datar, the dean of Harvard Business School, acknowledged how companies had taken the logistics for granted before the pandemic started. Smeal College of Business in Pennsylvania now offers a new SCM course to its master’s level students.

Following the trend in the market and academia, an increasing number of people are looking for MBA degrees in SCM. According to Rudolf Leuschner, an associate professor of supply chain management at Rutgers Business School, about 10-20 percent more Rutgers MBA students enrolled in SCM courses than they had done before the pandemic started. He also believes that the demand by corporations will continue. “The lack of suitable literature has been a known topic for decades, but it wasn’t yet bad enough to cause large-scale delays as they do now,” he says.

Growing of the SCM market is expected to continue after Covid-19. According to Marketsandmarkets, a market research company, SCM market size is expected to grow almost twice by 2026.

Read More: Business Schools Prepare Students To Fight Financial Crimes. Yet, Challenges Remain

Business schools originally had deep concerns about the irreversible damage the pandemic could bring to their academic field. However, the latest data tells otherwise. MBAs saw a sharp increase in application numbers, as well as higher average GMAT scores. Numerous schools have also reported that they now have a more diverse student pool with higher enrollment rates from women and minority populations. This indicates that the competition for MBA admissions has become fiercer, pushing students to go beyond what schools used to seek in an applicant. Shelly Heinrich, associate dean of MBA admissions at Georgetown McDonough School of Business, said that a higher number of deferrals from the previous year has also contributed to the exceptionally competitive admission cycle. For example, at Georgetown, the overall average GMAT score increased by 17 points, and their admission rate decreased by nine percent. “We were simultaneously more selective […] and were more attractive, increasing yield by seven percent,” Heinrich noted. Yet, she also points out that the higher competition would also bring benefits to the prospective students as they will be part of a more diverse student pool with various work experiences in different sectors. She said, “When you’re analyzing a case study about Fortune 100 company, you want someone in your class that has worked there.”

Increasing diversity in business schools

Many MBA programs across the U.S. reported increased diversity in their entering class. At the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, 46 percent of its Class of 2023 will be women, up from 43 percent last year. Soojin Kwon, managing director of MBA admissions at Michigan Ross, said, “This is a record percentage of women in our full-time MBA class. It was achieved by continuing to execute our strategy of focused recruiting efforts and in particular, leveraging our students and alumni from different affinity groups.” The managing director also mentioned that the school set its own record for many other parts — all-time high GMAT average, record selectivity at 20 percent, and highest number of applications from underrepresented minorities. NYU Stern School of Business had a similar experience in the recent admission cycle. It reported its historic high GMAT average of 729, along with an eight percent increase in enrollment from 317 last year to 360 students. Lisa Rios, assistant dean of MBA admissions at Stern, believes that a more applicant-friendly admission process and continuously growing demand for MBA degrees were two main contributors to the recent trend of stronger class profile. She noted, “For the 2020-2021 admissions cycle, NYU Stern continued to adopt an applicant-centric approach, including adding three new standardized test options — LSAT, MCAT, and DAT — to the existing GMAT, GRE, and Executive Assessment.”

Growing emphasis on emotional intelligence in MBAs

However, a high GMAT score and a fascinating résumé are not the only factors that MBA admissions look for. For instance, admissions at Stern closely evaluates applicants’ emotional intelligence in its admissions process. Rios commented that the emotional intelligence is especially important for MBA students as “[t]he students’ classmates are the people they will learn from, be in clubs with, work on experiential learning projects with, and in many cases work with after graduation.” [caption id="attachment_1721" align="alignnone" width="2560"] The University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management works to build a more diverse student body from various backgrounds and experiences. Photo: Maksim Sokolov / Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0[/caption] Joseph Milner, the vice-dean of MBA programs at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, said that the school tries its best to build a diverse student body with applicants from various backgrounds and past experiences, which would help its students to further develop emotional intelligence. He noted, “We build our diverse class taking into account the experiences and backgrounds of our applicants. We then mindfully divide the students into sections, paying attention to the multiple dimensions of how students define themselves.” Rotman’s effort to bring more diversity on campus seems to be working; it welcomed 25 percent more black applicants last admission cycle. Furthermore, the school has brought changes to its career services in order to better align them with the job market. As a result, 97 percent of the Class of 2021 were successfully employed within three months of graduation. Referring to the recent surge in MBA applications and the consequent high competition, Milner advised future applicants, “We look for intellectual horsepower, experience, impact, communications, presence, and a ‘spike factor’ – something that the applicant sees as defining themselves uniquely. All of these are looked at and weigh in the admissions decision.”   Read More: Applications for MBAs Are Increasing With the Economy