Managing the challenge of student and business needs
The AGSM is undergoing a major review of its MBA programs in response to the challenge of change in both the business environment and customer requirements for the highest quality management education product and experience.
On the basis of accumulated innovations in curriculum and delivery development over the past few years, the AGSM has been able to identify and make the right choices for further improvements to specific areas of curriculum, program delivery and student experience.
The first program to be reviewed is the full-time MBA program. The redesigned curriculum, which will be taught from 2002, responds to changes in the business environment such as the impact of information technology, e-commerce, globalisation and workplace diversity.
The main areas of change for the fulltime MBA program involve:
■ Extending the contribution of information technology and electronic commerce in core requisite courses.
■ Further integration of content across all courses and disciplines within the program, focusing on the introduction of an integrated program structure run concurrently with core courses. Integrated programs, such as‘ managing diversity’, will be topical and genuinely integrative( across disciplines) and taught by a team of at least two people in different academic areas. One of the aims is to create more in-built flexibility and timeliness with programs that are easier to change to respond to customer and marketplace needs.
■ Restructuring program delivery and study structures to allow the MBA program to be completed in 15 months( if no internship is taken) or 18 months( with an internship) to reduce the overall costs to students.
■ Ensuring that the curriculum, delivery and student experience are responsive to the realities of globalisation and offer the requisite cross-cultural management skills to succeed in a global marketplace.
■ More emphasis on teamwork to reinforce
leadership and team skills. Each new MBA program intake will be split into two groups constructed for maximum diversity and each assigned teamwork facilitators.
■ Strengthening business and alumni community links for adding value to the overall student experience. Areas of focus include increasing outside speaker programs, greater access to companies as sites for management projects and research, and developing alumni mentoring of students.
“ An important underlying outcome of the review was that our research reaffirmed the need for a generalist postgraduate qualification in management that delivers a breadth of understanding across all of the core disciplines of management,” says Dr Robert Westwood, review committee member.
Also highlighted by the review was the ongoing need to improve continually the quality of the overall MBA program
“ INTEGRAL TO THE OVERALL QUALITY EQUATION IS WHAT WE CALL‘ THE COMPANY YOU KEEP’— A HIGH-CALIBRE NETWORK OF FACULTY, STUDENTS AND ALUMNI COMMUNITY.”— Sue Bennett-Williams, acting director, MBA program
UPDATE
experience through delivery of study programs such as international exchange and management projects, and provision of employment services and networking facilities.
“ Integral to the overall quality equation is what we call‘ the company you keep’. By that we mean the AGSM’ s ability to offer exposure to a very high-calibre network of faculty, students who bring with them valuable industry experience, an international exchange program with excellent business schools such as LBS, Wharton and Kellogg and, of course, a first-class alumni community,” says Sue-Bennett Williams, acting director, MBA program.
“ At the AGSM we have a reputation for delivering a high quality student cohort; we will continue to do that not only by using GMAT scores as a quality measure but also focusing on applicants’ business experience and knowledge, because students’ input is important to the overall MBA program experience,” she says.
The full-time MBA program review has specifically sought to harness innovations across curricula, program delivery and student experience to continue to advance management knowledge and practice in Australia and the region. It is designed to ensure that its graduates possess the skills, knowledge, competencies and values to be effective business leaders in today’ s complex and everchanging environment.
The Executive MBA program is next in line for review and the committee that has been formed aims to make recommendations later in the year. ✪
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