Will there be an upswing in the number of self- gramme, designed for high quality individuals where they work on solving a problem within
funded students? We have not seen it yet. In fact, that want a high quality programme. that context.
although there will be some increase in numbers
this year, the students are still being sponsored. I leadership This year we took them to Santiago de Chile where
think sensible organizations know that in a way we worked with five SMEs who were in receipt
this is the time to invest. When times are hard in this ever-changing economy, what role of venture capital: the assignment concerned
you need new and innovative ways of tackling does leadership play and to what extent is problem solving within strategic projects that
problems. Accordingly, we are finding that it addressed throughout the programme? would allow the next tranche of VC to be released.
sensible and forward thinking employers are still Leadership is very much the in-vogue term This international experience is built into our
open to some level of sponsorship. of the moment. Our stance on leadership is programme and is included in the fee.
that there must be leadership for a purpose.
Accreditation It’s very much about change; and so we have Reference the fulltime MBA, as most of
a core model titled ‘leading change’. We need the students are of non-UK origins, we do a
Do you feel accreditation is an indicator of to talk about leadership for change, leadership similar thing for them here. We place them in
quality and do employers use it as a bench- for a purpose, and not leadership in abstract. organizations within the local region to work
mark? Accreditation is important. We’ve had Although leadership has a module of its own, on a designated project, so this becomes their
AMBA since 1988; it’s core to our strategy for we expect students to think about the concepts international experience.
the MBA; a tool to differentiate it in the mar- within the module.
ket place from lesser programmes, as it were. The Future
I think accreditation is increasingly important We need to recognize that within the MBA
within the business school market. In this con- there are no narrowly defined boundaries, What can new and existing students expect
nection, we are also looking at EQUIS and the concepts crossover: you can’t talk about strategy from newcastle, in terms of programme in-
AACSB accreditation. It’s a competitive mar- without talking about leadership, operations, novations, over the next 12 to 18 months?
ket place for employers and students alike. Of marketing and HR, and you can’t talk about As mentioned earlier, our programme is contin-
course, the perception of the value of accredita- HR without talking about leadership. uously updated and so the next 12/18 months
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We need to recognize that within the MBA there are no narrowly defined
boundaries, concepts crossover: you can’t talk about strategy without talking
about leadership, operations, marketing and HR, and you can’t talk about HR
without talking about leadership.
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tion will vary from one industry sector to an- International Business will see a continuation of that process. We learn
other, and from one organization to another. A from each group of students and we take that
small firm tends to place greater interest on the Given the competitive demands placed knowledge forward to the next batch. At the
individual per se, whilst a large corporate with upon corporations today, and increasing risk of sounding trite, our students can expect
a fully fledged professional HR department is globalization - both of which require tomor- an increased understanding of what really went
going to be aware of the accreditation, and this row’s business leaders to be flexible and wrong, over the last two years; not merely the
will make a difference within their short listing manage workforces and internal structures journalistic view, which tends to simplify some-
of candidates. that cross cultural and political lines - have what. So, there needs to be an understanding of
you redefined your mBA programme? The that built into the curriculum.
What impact does accreditation have on idea that there needs to be an international pro-
the quality and quantity of applications you gramme is not new to us. On the core modules, We also need to understand how the problems can
receive? Both quality and quantity are im- students are introduced to the way in which be rectified. We expect our students at the end of
pacted. There are certain minimum criteria that the world economy works from a geopolitical the programme to not be cynical, but to question
AMBA require from MBA applicants, in terms view rather than a straight economics view. everything they see and read. In a word, we will lay
of work experience and so on: without the ac- We achieve this through a module titled the the foundation that will allow them to cope with
creditation a programme might attract and ac- ‘Global Business Environment’. what will be an uncertain decade. ■
cept students that we would refuse. As a cor-
ollary, with average class sizes ranging around One of the unique elements of our programme
25 students, the market for students wanting is that at the end of the final year all the
to take part in an accredited programme in the executive MBA students go on an international
Biography
region is probably limited. We don’t see that management consultancy trip. We take them
Dr Andrew Simpson is the Director of Executive
as a problem. Especially in so far as concerns abroad for a week and place them in an
Programmes at Newcastle University.
our executive MBA, which is a flagship pro- organization with a different business culture
56 | CEO
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