Throughout my involvement in academia, I have worked on many education-related principles, including bringing education out of the silo, introducing greater flexibility and agility into executive education and allowing stakeholders, such as experts, instructors, contributors, professors and students to learn simultaneously and more easily from each other.
Higher education in business has been functioning more or less the same way for centuries, but things are perhaps about to change for several reasons:
The needs of many of the executives-cum-students are changing. Many are now being laid off due to emerging AI and other technological advances, and the population that needs re-educating is mushrooming.
The present executive-cum-student typically calls for more flexibility than schools could typically offer in the past. Today’s executive students simply resist spending weeks, let alone months, on a business school campus.
In parallel, the cost pressure on the educational sector is becoming more intense. Therefore, less expensive ways to employ faculty or make use of schools’ campuses are emerging.
Digital technology supports novel changes. Today, studying at home via distance learning is a preferred option rather than spending time in uninspiring traditional classrooms. These emerging technologies allow for remote learning; deep learning; interactive learning with materials, such as online flashcards, case studies and quizzes; chatbots with professors and assistants; instant grading; etc.
Finally, education faces the same increased pressure to “adapt to the times” as other sectors. As students use technology increasingly in their personal and professional lives, their attention spans are decreasing, and they demand more interactivity and speed, even in learning. So, education, like retail or other service offerings, has to keep evolving alongside its consumers.
Student enrollment in general seems to be decreasing, and this is especially the case for MBA programs. I trace this evolution to five causes:
A realization seems to be growing that forms of preparation for a successful career other than what business schools can offer abound. For instance, engineering and science studies are on the rise. Such studies can easily be combined with a practical apprentice career. Also, it might become easier to integrate promising technological developments.
On top of these shifts in student preferences, many developed societies face the issue of their aging population, which mechanically decreases the pool of potential business school students.
Tuition fees might be growing so high that a “limit of tolerance” might have been met. In plain words, studying at a business school is becoming too expensive.
The program curriculum often seems too inflexible, making it difficult to effectively combine with careers in the practical world. And employers might simply find unacceptable that the student be away from their job to allow enrollment.
“Learning on the job” and focusing on specific job-related achievements are growing trends. With the rise in start-ups, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures, incubation labs and an overall new business-oriented energy as a solution to the economic crises, many employers in developed countries seem more focused on hiring top talent that has proven itself “on the ground” instead of necessarily proven “in the classroom” through degrees or academic achievements. In other words, today, one asks, “What have you done or achieved?” more often than “What did you study?” or “Where did you study?”
A more effective concept for a business school degree program is therefore called for, which should encompass:
A minimum amount of time to be spent at school. This minimum should be low, for instance one week. The typical employer would be a key decision maker for what is now realistically acceptable in his/her world.
Many studies on diverse sets of cutting-edge expert reports are typically focused on the offerings, competencies and research from many leading experts and come from several business schools, not just one! Increasingly, variety seems to be key. There may typically not be one clear answer to cutting-edge dilemmas. Various experts from various schools may see things differently, and such diversity may be increasingly essential.
It is key to take advantage of virtual learning and digital knowledge transfer as well as digital communities and their engagement capacity. Modern distance learning is now generally of very high quality, and modern students are generally comfortable with studying alone.
But face-to-face learning experiences shall of course have to be provided, complementing the distance learning, which will typically take place in workshop settings on campus or in a hotel setting with a focus on discussing cutting-edge dilemmas that emerge after self-studying and which do typically not have one clear “answer.” The leader would take on a role perhaps more analogous to that of an orchestra conductor rather than the traditional professor role of one-way learning. Synthesis, listening and give-and-take would be the hallmarks of two-way learning with an effective professor in this setting. Also, these workshops would typically go on uninterrupted for quite some time and not follow the “45-minute format” of typical classes. Weekends would typically be a good time to run these workshops to avoid conflicting with students’ day jobs.
The key here is the efficiency of the offering. This business school is efficient because it can provide more practical, tangible and relevant deliverables.
The “School”
As mentioned above, many business schools’ cost structures seem to have gotten out of hand. Striving for quality is key, but it does not imply that things have to be so expensive! Some fundamental questions might have to be raised. A thoughtful program of outsourcing, drawing on resources only when needed, might have to be put into effect. Let me raise this questioning of “sacred cows” here, perhaps in increasing degree of challenge of being accepted at most schools:
School staffs tend to mushroom. Why are they all necessary? Why do these additional expenses arise? Why not take advantage of outsourcing opportunities? Another question, perhaps even more fundamental, might focus on what tasks these added staffs are performing. Are they essential? Are they performing effectively enough? Is the staff being managed well enough? And, most critically, is all of this a core part of a typical business school’s “raison d’être”?
Why full-time professors? Most professors have relatively “modest” task loads. Their contractual requirements to teach might typically be fulfilled over a relatively short period of time in a school year. So how is the rest of their time being spent? The conventional answer is on research—but is this in fact the case? What is the actual research output, and is it of reasonable quality? Is time being spent on revenue-generating outside activities instead, such as teaching elsewhere and/or consulting, or is a professor enjoying an “easy life”? My sense is that most professors might be hired to teach on a part-time basis. Most other professors are facing the need to show higher productivity. Are professors generally faced with such demands? Considerable efficiency benefits and cost savings might typically be incurred by advancing full-time professional employment and dropping the centuries-old convention of faculty tenure, probably a departure from conditions to safeguard intellectual freedom that no longer exists.
Why an expensive campus? Why should we maintain elaborate buildings and grounds today? As noted, distance learning shall increasingly be expected to take over, implying that conventional classrooms shall typically be much less in demand. Also, face-to-face workshops shall now typically take place in smaller seminar rooms, often with ordinary tables on “flat” floors and with a relatively limited capacity by design, say 30 students at the maximum, a far cry from typical conventional lecture halls! Airport hotels might be better suited to meet these needs. They certainly offer more convenient access than many conventional campuses. The overarching question remains “Why do we need a conventional school campus at all?”
The bottom line for all of us might be a considerable cost savings without lessening quality. We see new entrants becoming active in markets that have traditionally been the domain of business schools—consultants, special providers, and expert entrepreneurs. These new actors, of course, take advantage of the types of cost savings suggested! Also, with the removal of heavy staff, reduction of professors’ time commitment and avoidance of the campus, education itself can match the greater societal trends of remote offices, home offices, open work spaces, multi-vendor teams, freelance staffing, hierarchy-free teams, mixed-generation teams, internal with external tasks forces, etc. Therefore, this approach brings executive education more into harmony with today’s business world realities.
The Pedagogy
Pedagogy is indeed changing. We have already discussed the emergence of blended learning, indeed an effective and exciting pedagogy. We shall highlight these other contributing factors to an emerging pedagogy:
To learn from what might be seen as “cutting edge” seems key. Knowledge is being accumulated in a dramatic fashion these days. Research can of course continue to push the limits of knowledge, but increasingly, best practices might also come from business. Leading business executives, including cutting-edge consultants, may be representing the forefront. They should be brought in as part of lecturing. They should be part of an emerging pedagogy!
A typical student will of course make his/her own conclusions regarding “how things are” as part of their day-to-day work. Their experiences might represent important elements of reflection, complementing what they might be exposed to through distance learning materials and/or in workshops, and this blend of combining experience and new insights might result in new learning, new “ah-ha’s.” Modern pedagogy is based on this.
Being forced to write down one’s analysis and submit it for grading, typically in the form of relatively short, succinct papers, may be a final part of the “new” pedagogy. Setting down one’s thoughts on paper requires extreme precision, also generally missing in many students’ academic experiences today. It is the application or proof of the knowledge acquired.
Conclusions
We see a dramatically changing reality of what the “business school of the future” might look like—revised offerings, new roles and configurations (cost effective and better!) and more powerful pedagogy. The business school sector has traditionally been rather conservative. This is indeed expected to change!
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