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5. MBA SPECIALIZATIONS

The specialisations score represents the percentage of recruiters who responded to the specialisations survey, who selected each school for a particular specialist area. Each recruiter was asked to identify up to ten schools they believe produces MBAs with strong skills in each specialist field.
Amongst our respondents 240 recruiters completed this section of the survey.

5.1 INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

In the last ten years, international management has become the most popular MBA specialisation. Two leading business schools have designed their curriculum to focus on international management. INSEAD, based in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore, which is selected by most recruiters for strength in this specialisation, has a student population made up of 48 different nationalities and constituting 95% of its class, and all courses place an emphasis on the international dimensions of the subject. Outgoing Dean, Professor Gabriel Hawawini of INSEAD confirms, "INSEAD's strategy for the last 40 years has been to build a truly global business school." The Wharton School, based in Philadelphia, re-designed it's curriculum in 1992 to focus on international management and has subsequently lead the way in 'recruiter reviews' such as the QS TopMBA.com Recruiters survey, and in various rankings.

What are the benefits to an MBA candidate of having a highly international MBA programme? Douglas Dunn, Dean of Carnegie-Mellon (C-M) University argues, "Global business leaders today, need to be able to lead and contribute effectively to diverse teams in multicultural settings... A highly international class creates opportunities for teaming and sharing of cultural experiences." He adds that the experience of studying overseas encourages a 'willingness to embrace change as second nature... and an ability to see opportunities to develop new entrepreneurial businesses' (40% of C-M alumni start their own business). AGSIM-Thunderbird in Arizona places an emphasis on learning new languages and mixing nationalities of project teams to maximise cultural as well as business learning. Cynthia Zoubir at Thunderbird Europe says, "A truly international B-school must include 'soft-skills' training in languages and cultural understanding, global job postings, an international faculty, overseas study opportunities, and worldwide alumni network...not to mention diversity in the student body."

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Back to Index Global Recruiter's Top 100 Business Schools 2006

Source: -
QS World MBA Tour - QS TopMBA.com International Recruiter Survey 2006
© QS Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. 2006
Website: www.topmba.com