The new faces of the great classics of postgraduate courses
Conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program is positioned as the king of postgraduate business degrees worldwide. Over the past 30 years, this degree has spread to universities around the world, and Spain ranks highly with many institutions rated as offering the best MBA courses. But what is his future? The profound technological developments of the 21st century have profoundly modified the ways of studying and the way companies are run, a context that has also influenced MBA courses worldwide.
“Artificial intelligence has unleashed a wave of technology-driven change that is already reshaping higher education, the job market, and every industry,” says Lee Newman, dean of IE Business School. The advent of this technology has led IE to work to ensure all MBA students have access to a full suite of AI-powered tools, with the goal of teaching how to use them to increase productivity and drive innovation in industrial processes, Newman says.
Fostering interest in innovation is one of the main points that Comillas ICADE has focused on to promote MBAs. Today, corporate innovation is not an option. says Juan Antonio Gil Sierra, Comillas ICADE MBA Director. In this respect, this educational institution attaches great importance to business innovation from a core vision of sustainability.
The international character of the students is another one of the keys transforming MBAs in Spanish universities. “The IESE MBA program continues to be a highly sought-after program, among other reasons because of its great diversity among participants who come from all over the world. Of the 350 students who start the program each year, 85% are not Spanish and may come from more than 60 countries This level of ‘internationality’ is actually one of the great attractions,” says Wim den Tuinder, associate director of the MBA program at IESE.
In the case of IESE, this internationality also translates into the possibility of selecting one-week international modules in cities such as Shenzhen, Nairobi, Sao Paulo, New York or Hyderabad in India, says Dean Twender. “There is a constant process of updating the content in what cases are being dealt with in the class and of course careful research in different areas,” he says.
But he’s still the king…
In recent years, many postgraduate programs have emerged, But MBA is still king. “Over the years, the demand for the MBA has leveled off and the ‘boom’ of a decade ago has slowed down. However, it is one of our outstanding programs within the training offer of EAE Business School Madrid in any of its methods,” says Antonio Rodriguez, Dean of EAE Madrid. At EAE, Rodríguez says, the differential element that has allowed him to differentiate his MBA is the work the talent department does to help students identify their strengths and areas in which they can improve.
Online education has also been a boost to graduate school, especially post-pandemic, and it’s a form of teaching in which Deusto saw an opportunity to get an MBA. “With the pandemic, society has become accustomed to online training and then people who want an executive MBA see this as another possibility,” says David Ruiz de Olano and Tontxu Campos, co-directors of Deusto Business School EMBA.
“In our case, the face-to-face EMBA has an international projection, with weeks at some of the best universities in the world, and the online university is designed for people who want to juggle personal and professional life and for whom travel is a serious issue. to train”, Ruiz de Olano y Campos commented on how the university strives to identify the opportunities offered by each medium of education, thus making the most of its students. MBAs in the 21st century are more vital than ever.
