“We are deliberately aiming at an international market,” says president Derek Abell “Everything is in English We are going for a global reach. This January the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), in Berlin, embarks on its first full-time MBA course. Like leading programmes around the world, the aim was to take in high-quality students with several years of working experience under their belts, and to teach them via team work, role plays and case studies, emphasising softer management skills along with technical expertise. Germany has long lagged behind in the MBA market, but this could soon change as a major new player sets out to make its mark on the international map. But, if concern is not to become crisis, the supply of PhD students will have to increase, and the passage from boardroom to lecture theatre made a little smoother.. “Business schools are getting more like football clubs,” he explains.

“Global competition has driven up prices.”In this environment, Tanaka has decided to narrow its focus, and recruit teaching staff with specific business specialisms, related to Imperial’s world-renowned strengths of engineering, medicine and mathematics.So, at the moment, schools are coping. “Having experience of business doesn’t mean you can teach, write, research and support learning.”Malcolm Kirkup, director of the full time MBA at Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) tells a similar story: “It is becoming progressively more difficult to recruit high-quality faculty, particularly in specific subject areas, such as marketing.”This means that, on occasions, he has to buy in a professor from another university, or someone from industry, to fill a gap.At Tanaka Business school, part of Imperial College, the Principal, Professor David Begg, also recognises the tightening of the market. “There’s a dearth of business PhD students in general and a bigger dearth of British ones,” says Professor Arthur Francis, Dean of Bradford University’s School of Management and current chairman of the ABS.”And we feel more could be done to help businessmen and women with experience make the move into higher education.”The ABS have had two meetings with senior DfES officials to flag-up the situation, and discussions continue on ways to address the problem.On the ground, some schools are already finding that the mix of commercial experience and teaching aptitude is a rare one.”Finding people capable of making the conversion from business to higher education is a tough deal,” says Michael Osbaldeston, Director of Cranfield School of Management. A survey of members conducted by the Association of Business Schools (ABS) in the UK has shown that recruiting experienced and competent faculty is becoming more difficult.
Traditionally, teachers come from two sources: PhD students and practitioners from industry. But how certain can you be that the teachers you’ll encounter will match that expectation? Stirrings from within the business education world suggest there may be grounds for future concern. You’re devoting money, time and bucket loads of energy into something that should be life changing. In return, you expect high quality education, led by top-drawer faculty.

The sessions, which included one on stress management techniques, opened my eyes to the notion that the MBA must deliver a very broad experience if it is to develop you as an individual beyond the academic learning aspect. Meditation is one way of giving you space to think about what you actually want to achieve.”. Embarking on an MBA is a big investment. Bristol’s emphasis on personal development meant that we were asked at the outset of the course to say what we would like to achieve during this year.”Meditation formed a valuable part of the review day further into the course.

Business schools have a responsibility to identify the particular skills that are lacking in the senior managers of the future and must rise to the challenge of developing them.”‘Meditation lets you think about what you want to achieve’Matt Lowe, 33, is studying on the one-year full-time MBA programme at Bristol Business School and took part in the meditation exercise as part of the Personal Development Process. He is now an advocate for the value of building reflective time into the high-pressure MBA course.Matt Lowe’s rationale for doing an MBA was to have time out to reflect on 10 year’s work experience, having become the youngest ever manager of a major branch of the BSS Group, the national distributor of heating and plumbing materials.”I felt I had reached a plateau and was determined to remain open-minded about which way my career would go. It may be orienteering or retrieving objects from the middle of a lake. The idea is to create an activity to test an individual’s leadership skills from pre-planning through to outcome.As Malcolm Kirkup says: “Employers are asking tough questions as to the MBA’s value. As part of their team-building exercises, students have, in the past, re-enacted Hamlet for one another, depicting it in their own words. This demonstrates how different groups interpret the same material.”"When it comes to leadership skills, we really major in putting theory into practice,” says Malcolm Kirkup, MBA director at Lancaster.