Students at a group session |
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Its strength is its diversity for no one nationality dominates. There are Indians, Americans, Japanese, French, Brits-you name it and it is this multi-cultural environment that INSEAD prides itself on. For where else would you get 76 different nationalities represented in an MBA class of 882 students?
One school, two campuses is the motto of this elite, globally renowned business school that has its Asian campus in Singapore. And indeed, a visit to INSEAD was one of the highlights of an educational tour of Singapore in September for Indian and Sri Lankan journalists, organised by the Singapore Tourism Board which is looking to bring the many learning opportunities the tiny island-state offers to a wider audience.
INSEAD's state-of-the-art, eco-friendly Singapore campus is designed to create a stimulating environment and one is struck by the heady atmosphere of learning, the drive and intensity that seems to characterize it, both visible among staff and students.
INSEAD ‘Green’ campus |
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INSEAD's history was outlined in an interesting presentation to visiting journalists by Prof. Narayan Pant, Dean of Executive Education. It came into being in 1957 in a post World War II climate, three months after the Treaty of Rome when a group of Harvard alumni sensed the need for an independent pan-European business school, modelled on the top US business schools that would meet the challenges of an emerging Europe. INSEAD's first MBA programme was held in Fontainebleau, France way back in 1960 and since then it has achieved distinction as one of the most globally recognized MBAs.
Its mission statement spells it out- to "promote a non-dogmatic learning environment that brings together people, cultures and ideas from around the world, changing lives, and helping transform organisations through management education". There's more:"develop responsible, thoughtful leaders and entrepreneurs who create value for their organisations and their communities" and "through research, expand the frontiers of academic thought and influence business practice".
A week-long career fair was on at INSEAD when we visited and this, we were told, is a regular occurrence at the campus. Leading multinationals like Shell, Rolls Royce, Apple, Schlumberger, GE all had their stalls in the Reuters foyer at INSEAD and were actively interacting with students. Last year, one company McKinsey recruited 100 of the 900 INSEAD MBA graduating students, a remarkable statistic, said Joanne Koo, Associate Director, Career Services at INSEAD explaining how many companies come in to conduct the first round of interviews and sometimes students fly to different cities for their second or final interviews. Video conferences are also conducted with prospective employers as part of the Career Services unit's effort to help the graduates along their career path.
For many at INSEAD, the MBA offers opportunities for career change with the INSEAD career services team fully focused on helping them with career counselling, job skills training, recruitment etc. "Don't forget, our students are competing with the top three; Wharton, Harvard and Stanford. We give every student three compulsory career advice sessions," said Ms. Koo. "This is necessary because a lot of them want to change their careers.
They do an MBA to change careers, to change geography."
INSEAD's Asia campus was opened in 2000 and as such it became the only business school to have two equally equipped integrated campuses (Fontainebleau and Singapore) giving students a chance to experience the best of both worlds. Two-thirds of students seize the opportunity transferring from the Fontainebleau campus, set in a historic chateau town next to the famous forest by the same name, 69 km from Paris to the multicultural cosmopolitan whirl that is Singapore INSEAD. Its international faculty shuttle between the two campuses and the school also offers its students opportunity to take an elective at the Wharton School in the US.
A notable feature of INSEAD is its family friendly policy where students can be accompanied by their families while doing their MBAs. In fact, the presence of children and spouses walking through the INSEAD campus and the children's playrooms, was an eye-opener. Many clubs and activities are also designed to allow for a rounded enriching experience.
A significant fact highlighted by INSEAD staff is that a large number of the MBA students now following the course had not applied elsewhere- proof they feel that for them, it was INSEAD's globally valued course or nothing.
Website:www.insead.edu/mba.
'An unconventional MBA for unconventional minds' is the catchy slogan of the Singapore Management University's brand new MBA, a 12-month programme launched just this year, along with a part-time MBA which takes 16 months.
SMU, begun in 2000 is now housed in its plush campus in the heart of the city hub. Its MBA was carefully planned, Director, MBA Programme, Startegic Planning Doris Sohmen-Pao tells us, for SMU wanted to get the mix just right, competing as they were with many of the older, more established programmes.
"Our MBA programmes takes elements, best practices from other courses. We wanted to create something different from the local options that were available. We already had about 200 faculty to choose from, and we have been able to attract visiting faculty from the top business schools in the US who were excited at the prospect of teaching in Asia," she said.
"We are a general management programme and we are really equipping our graduates to be leaders, to be open to ideas," she says, elaborating on the programme's focus on leadership, general management and ethics.
The classes themselves are unconventional, Ms. Sohmen-Pao explains. There is a strong focus on corporate communications-presentation skills, writing skills to ensure that the MBA graduate is well equipped in these critical areas of today's business world-"we know that they must have the capability to lead a team."
Classes are also small (the first full-time batch is just 23) and SMU's lecture halls are more seminar-style, designed to promote greater interaction between student and professor.
SMU has very strong connections with the business community in Singapore. "As much as Singapore promotes business being a business hub, we luck out getting contacts with them. It's very symbiotic, the relationship we have with them," Ms. Sohmen-Pao added.
Prospective applicants would need to have at least a minimum of two years work experience though anything over six is recommended.
Significantly, The SMU MBA is priced much higher than the more established MBA courses offered by Singapore's state universities, the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. The MBA costs around 50,000 Sing $, but SMU staff are confident that their MBA graduates will be every bit as successful as their undergraduates who have 100 per cent job placement.
Website: www.smu.edu.sg/MBA |
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