BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
CAPACITY-BUILDING WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
BGA’s capacity-building workshop in Berlin looked at how business schools can find the right partners and, crucially, the right type of partnerships for their individual circumstances. Tim Banerjee Dhoul reports
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ollaborative projects, initiatives and programmes between business schools and other organisations are increasingly central to success in the global management education industry. They can also take a wide variety of forms, each of which offers differing
At one end of the spectrum are single-course collaborations that might, for example, consist of study trips or student exchanges. These can be arranged with a large number of partner institutions in different locations in a short space of time, although van de Velde did note that one could question whether they really equate to a ‘partnership’ due to their simplicity. At the other end are long-term partnerships where institutions commit to offering a double degree. Examples offered included the Lisbon MBA, a set-up that involves two leading business schools based in the same city deciding to join forces to offer a programme that leverages their strengths rather than competing in the same space. Van de Velde then moved on to the topic of multilateral partnerships. This covered programme partnerships between more than two institutions, such as the renowned TRIUM executive MBA offered by HEC Paris, LSE and NYU Stern, as well as the World Bachelor in Business offered by Bocconi University, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Also highlighted by van de Velde was the potential value of belonging to global networks and alliances, such as CEMS (the Global Alliance in Management Education), through which students can access a standardised one-year master’s in management curriculum at any of the 34 business school members belonging to the network. The Global Network for Advanced Management, launched in 2012 by a consortium of schools that includes the Yale School of Management, was another example. Its ‘Network weeks’ programme brings
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benefits and challenges. This makes the sheer scale of possibilities difficult to navigate for many who work in the sector. For this reason, BGA’s inaugural European capacity-building workshop offered a deep dive into the question of partnerships. Held in Berlin on 16 February, the event convened a group of business school leaders to share their experiences of building partnerships with other institutions and organisations. Across four keynote presentations, interspliced with numerous breakout tasks and networking opportunities, the group discussed approaches, challenges and results from their past, present and planned projects. The partnership landscape Steef van de Velde, management and technology professor and a former dean at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, opened the workshop with a comprehensive overview of the global partnership landscape, encouraging participants to share some of their latest ideas and approaches. Van de Velde talked attendees through the types of partnerships that are commonly set up between business schools. He highlighted how these might range from relationships that are simple and short term to longer- term initiatives that are often decidedly more complex.
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