DIRECTOR’S DESPATCH
IN SEARCH OF SUBSTANCE
AMBA & BGA membership director Victor Hedenberg bemoans the frequency with which some business schools sign superficial agreements with overseas institutions and outlines a process for forming meaningful international partnerships
L ast year, we had the pleasure of hosting a and the Middle East. The principal question under discussion was simple: “How do you build meaningful international partnerships?” However, the workshop demonstrated that finding solutions to this conundrum can be far more complicated. The reality is that some universities are still driven to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for only two purposes. The first is to create a marketing buzz, if the agreement is with a prestigious university. The second is the belief that it can help with their institution’s performance in rankings and/or accreditations. The act of chasing MOUs simply for the sake of the aforementioned reasons capacity-building workshop in Abu Dhabi for business schools from across UAE has some negative consequences. Firstly, there are institutions that claim to be working with such an absurd number of international partners that one wonders how they get anything meaningful out of it. Secondly, if the agreement has no tangible outputs for students, it can leave those who were hoping for a
thrilling international experience quite disappointed. Moreover, when MOUs are there only to help with an institution’s positioning and recruitment, they often end up collecting dust in the dark and forgotten basements of universities. The wider problem here is that these international partnerships are not perceived as “products” that deliver value to students and this is a shame. By refocusing, an institution could opt for fewer and more selective partnerships that heighten the quality and experience of its programmes. While this might not help directly in rankings, it can certainly play an important role in recruitment. The CEMS “An institution could opt for fewer and more selective partnerships that heighten the quality and experience of its programmes”
alliance, for example, leverages the strengths of all institutions in its network to deliver highly impactful international programmes and journeys for students. So, how can business schools pursue similarly impactful partnerships? For a start, they should get to know the business schools they’re interested in partnering with. Forming a long‑lasting relationship requires several visits, alignment of purpose and vision, commercial viability and much more. Once all these elements are in line, institutions can formally plan an agreement, with a detailed action plan that encompasses the expected results and outputs of the MOU. Following this process is what differentiates a partnership of substance from one that is purely a marketing gimmick. My hope is that more business schools will sit down and reassess their current list of partners by asking themselves what their work with these institutions looks like in reality and what value the collaborations bring to partnership audit, downsizing where necessary, could help propel their impact and inspire future relationships that will be mutually beneficial for all concerned in the long term. students and other stakeholders. It’s possible that performing a
38 Business Impact • ISSUE 5 • 2025
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