EDITOR’S LETTER
EDITORIAL
Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@amba-bga.com Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@amba-bga.com Art editor Sam Price
ELEVATING THE EXPERIENCE
Elements such as student support, personalised development plans, psychology lessons and carefully curated experiential learning can all help boost a school’s offering
I n a context of growing competition encompasses everything from participants’ day-to-day interactions with instructors, staff and fellow students to the look and feel of teaching techniques, resources and services offered. As such, it is a hugely open-ended area of focus but one that is consistently linked to a prospective student’s choice of school and their academic and advancing technology, the student experience is becoming ever more central to business schools’ value proposition and efforts to meet learners’ changing expectations. “Experience” performance, retention and wellbeing once enrolled, as well as their relationship with an institution post‑graduation. In this issue of Business Impact , features on school strategy, pedagogy and programme initiatives all attest to the overriding importance of getting the student experience right. In our cover story, reimagining student support as a lynchpin of institutional strategy forms part of Mauricio Villena’s guide to the future of higher education. “The physical campus is justified not by the delivery of lectures but by the curation of demanding and formative experiences that foster professional, intellectual and personal development,” writes Villena, dean at the Faculty of Administration and Economics, Diego Portales University, Chile. Meanwhile, in our feature from KJ Somaiya Institute of Management in Mumbai, India, dean and director Raman Ramachandran tells us about the development of a framework designed specifically to provide
Sub-editor Heather Ford
Insight, content & PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@amba-bga.com CORPORATE Director of business school engagement Debbie Kemp d.kemp@amba-bga.com Head of business development – BGA Richard Turner r.turner@amba-bga.com Senior marketing executive – digital lead Shareen Pennington
students with a personalised experience and ramp up their role as protagonists in their own stories of continued development. “We wanted a process that would maximise student outcomes, go beyond the predominant lens for return on investment and help us fulfil our purpose of enabling transformative journeys,” he explains. Elsewhere, Ahmed Abdel-Meguid at The American University in Cairo’s Onsi Sawiris School of Business emphasises the value of providing effective, experiential learning experiences that bridge the gap between academic models and industry realities. “Market engagement and corporate partnerships act as a powerful means for transforming management education from mere theoretical concepts into lived experiences,” he declares. Lastly, Open Academy founder Daniel Tůma makes the case for broadening students’ programme experience to encompass psychology and the study of human behaviour. Through simulations, group reflection, coaching exercises and psychological profiling, Tůma highlights the benefits of developing participants’ understanding of themselves and the people they lead. “By integrating teaching in these areas into management education, business schools can offer their students a more holistic perspective that will enable them to build healthier, more ethical and more sustainable organisations.”
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Tim Banerjee Dhoul Editor , Business Impact
Copyright 2026 by The Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association . All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, BGA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of BGA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. BGA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2026
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