BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
Business School. Maybe a major with a minor; for example, business with marketing. Many more degrees will be interdisciplinary, and we are being exposed to so much knowledge nowadays. Plus, our careers will change over the years. Everybody has the chance to try something else, and they will try new things and have 11 or 12 careers over the course of their lives. It’s important to offer the interdisciplinary aspect because it keeps the focus. The ability to see other things and compare and contrast will remain in focus. Consider Schools with different specialties. DC: Be creative. Don’t just look at a particular model and try to replicate it. Remember the value that you are giving to students studying in, for example, France, the US and in Singapore. This was very appealing to me when I first heard about this programme so it must be the same for many of the students. Keep the focus on the learning experience – and don’t just look at what currently exists but what you could do.
‘We kept the programme modular rather than going for triple or dual degrees. The modularity allows us to adapt quickly’
and there are also open enrolment courses they can join. This enables international students to interact with US students and allowed us to meet the expectations of our partners, while not creating too much additional work. Is the recruitment process more relaxed to enable the recruitment of international students? AB: It’s the opposite: the further on we go, the more stringent our requirements become. And they were already stringent from the beginning. The programme is taught entirely in English, and we require a higher level of English to enter the programme than all three institutions would normally demand of international students. This level of requirement shows quality reassurance, but we like to raise the bar. We have a strict admissions process, and each student is interviewed by a member of the faculty a member of the admissions team, because we are asking students to commit to a life made up of four years living in three different continents. DC: EDHEC has high requirements for admission and our courses at UCLA Extension are open enrolment because they are continuing education. For this reason, there are usually very few requirements, although one of the main ones is proficiency in English. EDHEC requires a higher ‘Test of English as a Foreign Language’ or ‘International English Language Teaching System’ score than we would require for a certificate programme. Given the past year, what advice would you give to other Schools that want to explore something similar? AB: Go beyond the discipline and the classroom. A lot of joint programmes tend to be in the same area, Business School to
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Angelo P Bisignano is the Director of the International BBA - Global Business Track at EDHEC Business School.
Having started his career at University of Calabria in Italy, Angelo was later Associate Professor at Nottingham Business School. He has designed collaborative programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level and forged academic partnerships with institutions from all continents. As a professor, Angelo taught strategic management and international business, publishing on themes
of family business, entrepreneurship, and internationalisation in higher education.
Denis Couturier is Director of Custom Programmes and Corporate Education at UCLA Extension. He has more than 15 years’ experience in higher education organisations serving culturally rich, diverse populations exceeding 40,000 students. Denis began his career as a director of community services and, for the past decade, has served in management and executive positions, such as the dean of student affairs and associate academic dean.
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