BGA membership and account manager Ben Maheson chaired the first session of the 2024 BSPC conference, a panel discussion on challenges and opportunities in global business education. Maria Avila, international accreditation manager at EAE Business School, began the debate by speaking about the “speed at which things are evolving” and therefore, by association, the need to update skills. Dilbar Gimranova, dean of the School of Economics and Management at Narxoz University, noted that his institution is trying to embed new skills in every course, such as the coding programme, Python. “Digital transformation is a buzzword for us and the strategic priority of our university,” commented Gimranova. He added: “We are trying to understand what it means exactly, as everyone is coming up with their own definition.” Richard Hodgett, MBA director at Leeds University Business School, agreed it was important to ensure students are trained in new technologies, giving bloc chain as an example. He issued a note of caution, however, remarking on how it “takes time to embed into the existing programmes and upskill staff… and there is also the [classic] resistance to new stuff”. For Adrian Mitescu, director of institutional accountability at University Canada West, the B
BSPC 2024 REVIEW
challenge is “to stay nimble and adaptive while growing at the same time”. In terms of using AI-assisted ways of learning, he described this as “mostly reactive, as students are already using it… [in fact] they have been the leaders, with faculty playing catch-up”. However, there are still plenty of opportunities to put the technology to good use, as Mitescu highlighted: “We let AI do the boring stuff, such as survey design, to simplify our processes.” He also maintained that “employers want students who can use AI” and this is why it has been made mandatory in a number of courses at Canada West. Avila concurred, noting that undergraduate students have “very high expertise in terms of AI, but our faculty are still not used to it and they need to get up to speed”. Gimranova agreed too, noting that “there is more pressure [to use AI] coming from students than faculty in cases such as the student registration system”. At Leeds University Business School there is a traffic light system in place for assessments, as Hodgett explained: “Red means do not use, amber is for certain times and green equals go. We are trying to move more and more towards green, as AI is very much a skill that will be used in the workplace of the future.” Seeking sustainability & social responsibility Maheson then turned the panel’s attention to the ubiquitous topic of sustainability. Hodgett referenced the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and noted that the staff policy at Leeds is “if you can get to a destination in under 11 hours you should go by train, otherwise if you go by plane you need to pay a levy”. “We have to prepare future CEOs, so we encourage students to have a sustainable point of view; this is part of our curriculum and the evaluation process,” noted Avila. Mitescu pointed out how his school’s local economy is “largely dependent on resource extraction and carbon-heavy industries, but we have integrated sustainability topics because of student demand as it gives them a strategic advantage”. Looking at the top challenges business schools will face over the next five years, Avila cited the need to “maintain our standards but also to adapt them to digital technology”, plus demographic changes – “the new generation has a different mindset; we need to understand how they want to learn”. Hodgett remarked on how business schools need to be aware that they will “become responsible for training CTOs (chief technology officers), as well as
BGA membership and account manager Ben Maheson chaired the first session of the conference
Ambition | SEPTEMBER 2024 | 19
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