AMBA & BGA GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2026
students’ inboxes. As Peñalba explained, the tool has already achieved strong results in terms of students’ engagement, emails received and the number of applications generated – and there is scope to expand the tech into new areas. BACKING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AI detection can be a positive force in the industry and boost academic integrity when it’s done with the right technology, enthused Nicholas Riemer, co-founder and CEO at The Invigilator. In a discussion of developments around online assessment, Riemer identified the role of AI as both an enabler for educators and a potential tool for student misuse. He then outlined The Invigilator’s work to provide institutions with comprehensive support, particularly with regard to its support of online and blended learning. He also highlighted how its offerings can be integrated with both big-name and custom learning management systems. “We want to give academics the right toolkit so that they can pick up if students are doing things in the wrong way or over- relying on AI,” he noted, underlining the company’s ability to use AI to detect any misuse of technology “when it’s time to write a closed-book assessment”. DESIGNING & LEADING SPECIALISED PROGRAMMES In a session chaired by Dane Anderton, director of MBA programmes at the University of Liverpool Management School, four academic leaders explored creating specialised programmes that meet industry needs, attract niche talent and differentiate schools. Jan Ehlers, director of executive education & business solutions at Kuehne Logistics University, spoke about the need to “build more resilient organisations”, while Oksana Gerwe, MBA director at UCL Global Business School for Health, referenced how, while her students may be medical experts, they started out on the programme with “zero knowledge” of areas such as management, leadership or finance.
Meanwhile, Vasile Alecsandru Strat, dean of Bucharest Business School at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, said that students need to understand “the full potential of what generative AI can do for them”. He explained that his school has set up workshops to discuss the topic further and “accelerate leadership”, using the classroom as “an engine to create the highest impact possible”. The participants also touched on how, for students who choose to take up a role in the public sector, it is necessary to measure their success using different metrics, such as social value creation, public value, service equity, community impact and stakeholder satisfaction rather than salary multipliers alone. Picking up on the point about salary scales in the context of his school’s football industries MBA attracting mid-career professionals who pivot from other corporate sectors, Anderton emphasised how students need to be prepared for baseline salaries that are initially lower than corporate finance or tech roles. This is due to the enormous prestige around and demand for roles that involve working in sports. “They are starting over, so the salary is low [to begin with], but the trajectory grows exponentially,” he commented. BALANCING TEACHING & TECHNOLOGY Eddy Fang, dean of International Business School Suzhou at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, described the challenge of balancing traditional teaching with AI-driven methods in a session from the long-running Silk Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN) that was chaired by Zhongming Wang, international advisor for China, AMBA & BGA. Fang further outlined the need to remodel how educators interact with students to bring out faculty members’ strengths and ensure students are sufficiently prepared for the realities of the workplace. The session also featured Polimi School of Management’s Luigi Gangitano, who
emphasised the need for digital tools that do not hinder but enable learning as he discussed the development of the school’s renowned AI platform, Flexa. Eva Khong from City University of Macau, meanwhile, spoke of her institution’s pride in hosting SREEN conferences between 2019 and 2025, highlighting its belief in their value as an “important platform for academic and practical exchange in terms of promoting entrepreneurship education and innovation”. Dean of the Management College at Ocean University of China Zhuquan Wang told those in attendance about his school’s commitment to becoming an innovative, marine-specialised business school. HUMAN-AI FIRST PEDAGOGY UBI Business School dean Gaston Fornes and José Luis Ferrero, managing director at Publicis Commerce, offered an introduction to Alexandria, a custom large language model developed specifically for higher education by the two organisations. In walking the audience through the platform, they highlighted aspects of its functionality from the user’s perspective. Fornes explained that Alexandria differs from other models in being pedagogy- and governance-led, keeping instructors firmly in the driving seat. It also follows a “human-AI first” approach by seeking to guide students’ thinking, provide feedback and offer support, rather than to do the work for users. “In other words,” he noted, it uses “the power of technology to create more value, make better conclusions and improve productivity.”
UBI Business School dean Gaston Fornes introduced its custom large language model developed specifically for higher education
Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2026 25
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online