Open AccessManagement Education Benchmarking Designing Customized And Flexible MBA Programs
Author(s) -
Owen P. Hall,
Terry W. Young
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of college teaching and learning/journal of college teaching and learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2157-894X
pISSN - 1544-0389
DOI - 10.19030/tlc.v4i3.1620
Subject(s) - benchmarking , accreditation , curriculum , flexibility (engineering) , variety (cybernetics) , modalities , engineering management , medical education , process (computing) , personalization , quality assurance , benchmark (surveying) , specialty , computer science , knowledge management , business , engineering , psychology , pedagogy , management , marketing , medicine , sociology , social science , geodesy , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , economics , geography , service (business) , operating system
To meet the challenges of the 21st century B-schools are revising curriculum, delivery and outcome assessment modalities. Today, the proportion of electives and other specialty offerings in many MBA programs now constitutes more than 50% of the total curriculum. However, this focus on customization, integration and flexibility is not without its own challenges including quality assurance and implementation. Benchmarking, which involves the assessment of a variety of inputs including student satisfaction, the business community and the accreditation process represents, one approach for meeting these challenges. The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to benchmark trends and challenges in MBA programs geared towards the working adult and 2) to outline a process for implementing more flexibility and customization in MBA curriculums. The results of a student satisfaction survey of MBA graduates revealed that a customized curriculum yielded greater insights and enhanced job related capabilities than a generalized curriculum.