The Nitty Gritty of Business Programs

We’re going to talk about the different types of schools that offer business programs. And we’re also going to look at the differences between the curriculum and teaching approach at these different types of schools, and talk about international accreditation.

Slide 1:

Lesson 2: The Nitty Gritty

Okay. So we're now on Lesson Two, which is a super important lesson. What we're going to do in this lesson is we're going to talk about the different types of schools that offer business programs. And we're also going to look at the differences between the curriculum and teaching approach at these different types of schools, and talk about international accreditation.

Slide 2: Types of schools that offer business programs

Research Universities
Universities of Applied Science
Business Schools

So there are three types of schools where you'll find business programs: there are research universities, there are universities of applied science, and there are business schools.

So let's talk about research universities first. These are the large universities, like you would think of with our large state schools here that offer, you know, tons of different programs, tons of different departments. In their business school though, their business programs are generally going to be limited to Business, International Business, Economics type related programs, because those are all programs that can have a research focus. Now they don't have to, but they can. Something like Accounting isn't likely to have a research focus. So you're going to find that at a university of applied science because those are more sort of practical focused. So it's not that one is better than the other, it's that there are some programs that you will only find at universities of applied science, because they don't have a research focus. And then for those programs that could be offered at either — international business, for instance — you could find that at a research university, or a university of applied science, the focus is going to be a little different. And we're going to talk about that in just a little bit.

So regarding research universities, they’re usually better known. I mean, that's sort of a plus there. Of the three types of universities, they're the only ones that are eligible for the global rankings, because global rankings are based 100% on research related criteria. These research universities are the only of the three that have a focus on research criteria, so the others wouldn't be eligible for it. Not because they're not good schools, not because they're not reputable schools, but because they don't do the research.

Another kind of plus about research universities, if you do want to take electives in a non business-related type program, because these are bigger schools, you're more likely to have a lot of choices for that. And it also keeps the option open of going for your master's degree at a research university, because you are taking those prerequisites for the master's degree business courses.

So the downsides to research universities, there's not usually a mandatory internship. So internships often lead to jobs. And without the focus on that, there's not sort of that advantage that the others have. And like I had already said, they're more limited in their specializations and their offerings, because they're only doing those that have the research focus.

So then we have universities of applied science, which I said, you know, they're more practical focused, and they have a lot of different types of business programs. They have the ones that you're going to have at research universities, except for Economics. You're not going to really find those at universities of applied science. But they have International Business and they have the broad Business. But they also have Accounting, they have Sports Businesses, ones that don't need or don't kind of relate to that research focus.

So there are a lot of really cool options, it's really hands-on, and you're getting real life experience. Those are the benefits there. The limits are, you know, you're not taking research methods, you're not taking stats necessarily. So you do need to go — if you're going to get a master's degree at a research university, you're going to need to take those bridge classes ahead of time. In some countries, there's sort of like an intellectual snobbery about universities of applied science. That's the case in Germany. Sometimes it's the case in Denmark. It's not the case in the Netherlands, it’s not the case in Austria. There are a lot of really good reputable programs in Finland. So it's just recognizing that it's sort of like the snobbery sometimes people have in the US about state schools. You know, is that something you want to use to make your decision? Or can you come up with quality indicators, which we're also going to talk about in just a little bit here in coming up with the quality indicators that you would use to assess quality as it pertains to you and your values and your priorities.

So then we have business schools. And these, what I'm talking about are the independent business schools. You know, we're talking about like Toulouse Business School or Kozminski. These are schools that are an independent university, if you will, but all they offer are business type programs. So I kind of feel like these are the best of both worlds. Now remember, they're not usually globally ranked, because they're not doing the research focus. But these schools are more likely to have these extra accreditations that we're going to talk about in a little bit. And what I really like is they often combine the research and the hands-on, and have a lot of different options. So they kind of take the drawbacks from both research universities and universities of applied science and negate them, if you will.

So the cons are, in terms of electives, all of the programs at the school are related to business. So it's not like you could go take, you know, a philosophy course, as an elective at the school. Now certainly, you could do that if you do study abroad somewhere. But within the school, you're not going to have options for non business type courses.

Slide 3: International Business Programs by School Type – Year 1

Research University:

Economics

Financial Accounting

Global Supply Chain Management

International Business

International Marketing

Management Accounting

Organizational Behavior

Organizational Structure

Research Methodology

Stats

UAS:

Economics and Communication

Finance and Accounting

Supply Chain Management

Business Law

Marketing

HR Management

Organizational Behavior

Integrated Case

Business Labs (Research)

Intercultural and Professional Development

Global Citizenship

B-School:

Micro Economics

Macro Economics

International Economics

Financial Accounting

Corporate Communication

International Business Environment

Entrepreneurship and Global Strategy

Principles of International Marketing

So let's make that a little bit less abstract and look at how an actual International Business program looks. You know, the courses you're going to take each year for each different type of these schools. So we're looking at a research university. I used Groningen University. We're looking at a university of applied science, which is Hanze University of Applied Sciences. And then, we're looking at Copenhagen Business School.

Now Hanze offers a three or four year International Business program. And the difference is if you have the AP credits, or AP scores, or an IB diploma, you can do their three year program. If you don't, you do their four year program. For the purposes of this, we're looking at their three year programs so it's more of an apples to apples comparison to the other programs. The three year program sort of merges the first two years of the four year program together.

So as you can see, the majority of the first year courses are the same at the research university and the university of applied science. The major differences are the research university has, of course, research methodology, and stats, while Hanze has casework and labs. So, you know, that's where we really see the research versus the hands-on. The business school is more different than the other with a heavy focus on economics, and you don't see research or labs in this year.

Slide 4: International Business Programs by School Type – Year 2

Research University:

Comparative Country Studies

Cross Cultural Management

Ethics and International Business

Finance and Risk Management

Foreign Investment, Trade, and Geography

Global Business History

Global Political Economy

Information Systems Management

Innovation Management in Multinationals

International Business Law

Qualitative Research Methods

Stats

UAS:

Study Abroad

International Work Placement

B-School:

Organizational Behavior

Stats

Business Research Methodology

Corporate Governance

Corporate Finance

Industrial Organizational Analysis

International Business Law

Global Supply Chain Management

But you do see that in the second year. This is the second year at each of these as well. And you see they have business research methodology and stats, which was the first year at the research university we're looking at. So Year 2 is really, really different for the research university and the university of applied science students. Research university, you are going to be in the classroom a lot. I mean, that is a lot of content you're going to have there. Whereas, the university of applied science, you're studying abroad for one semester, and the other semester is an international internship. So again, we see a real difference here between the hands-on approach of universities of applied science.

Slide 5: International Business Programs by School Type – Year 3

Research University

Study Abroad/Minor

Thesis

Empirical Research Project

Financial Management

International Strategic Management

Managing International Business Organizations

Specialization Classes (International Finance & Accounting, International Management, International Marketing & Sales, or International Strategy & Business Development)

Graduation Project

Thesis

B-School

Electives/Exchange/Internship

Thesis

International Business Strategy

Risk Management of Multinational Enterprise

So then we get to the third year where we see kind of how it all ties together more. You know, the Study Abroad semester, the research university has said this year. They all have a thesis. The university of applied science students do a minor and a graduation project in which they act as a consultant for a company. So it's practical, but there's a lot of research involved since it’s defining and analyzing and researching a problem they're having, writing a report with the findings, and presenting it as an oral presentation. So it's sort of like they're making research even more practical, which is interesting. Now, you know, again, I'm not saying one is better than the other. It's about your interests and and how you best like to learn and what your focuses are.

So at the Copenhagen Business School, they spend their first semester in electives, exchange or internship. And the second semester, they do case studies, a business strategy class, and thesis and risk management. So again, you can see here how they combine the research. They had those research classes the second year. The thesis is definitely research. But then they also have more the practical with the case studies and business strategy.

So the similarities are really greater than the differences. The main difference has to do with the level of practical knowledge versus theoretical. And like I said, that's more of a personal preference thing than anything else.

Slide 6: International Accreditations

Extra accreditations – can be fully accredited (and strong) without any of these
Triple Crown

So the accreditations I want to talk to you about are extra. So every program in our database is fully accredited and internationally recognized. But what the schools can do is they can seek out these extra accreditations. Now what I want to say though, is that doing these extra accreditations take a lot of time, and they take a lot of money. And some schools just don't have the budget for it or don't see it as a priority. So if they don't have these accreditations, it doesn't mean that they don't have the qualities that the accreditations are looking for, it might just be that they didn't want to do it. So we'll get to more of that in a minute.

So the big three are EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA. And when a school has all three of these, it's known as Triple Crown accreditation, and it's really rare and prestigious.

Slide 7:

AACSB

EQUIS

AMBA

So when a school gets accreditation from EQUIS and AACSB, all of the programs within the business school fall under that accreditation. When a school gets AMBA accreditation, only their MBA program is accredited. So it's less relevant because they're not looking at the bachelor's degree programs. So we're not going to spend a whole lot of time on AMBA today. But what you can know if a school has any of these is that they've met a certain number of minimum standards that go above and beyond the accreditation standards. Generally, EQUIS is bigger in Europe. AACSB is bigger in the US. But let's talk about a couple of the things that these different accreditations look at.

So AACSB is US and Singapore based. Some of the things they look at are interaction, engagement, and community among students, faculty and administrators. I think that's an important thing. They look at the mission statement and the plan behind the mission statement to achieve it. They look at how was the curriculum developed? When is it reviewed? How does it meet the intended learning goals? They look at how the school trains and enhances teaching effectiveness of professors as well. So those are all, you know, important things, and things to think about when you're assessing quality.

So EQUIS is based in Brussels, and they have a lot of focus in their standards on corporate connections and different sorts of internationalization. So they do look at corporate connections. They look also at the student body, and whether the student body is representing a diversity of backgrounds and nationalities. They go further than that with internationalization and look at how the school and the curriculum is preparing students for working in an international environment, how they partner — how the school partners with international partners with exchanges, with internships, with joint programs and such. And they also look at the internationalization of the faculty. They look at how the school supports professional development and personal development of the students beyond the classroom. So resources, which as you know, is something I look at when I assess quality of schools. They look at the balance of knowledge and skill acquisitions. Corporate connections, as I talked about, and how corporate connections play into not only internships and such, but also curriculum development.

And this is a really interesting one, this is from their site. The school should have a clear understanding of its role as a globally responsible citizen, and its contribution to ethics and sustainability. And they want that understanding in the school's mission and strategy and such. So those are kind of some of the many, many things that EQUIS assesses as well.

Then AMBA, like I said, I'm not going to talk about it as much because it's not relevant to bachelor’s programs. But one thing I do want to note is because Triple Crown schools, you know, if you hear Triple Crown school, you're like, “Wow, that's really impressive and prestigious!” But there is a reason a lot of schools wouldn't be Triple Crown because they wouldn't go for AMBA because AMBA requires that all students that are admitted to their MBA programs have at least three years of full time, postgraduate work. All students. And some schools don't want to limit that. You know, they might have that they require two years of professional experience or they might want to take students right from college. The US, for instance, very few US MBA programs will have AMBA, because they do sometimes admit applicants without the three years of work experience.

Slide 8: Lesson 2 Action Step

Create your own accreditation standards

So I want to reiterate that these are great because you know that somebody else has sort of vetted them for you. You know, the accrediting bodies have vetted them and made sure that they have these certain quality indicators. But like I said, just because a school doesn't have the accreditation doesn't mean they don't have the quality. It just means that you're going to have to research to see if they do have that quality or the quality indicator.

So there are a lot that I know do. For instance, the universities of applied science in the Netherlands, they develop their programs with businesses around what businesses see as a need, not only in terms of who businesses need to employ, but the skills that those employees need to have. But you're not going to see any schools in any of the universities of applied science in the Netherlands having any of these accreditations, though they do have the traits.

So what would I look at? If I were looking at a university in Eastern or Southern Europe, I might want to see about whether they have EQUIS because many of these public universities in these areas are sort of more old school in their educational approach. And what you know, if you're studying a business program in one of these countries at a public university, is at least the business school is not old school, because they've, you know — again, the EQUIS standards are pretty — again, internationalization is emphasized. And you know, we have things like faculty interaction with students is emphasized. So you know that they're going to be more progressive in their approach.

So the action step for this lesson helps you figure out which of these areas are most important to you individually, so that you can assess schools that you're interested in that don't have these accreditations. So what you're going to do is you're going to go to the AMBA, the EQUIS, and the AACSB site, and pick and choose. You know, sort of like a build your own menu. Pick and choose which standards are most important to you in your educational experience. Then you're going to have a list. And when you're looking at schools that don't have these accreditations, you can look on their website first to see what it says about this area that you're looking at. And if you don't see anything there, you can email them and ask them a direct question, “Hey, tell me about your corporate connections. Tell me about…” And again, these are a lot more specific, so you can say, “Tell me about how businesses helped develop your curriculum.” You'll have the specific questions that you can ask to make sure that they meet that standard.

So, enjoy. And in the next lesson, we are going to talk about Admissions.