trengths.”

Not everyone agrees. Michael Luger, a former academic at the Kenan-Flagler school at the University of North Carolina and now celebrating his first anniversary as director of Manchester Business School in the UK, believes that European business schools are still trying to emulate their US peers in their approach to rigorous research and to student satisfaction, in particular the relationship with alumni. “We haven't gone nearly as far as many US schools,” he says, and believes this focus on alumni will continue to grow in Europe.

One other area where the US still leads the way is in funding. Not only do endowments help in campus construction and in attracting faculty, but in attracting students too. Last year at Stanford, for example, 72 per cent of students received some form of financial aid, according to Lisa Giannangeli, the director of marketing for MBA admissions. “We paid over $7m in grants and research assistantships.”

And while European schools are stepping up their academic research output, US schools are moving more towards their European counterparts in teaching methods, including more teamwork and overseas projects. Big name schools such as Stanford, Columbia and Yale have all recently redrawn their curriculum to incorporate these pro-active elements.

Joel Podolny, dean at Yale, says recruiters' reactions have been positive. “We have had more recruiters come to campus this year than at any time in the past, even from the banking sector.”

At Stanford, Ms Giannangeli says its personalised approach has proven attractive to students, who often write about the curriculum in their submission essays.

But perhaps the most fundamental area of difference is in the kind of programmes offered to those who have just completed undergraduate degrees. In Europe this is the traditional MSc market, with MBA courses attended by those with several years of work experience. In the US, many of the top schools are looking for students with just two or three years of work experience, or no work experience at all, to sign up for an MBA.

For many of today's MBA students, the attraction of the programme is that it can be used as a mechanism for changing careers – particularly the two-year US programme – as well as giving a strong dose of management education. So, says Prof De Meyer, there is a market opening up for a post-experience degree programme for career changers.

Although many deans view the past decade as one of innovation, many also believe that it will be the next 10 years that change the face of management education. In the UK, Nigel Banister, chief executive of Manchester Business School Worldwide, says this will be the first decade when “digital natives” – anyone under the age of 25 today – will go to business school. “The workspace, living space and learning space will all be linked together ... There will be personalised learning spaces ... Traditional teaching methods will go.”

Mr Banister

责任编辑:bulesky