Tag Archives: London Business School

MBA Student Blogs Roundup: Beginning of the School Year Edition

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If you’re thinking about doing your MBA, you might be curious about what MBA life is actually like. Often, descriptions on schools’ websites and other promotional material give great overviews of the programs themselves and other concrete facts, but lack insight into what daily student life is actually like.

But if you do want to hear about student life, you’re in luck. There are a wide range of blogs available to look at, where current students regularly share their b-school experiences. And since, for many of the student bloggers, the school year has just started, you can start tracking them now to follow them through their ups and downs as they progress through b-school. By reading student blogs, you can get get a peek into what life is actually like, both in and out of class, and figure out which schools best suit your pace and style.

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Business Education Evolved: MBA Programs on iTunes (European Edition)

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Ever wanted to see what an MBA lecture was like, without paying thousands of dollars for it? Or are you curious to see if a popular business professor is really that great, or would you like to hear about some new research? Well, with iTunes, now you can.

Many business schools are starting to provide lectures, podcasts, and other resources for free or inexpensively through iTunes. Users can download them and engage them immediately, or put them on an iPad or iPhone and watch (or listen) on the go. Apart from being super convenient, these resources can also give potential students insight into what an MBA program is like from the inside, or just be rewarding to those simply seeking new ideas.

Keep in mind that these videos are not meant to replace the MBA experience (there is no infrastructure for interacting, at the very least;) but they can be extremely valuable nonetheless. Below you’ll find some of the best offerings from some top European MBA programs on iTunes. Note that to use these podcasts and videos, you’ll need to have iTunes installed on your computer, and to use them on the go, you’ll need an iPod, iPhone, or iPad.

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Gender Diversity at Top MBA Programs

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In a recent story in the Independent, Diane Morgan, the associate dean of the  London Business School, said that she hopes to recruit more women in this year’s MBA recruitment process – so that women represent 30% of the total intake. While the increase is somewhat marginal (LBS’ percentage of women students is currently at 28%,) Morgan’s announcement does reflect a larger trend where business schools are beginning to appreciate the idea of gender diversity, and taking proactive steps to equalize the playing field.

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Interview: Gary Biddle of Hong Kong University

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Gary Biddle

Gary Biddle, dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Hong Kong University (HKU), discusses his school’s MBA and EMBA partnerships with London Business School and Columbia Business School, and the enduring importance of “Ny-Lon Kong.”

Is Hong Kong still a good gateway into Asia for executives?

Hong Kong has long been a bridge between East and West. Hong Kong knows the West, and it knows the East. For people coming out of China into the world or going into China from the rest of the world…when these people cross, sparks fly, because in our classes, people say, “let me tell you how things are done in Shanghai,” and another might chime in “let me tell you how things are done in Berlin or London or New York or New Delhi.” The instructors understand both, and we facilitate this exchange of insights.

Is fluency in Chinese essential for executives in Hong Kong and China? Are they coming to your program with these skills?

There’s no question that if one wants to pursue a career connected to China, you’d want to know the local language there. This is true in Germany and everywhere.

In our regular MBA program, we have a “China Track” designed specifically for people from outside of China to launch their careers in China. If they don’t know Mandarin, there’s an option that takes them to Beijing for an intensive language immursion experience. This is for someone from Europe, South Asia, or the Americas who doesn’t know Mandarin, but knows China is a big thing, and wants to have some conversational fluency in Mandarin. And then they continue during their MBA studies. There’s of course a natural limit to how much you can learn in a year and a half, but still, with this kind of structure, you can learn quite a bit.

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