The past 10 years have seen Europe’s business schools begin to establish themselves consistently among the top tier globally. In 1999, only one European Business School ranked among the top 10 MBAs globally – and only three were in the top 20. Last year, there were eight in the top 20.
Moreover, ten years ago, there were no stabilised criteria to define the MSc segment. Today, many European business schools are recognised worldwide for this kind of programme.
European schools have learned to play to their strengths in order to tap into and expand their home markets while attracting students from around the world. It is the level of internationalism that sets European business education apart. With a plethora of cultures, each with its own particular habits and ways of conducting business, European programmes are well positioned to profit from the increasing globalisation of markets, where understanding different ways of doing business is crucial.
Graduates of European business programmes are taking on truly international careers having broadened their horizons through working in groups within a multicultural environment. This is an incredibly competitive advantage and one which European schools should preserve and reinforce.
Several schools in Europe, HEC included, have also been working to broaden the appeal of the MBA to cater to a broader set of students. This involves emphasising the development of soft skills that can be used in a variety of industries, not just in finance and consulting, bringing an even greater diversity to our student body. I believe emphasising soft skills is a necessity to differentiate the European offer from the rest of the world.
The top schools in Europe will have to maintain their lead in a growing market. To combine quality with flexibility and diversity, European business schools will be forming an increasing number of cross-disciplinary partnerships, such as double degrees with universities around the world, allowing students to benefit from the best that each partner institution has to offer. This will be particularly true within the fast-growing Asian market, where the top European schools will be seeking to grow with Asian institutions that are the best in their home market rather than competing with them for the best students.
In order to increase the competitive advantage of its academic programmes further, it is absolutely vital that Europe increases its fund-raising so that schools have access to an endowment base upon which to draw to develop facilities and attract the best researchers.
While it is all well and good to have a great reputation at home and abroad and bright students, being able to offer a higher salary with more and better resources is ultimately key to attracting the top professors and to improving the quality of our facilities. This triggers a virtuous circle, whereby better professors attract better students, which in turn attracts better professors. Europeans therefore have to be creative in raising funds in a culture where individual donations to business education schools are clearly not the norm and where education is not perceived as a profitable investment.
That is why HEC and other European business schools have been looking to the business world for the means to progress by forging partnerships through research centres and chairs. By deepening and increasing our links with business, we make our programmes more valuable by orientating our courses to the needs of companies, thereby making our graduates more attractive to employers, offering scholarships to bring in the best students regardless of their means, and constructing the facilities that our researchers need to perform their work.
In another 10 years’ time, I believe we will see more European institutions in the upper tier of world business schools, and increasingly coming out on top.
These institutions will be diverse. Students and faculty will be of many nationalities. These students will then be able to return to education when they wish, where they wish, and however they wish thanks to a more flexible range of educational programmes and international partnerships. The quality of the students and faculty will be reinforced by more individual and corporate donations, ensuring that European business schools will lead the way in improvement – offering a more diverse management education and research from around the world.
Bernard Ramanantsoa is dean of HEC Paris and Chairman of CEMS (Community of European Management Schools)
