Growing Global: The Business School Impact of Internationalization

Transcript

Tim Mescon: [00:17] ESADE has over a 50 year history. It's an incredible story, some 60,000 alumni worldwide. A strong global focus in terms of programming, student mix, faculty. It's a powerful story on vision, mission, and strategy. You're really to be commended for helping to lead this effort over so many years.

[00:47] It's an incredibly impressive story. I was wondering if you could start by giving our viewers a bit of an overview of the mix of programs in the business school. Just share with them some of the demographics, if you would, of the enrollment.

Josep Franch Bullich: [01:05] ESADE offers all kinds of different management education programs. Unlike other business schools who have more focus or are more targeted towards specific publics. We have all sorts of management or business degrees, ranging from an undergraduate degree in business to senior executive programs.

[01:34] We have pre experience master's. We have MBAs with different formats full time, executive MBA, global executive MBAs. We have also executive master's degrees for practitioners, for people who are in business. They have limited amount of time to complete this executive master's.

[01:57] We have open enrollment programs. We have customs, we have a PhD and a Master of Research. We cover all different types of publics and people with different needs. We are very international. In some of our programs, the percentage of international students is more than 90 percent, like in the MBA or in the MSc.

[02:25] With some difference in profile. Our MSc operation is probably the fastest-growing programs because it was introduced in 2006. Today, we have seven different MSc programs with more than 500 students. Ninety percent of them international, representing 50 nationalities, but mainly European profile.

[02:52] Why? Because the MSc has grown as a result of the European higher education area, the so called Bologna Reform. That really promoted the mobility of students across Europe. As a result, 80 percent of our students are European in the MSc.

[03:12] If you compare that with our full time MBA, with also a 90 percent of international students, we have a much more, let's say, global student profile. With 30 percent of the students coming from Latin America, which, of course, is a natural market for us being located in Spain.

[03:33] Thirty percent of students coming from Asia, 25 percent coming from Europe, and 15 percent coming from North America, take or give. Percentages may vary one or two point every year. More or less, this is the profile that we have as of today.

Mescon: [03:50] I get really energized by this global profile. This is the trajectory of business today. This is, for students in terms of preparation, this is an extraordinary opportunity for them to immerse in multiple cultures, and I think it's incredibly exciting.

Filmed April 2018 at ICAM in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.