Business Education: cooperation as a way to overcome crisis

On June, 22-23 International Conference “Business Education: cooperation as a way to overcome crisis” organized by Russian Association of Business Education (RABE) was hosted by Eurasian Management and Administration School (EMAS) in the National Centre of Contemporary Arts in Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.

The conference gathered a lot of participants. RABE Council representatives as well as RABE members got an opportunity to discuss critical professional issues and exchange experience with the international associations which were represented by Professor Danica Purg, the President of CEEMAN (Slovenia), Timothy Mescon, Executive Vice President and Chief Officer for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for AACSB International (USA/the Netherlands), Andrew Main Wilson, CEO of AMBA-International (Great Britain), Virginijus Kundrotas, the President of BMDA (Lithuania/USA), Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, the President of CAMAN (Kazakhstan).

The conference started with an overview of the recent trends on the Russian and global business education markets presented by Sergey Myasoyedov, RABE President, Rector of IBS-Moscow, First Vice-President of RANEPA. His speech set the trend and channeled further discussions which didn’t fade out all through the conference. Here are some of the issues the conference participants would discuss and comment on:

· MBA market stagnation and redistribution of clients;

· generation Alpha which is ousting generations Х & Y and forces business schools to reconsider the approaches to the learning process and teaching methods;

· growing interest to hard skills and the problem of shortage of highly-qualified business practitioners with successful teaching experience;

· revival of demand for foreign МВАs;

· opportunities for getting international accreditation by Russian business schools;

· «result-oriented» approach to MBA accreditation;

· “Russian MBA” brand promotion on Russian and international markets;

· the practicality of introducing a standardized exam for Russian business schools MBA graduates;

· export of Russian and Western European MBA to Asian and African markets.

All above mentioned as well as other problems and challenges have been discussed in the first panel «Business schools cooperation aimed at improving MBA programs quality and value» by Natalia Evtikhieva, Director General of RABE, Dean of the International School of Business and Technology at the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS), Andrew Main Wilson, CEO of AMBA-International, Virginijus Kundrotas, the President of BMDA, Dean of Adizes Graduate School (USA), CEEMAN Vice-president, Alsu Akhmetshina, Dean of Higher School of Business, Kazan Federal University, Vasiliy Tkachev, Scientific Director of the MBA program "Financial Director", MGIMO School of Business and International Proficiency, Olga Kolyada, Russia, Director of EMAS Business School.

The questions related to MBA programs international accreditation were addressed by Alenka Braček Lalić, CEEMAN International Quality Accreditation (IQA) Director, Vice Dean for Research and Co-Director of Executive MBA study program at IEDC-Bled School of Management (Slovenia), and Andrew Main Wilson, CEO of AMBA-International (Great Britain). After their talks, all conference participants could formulate it for themselves how a business school could benefit from undergoing international accreditation and whether it could be used as an effective tool to enhance MBA programs quality and business schools recognition on the local and international markets.

Andrey Kolyada, EMAS Business School Rector, opened his talk by stating that the new era in business education has already started meaning that modern business schools should alter their business models to be successful in the new reality and face the challenge learning from successful experience of young companies.

Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, President of Almaty Management University, shared with the conference participants his vision of a modern business school development model showing how much has already been done in AlmaU – and what innovations are planned for the nearest future – in order to ensure that the university is a modern and comfortable place to study.

Timothy Mescon, AACSB Executive Vice President and Chief Officer, tried to speculate about the steps that he would take if he were a rector of a Russian business schools planning to export MBA programs. This topic was also covered in the second panel discussion «Practical ways and solutions to overcome the ongoing crisis in Business Education. Focus on export». The contribution to the discussion development was made by Danica Purg, the President of CEEMAN, Vladimir Godin, Chairman of the RABE Council, First Vice-President of RABE, Tomasz Harackiewicz, GFKM Business School Board Member (Poland), Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, President of Almaty Management University (Kazakhstan), Maria Balashova, Dean of Synergy Business School, and Andrey Kolyada, Rector of EMAS Business School.

The conference final presentation resulted in the invitation from Natalya Tolstaya, General Director of Amplua company, to establish strategic partnership between business schools and training centers which is bound to cater for effective teamwork and active collaboration.

At the end of the conference there was a pleasant surprise awaiting the participants – a glass of champagne with a cake branded with RABE logo and surrounded with cupcakes featuring the logos of the participants’ schools.

The National Centre of Contemporary Arts “Arsenal” showed its hospitality by organizing a guided excursion for the conference participants. After that, there was time for gala dinner.

On June, 23 the conference participants visited Pechersky Ascension Monastery and enjoyed the magnificent views of Nizhny Novgorod during the boat trip on the Volga and Oka rivers.