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Prof. Andrew Abel with student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States (WHARTON SCHOOL) |
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has recently announced that it will make major changes to its 17-year-old curriculum. The school's faculty voted on December 6 to approve the restructuring of its MBA program, allowing greater flexibility for students.
The enhanced curriculum, which will receive a partial roll-out in 2011 and be fully implemented in 2012, will give students a variety of choices for required courses based on their educational and career experience. It will strengthen analytic teaching and create an increased focus on ethical and legal responsibility in business as well as a renewed focus on oral and written communication skills. It will also introduce new methods of leadership development that emphasize self-analysis, according to the school's press release about the changes.
"The architecture of the curriculum addresses the needs of a new global generation through flexibility, rigor and innovation," said Thomas S. Robertson, Dean of the Wharton School.
One of the highlights of the new plan includes the school's unprecedented commitment to offer an executive education course to MBA graduates free of charge once every seven years. "With this unique commitment to lifelong learning, Wharton seeks to create a vibrant community of graduates who will return regularly to engage with faculty and fellow alumni," said Professor G. Richard Shell, chair of the MBA Review Committee that created the offer.
As part of the curriculum overhaul, Wharton will also introduce a series of global modular courses that will be offered in eight countries this year, including China. These courses will be taught by Wharton faculty and will focus on topics that are relevant to the host countries, according to Professor Shell.
Shell said that two courses will be taught in China; "Marketing in Emerging Economies: Understanding and Marketing to the Chinese Consumer" will be taught in Beijing, while "Global Supply Chain Management in China"will be taught in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is now recognized as one of the world's top business schools. It has more than 4,800 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students, more than 9,000 annual participants in executive education programs and an alumni network of 86,000 graduates. International students make of 36 percent of the school's class of 2012.
(Reporting from New York)
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