The study reviews literature to study the criticism on the MBA program for not meeting the current organizational requirements and then analyses the MBA program curriculum from the publicly available webpages of 12 selected schools. The data revealed that schools include some core business courses in their curriculum, and their contribution to the curriculum stands between 45% to 69% of the total curriculum and thus leaves little room for more innovative courses. Despite the emphasis by industry to include more relevant courses on soft skills, technology, societal impact, strategy, and decision-making, their contribution to the curriculum is still low. One rationale to this also confirmed through literature and from the class statistics of two schools revealed a high percentage of learners from other academic disciplines such as engineering who need the foundational business knowledge courses. These students also contribute a major chunk to the business school earnings; thus, the curriculum is designed such that it is feasible to all student streams. Furthermore, separating the streams into different MBA modules is not a preferred option as the class discussions benefit from the diversity that these students bring from their respective experiences. Another discussion for improvement of curricula and MBA programs stems from the pursuit of international accreditations, and whether business schools tend to fulfill the accreditation requirements under a Market logic for legitimacy, without following the accreditation standards in true spirit which can result in significant quality improvements.

Authors:
Sadia Sheikh, Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan

About the Presenter(s)
Sadia Sheikh is a student of MS Management at the School of Business Studies at IBA Karachi, Pakistan where she also works as Assistant Manager in the Accreditation Office. Her interests i clude Organizational Behavior, Culture and Education.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sadiasheikh01

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sadia-Sheikh-5

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