Some graduate business programs require students to attend classes and workshops off-campus. Participants in Fordham’s new business management program will take classes on three continents.
The Three-Continent Master of Global Management program is a joint program between the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA), Antwerp Management School of Belgium and Xavier Institute of Management in India. The one-year, full-time program calls for students to spend four months on each continent. The first cohort is scheduled to begin in September pending state approval.
“These people will be able to navigate the world in a way in which graduates of conventional programs would probably struggle,” said David A. Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of GBA. “Their opportunities will be much more expansive then their peers.”
A cohort of 60 students from all three schools will begin their one-year academic journey in the Belgian city of Antwerp, a cosmopolitan city with a rich history in Western Europe. They will then spend four months in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, which is known as the city of temples. They cohort will finish the program in New York City.
“The places the program will take the students are not exactly on the tourist route. This is not New York, Paris and London,” Gautschi said. “There are 6.5 billion people on this planet. This program places the student with people and in parts of the world where there is both rich history and dynamism that the student might otherwise not have the opportunity to understand. It takes advantage of the cultural diversity in the student group and the distinctive characteristics of the three venues by combining a curriculum that is both rigorous and experiential. ”
Philippe Naert, dean of the Antwerp Management School, said this is a program he has been dreaming about for many years.
“In academia, we all talk about a globalized world. And we have courses in which people are exposed to what is happening in the rest of the world. But it’s a completely different experience when you live in another part of the world for an extended period of time,” Naert said.
“Our students will truly experience the underlying social systems, religious systems, culture and so forth in these three regions,” he continued. “They’ll be exposed to an international faculty. Our goal is for them to work on a project throughout the year, hopefully with companies that are active in these parts of the world.”
The goal for administrators at all three institutions is to enroll 20 students from each for even representation. Competition will be fierce at the Xavier Institute of Management, where the school receives 20,000 applications for 180 openings, according to P.T. Joseph, S.J., the school’s top director.
Students in the Three-Continent master’s program will receive careful attention to personal development, Naert said.
“They will have to learn to communicate in a multicultural environment,” he said. “Obviously, we will make sure there is more than just sitting in the classroom. That’s why this is a yearlong program. It is really 12 months, not two semesters.
“Graduates of this program will be citizens of the world and very welcome in any company. I’m absolutely convinced that in terms of getting these people jobs afterward, it will be fantastic,” Naert added.
For more information about this program, contact Katherine Randolph, director of international programs, at [email protected] or (212) 636-6210.
