Variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes, but with so many business schools and many more postgraduate degrees on offer, making a decision as to what and where to study can be difficult.
Ling Mei Cong is the deputy dean for learning and teaching in the Graduate School of Business and Law at RMIT University. And true to the university’s mission of extending the benefits of a fast-innovating, high-skill knowledge economy to the community and world, the university’s programs have been shaped and transformed by advances in technology and the transformation of the workplace and society.
“We created an opportunity for business and government to have a dialogue about the region while we help facilitate engagement and research,” Professor Byrne says. That’s good news for Abul Shamsudden, dean and head of school at Newcastle Business School, which boasts of a full-time employment rate of more than 90 per cent within just four months.While Newcastle and the Hunter are a region in transition away from the heavy industry and fossil fuel sectors that have driven its wealth to date, Professor Shamsudden says the MBA is generalist but has a strong, social and corporate governance lens over all its programs.
“It might not be a holistic understanding of all 16 SDGs but there might be an understanding of women’s economic empowerment, for example, or addressing inequality and poverty or thinking differently about people and planetary health.” RMIT is also a predominantly online offering, says Dr Cong. “For the MBA program, the proportion of online versus face-to-face students is roughly three to one,” she says.Active-learning strategies
While both Charles Sturt and RMIT have wholly, or mainly, online offerings, the CarringtonCrisp survey found the vast majority of prospective postgraduate business students want an on-campus, or hybrid, degree.“The survey found only 7 per cent indicated they want an entirely online degree,” Crisp says. “Instead, 46 per cent chose face-to-face study, and 47 per cent prefer a blended degree with some face-to-face and some online.