Advanced Search

Related News

Home » Supplement » Study abroad

Making sense of management at Audencia

March 5, 2009, Thursday | Print Edition
CHINESE candidates seeking an MBA or another business education program are faced with an embarrassment of riches. Most viable business schools are busy targeting China and, as a result, the amount of information for prospective Chinese students grows daily.

These days, business education, and particularly MBA programs, mean big business. Thousands of schools across the world offer an ever-growing number of courses that claim to be international, top-quality and the key to a huge salary after graduation.

Behind this marketing operation there may be quite another picture. Indeed, the term "MBA" is not protected by copyright or any other legal means. Anyone can open a business education program and call it an MBA. The result is a market where only outside controls like accreditations and respected rankings really prove the worth of a school.

Prospective students need to ask themselves if a school, despite its promise of high post-MBA earnings, really corresponds to their personal ambitions and profile.

One of the best ways to get the most from business education is to get the right match from the start by finding a compatible school and program.

A key factor in finding this match is the philosophy of the school. At Audencia Nantes, one of Europe's rising management schools, the motto "making sense of management" affects all the activities.

Just two hours by high-speed train from Paris, and near the sandy Atlantic coast, Nantes is a green and growing city with a strong history of business education. The quality of life in Nantes is ranked as the best in France and one of the best in Europe.

Audencia, founded in 1900, has long been classed among the best French schools, and is now being recognized as a player on the world stage. This has been made possible, in part, by accreditation success. Audencia is among fewer than 1 percent of business schools in the world to have been accredited by the three major standards: AACSB (the US reference), Equis (the European reference) and Association of MBAs (the MBA reference).

This proof of quality is backed up by rankings. Audencia Master in Management is the 11th best program in the world according to the Financial Times. Audencia International MBA has the eighth best faculty in the world according to The Economist, and is 12th best for student's personal development.

In addition, the Euro*MBA distance learning program offered by Audencia in partnership with five other European schools is the world's fifth in The Economist's world ranking.

So much for quality then, but what about the actual business education experience? Simply because a school is well ranked and expensive does not mean that it will fit the profile for all students. An MBA will mean months of intense work with faculty and fellow students. Participants have to feel comfortable with their choice to get the most out of their studies.

At Audencia, people are firmly at the center of the business education process. The school strongly emphasizes personal development, allowing every one of its 2,000 students to evolve as an individual during their programs.

On Audencia International MBA, the intake is kept to the sort of manageable number that will allow each student to be assigned a personal faculty tutor for the year. This personal coach is always available to answer questions on course content, company projects and assignments, but also to offer advice for study choices and career moves.

In the same way, each student has a face-to-face contact with one of the school's team of career advisors. Throughout the year, MBA participants meet with companies looking to hire new managers. Most students find their new positions thanks to the support of the schools career service.

MBA alumni can even enrol for life-long learning after the program, so updating their knowledge via e-learning whenever they feel they need it.

Thanks to its permanent office on Tongji's campus, Audencia already has a foot in China. The school's Chinese connection can also be felt on its modern campus in Nantes where more than 100 new students a year choose to study Chinese and where a growing number of participants from China are joining MBA and Masters programs.

A Chinese student looking for an affordable, good quality, international MBA would be well advised to add Audencia to the list of possible destinations.

Study abroad


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend