International students graduating from MBA programs this year may find it more difficult to work in the U.S. after graduation thanks to a recent blackout on H-1B visas for temporary professional employees. Although many advocacy groups voiced concerns about the program in the last two years, the situation has become more urgent this year. Under the current regulations, there is a limit of 65,000 H-1B visas issued each fiscal year, with an additional 20,000 visas available to applicants with a U.S.-earned Master’s degree. Requests for visas this year shot well above the 65,000 limit on the first day that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accepted applications. As a result, the agency has now instituted an eighteen-month blackout on new H-1B visas, which could make the work authorization process extremely challenging for students in the MBA classes of 2007 and 2008, if not beyond. In response, many groups are organizing to urge Congressional action, including the Tuck Career Development Office, which has set up a website with information on the situation and possible solutions.
As expected, the coverage of the Fuqua cheating scandal continues in the press this week. Fuqua Associate Dean Mike Hemmerich reported Tuesday that for many of the students found guilty of the most serious offenses, the cheating was not confined to the single take-home test mentioned in the original news reports. Once the professor noticed the similarities on the test, other assignments from the class were examined, adding to the severity of the charges against several students.
With many of the news reports on the Duke scandal focusing on the ethical behavior of business students, this may be a good time to highlight some of the work being done to ensure that ethics and social responsibility are part of the education of all MBA students. Two recent articles showcase the local and global initiatives underway in this arena. First, the newest issue of the Tuck alumni magazine, TuckToday, presents an in-depth piece on Tuck’s efforts to shape ethical leaders, profiling the school’s ongoing efforts to include substantive discussion of ethical questions within the MBA curriculum. On a broader note, a recent BusinessWeek interview with U.N. Global Compact advisers Dr. Angel Cabrera and Dr. Manuel Escudero illustrates the growing international movement to make ethics education an expected part of all business school programs.
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