First-years students at Columbia Business School (CBS) this fall will take part in a new corporate governance module during orientation, the first of several changes to the school’s core curriculum that will be unveiled over the course of the year. As part of the curriculum redesign, CBS also has streamlined the required components of the core in an effort to give students more flexibility to enroll in electives in their first year.
The introduction of the corporate governance module, a non-credit component that will begin during first-year orientation and conclude with a capstone session in the final term of the MBA program, is designed to shine a spotlight on a topic too often overlooked as a core competency in management education.
“Today, every business leader must understand the potential economic benefit of good governance, as well as the interaction among directors, management, regulatory bodies, investors and other stakeholders,” CBS Dean R. Glenn Hubbard said in a statement about the new core.
Through pre-term readings and class sessions, students will examine the duties and responsibilities they personally will be expected to assume as managers and directors of firms while also considering the larger role corporate governance plays in their careers, the economy and society at laas a whole.
Also part of the curriculum redesign, the CBS core will now be organized into “required” and “flexible” components. Requirements have been pared down to 6.5 core classes deemed to cover essential material that every MBA graduate should study. These core classes include accounting, corporate finance, leadership, marketing, operations, statistics and strategy.
The flexible core, meanwhile, is designed to expand on the required components while complementing their content. As part of the flexible core, students will select one course from each of three broad categories – Organizations, Performance and Markets. These courses will address topics ranging from organizational change and the importance of social networks to risk management to macro- and micro-economics and game theory.
The organization of the new core also allows students to incorporate more electives into their first year, better shaping their study to their personal career objectives. “The innovative transformation of the core curriculum provides students with foundational expertise in preparation for electives, internships and Master Classes.” Dean Hubbard said.
The revised core curriculum is the result of a systematic evaluation of the earlier core by the Foundations Curriculum Committee, a group of tenured faculty from each of the school’s five academic divisions convened by Hubbard in 2006.
