In a unanimous vote earlier this month, the faculty at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley approved curriculum changes proposed by Dean Rich Lyons to give graduates a stronger general management framework, expanded leadership training and greater international experience.
The curriculum changes include teaching the school’s MBA core leadership course at the beginning of the first year as part of an effort to give students a solid foundation in the Haas approach to general management – an approach that views leadership as spanning many disciplines, from organizational behavior to strategy to operations.
Students also now will participate in a new experiential learning initiative in the second half of the program. The new initiative will draw on all the knowledge students gain from different disciplines throughout their time at Haas and build on existing applied innovation programs at the school such as Haas@Work, Cleantech-to-Market with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and Social Sector Solutions with McKinsey & Company.
“The result will be a richer curriculum that provides students with a stronger sense of the themes that define our school’s approach to leadership and general management,” Lyons said in a statement. “We need to more clearly differentiate ourselves if we’re going to take Haas to the next level.”
The curriculum changes also call for expanding the school’s international focus both by increasing the size of the school’s International Business Development Program and by adding more international executives to the Haas Board. The International Business Development Program, which sends students around the world to help solve business problems for private and nonprofit clients, will be doubled over the next two years.
Changes will be implemented in the full-time MBA program first, but they are expected to impact all of the school’s academic programs over time. A second implementation phase would require all Haas students to fulfill a substantive international requirement.
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