The faculty of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business yesterday approved a new MBA curriculum that will feature changes to the existing curriculum structure, the introduction of key new cross-disciplinary courses and a renewed commitment to principled leadership and globalization. Full-time MBA Associate Dean Elaine Romanelli announced the changes in a letter today, indicating that they will be implemented beginning in fall 2012.
“The new curriculum deepens our commitment to the program’s fundamental values for educating principled leaders with global perspectives in service to business and society and strengthens our delivery of core functional knowledge (e.g., finance, marketing, operations),” Romanelli writes.
As part of changes to the curriculum structure, most core classes will be lengthened from seven weeks to 12, a shift that is designed to give students more time to reflect and learn as well as greater opportunity to integrate learning with other courses.
In terms of content, the new MBA curriculum will include six new integrated courses recognizing and teaching functional knowledge found at the intersections of different disciplines. Cross-disciplinary teams of faculty will design and deliver these new courses. For example, ethics professor Ed Soule and leadership professor Michael O’Leary are working with additional faculty on one of the six new courses, entitled Principled Leadership for Business and Society, which will pull together perspectives from leadership, ethics and corporate social responsibility to explore the challenges of modern business decision making.
Finally, the new curriculum will cement McDonough’s commitment to turning out principled leaders ready to make a difference in an increasingly global world through the introduction of courses like the leadership-focused one mentioned above as well as a new three-week intensive course focused on global business perspectives. This course, entitled the Structure of Global Industries, has been designed to “set the stage for a global discussion throughout the entire curriculum,” Romanelli writes. She adds that the school will expand its global residency program into an enhanced experiential learning opportunity that will take students’ experiences, talents, connections and careers into account as part of planning the projects and locations they will take part in as part of the MBA.
Romanelli also announced the academic calendar for the fall, sharing that a special day of orientation for international students will take place on Monday, August 6th, orientation for all students will begin on Tuesday, August 7th, and classes will begin on Monday, August 13th.
