The RSM MBA: Achieving New Heights (And Taking Less Time)
The Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, has been one of the leading business schools in Europe for a long time. A leader that has, through programme innovation, international diversity and management research, accrued an impressive track record for graduate success and satisfaction. It has remained less well-known than its major competitors in other European cities in part because of the size of its programme intakes and the selectivity with which it chooses its participants. But now – with a pro-active new Dean and a tighter, timelier 12-month format – the RSM International Full-Time MBA has clearly stepped into the winner’s circle, placing 9th in Europe and 26th globally in the 2009 FT MBA ranking, which surveys around 5,000 international business schools each year.
When George Yip, RSM’s Dean, was inaugurated last year, one of his clearly-stated aims for the School’s MBA programmes was to raise their profile and ranking. “In football terms, we are now a good Premier League club, but we are keen to play in the Champions League,” he said. “I want us to rank among the global top 20 within four years.”
Rising in the Rankings
That was a scant year ago, but it looks as though Dean Yip’s ambitions for the RSM MBA are well on their way to being realised: in the 2009 FT Global MBA ranking released on 26 January, RSM’s MBA ranked 26th in the world, up from 34th place in the 2008 ranking. Even more gratifying was the flagship MBA programme’s ascent to 9th place in Europe, up from 15th in 2008. “It is pleasing to see this programme taking its place in the Top 10 of Europe,” says Ken Robertson, Director MBA Marketing and Admissions at RSM. “This indicates that our consistent efforts at enhancing the MBA and demonstrating that our graduates are being prepared for constantly changing business conditions have been recognised. It also means that our MBA alumni – who provide the confidential information used by the FT to create the ranking – are maintaining their level of satisfaction with the programme, and see ongoing benefit from their management education, having been prepared for what they now face in these challenging times.”
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More than just achieving a substantial rise in both the global and European overall rankings, the MBA did particularly well in certain areas of the FT ranking. RSM has long been recognised as attracting an internationally-diverse cohort of participants; the MBA programme notably had 97% international students, and ranked 7th in International Experience. Further, 97% of graduates were employed within three months of graduation. This results from the School’s close relationship with business, including MBA alumni and recruiters who work for multinational companies. Recruitment events, the RSM MBA Corporate Scholarship Programme, and a Campus Ambassador programme all help to put MBA students in touch with potential full-time positions, meanwhile satisfying the seemingly endless ‘war for talent’ at such companies as Shell, ING, and Cordys.
Relevant, Responsive Programme Innovations
Beyond satisfying programme participants’ need and desire for career progression, the RSM MBA – led by Associate Dean Dianne Bevelander and Academic Dean Jaap Spronk – has an ongoing legacy of programme innovation, including the very practical leveraging of its highly-diverse students. Long before other business schools began to talk about the advantages of working and studying within a diverse multicultural cohort of students, for example, RSM was doing it, prefiguring the current emphasis in MBA programmes on ‘learning to manage in a global team.’ RSM has also been the forerunner in recognising that the elusive and oh-so-desirable cocktail of qualities termed ‘leadership ability’ could be effectively incubated in MBA students who were already in an extremely challenging programme, likely in a new country, and pushed well beyond their comfort zone. Personal Leadership Development (PLD) remains an embedded part of the programme; it encourages MBA students to look deeply into their own characters, challenge their assumptions, understand their strengths and confront the less-constructive parts of their personalities.
A Faster, Greener, and More Focused MBA
The latest innovation at RSM is a 12-month format for its MBA. A one-year format is not a wholly new idea in a post-experience market that has tweaked, spun and tailored the pre-eminent management degree into such wild variations as ‘the football MBA,’ ‘ the wine MBA’, and even a recent seminar entitled ‘the one day MBA’. But RSM is adopting the one-year format because it makes sense in the current economic, social and business climate, says Dianne Bevelander. “The people who join our 12-month International Full-Time MBA are unique,” she says. “They often come to RSM wanting to change careers, and in fact they want to embark on an accelerated educational and career trajectory.” Moreover, she says, they have the drive to “engage in a programme that is very challenging on a personal and professional level.”
While RSM is historically known for a focus on ‘green’ and sustainability issues, and is highly ranked in the ‘Beyond Grey Pinstripes’ survey that assesses integration of these issues into the curriculum of MBA programmes, the 12-month International Full-Time MBA will emphasise ‘ESG’ – Environmental, Social and Governance issues – even more deeply. It is clear that old ways of doing business have died a swift, sudden and unlovely death, and that managers of the near future will have to come up with innovative products and processes that contribute to the overall good. “Our MBA programme is about empowering participants to have greater choice – and to recognise the significance of the choices that they make,” says Bevelander. “Given our programme’s advanced integration of the big issues facing business today in terms of the environment, social good and governance – we hope that these will be choices that can make a far-reaching positive impact on the world in which we live.”
The top-ranked RSM International Full-Time MBA is currently recruiting candidates, and will begin in January 2010. Full information can be found at
www.rsm.nl
