From Business Week Online SEPTEMBER 24, 2001
Rotterdam Trims Its Program
To avoid repetitive content, the Rotterdam School of Management is reducing
the length and coursework for its international MBA degree
Rotterdam School of Management, one of a handful of European business
schools to offer a two-year MBA program, says it will reduce the length of
its international MBA program to 15 months from 18 in October, 2002.
The shortened MBA program ...., reduces the number of elective courses to
10 from 13, drops two weeks from the internship program, and adds
technology-based courses to the start of the program to bring all of its
students up to speed more efficiently.
The move is primarily the result of suggestions from students. After RSM
administrators compared what its MBAs knew when they arrived at school --
the class of 2003 averages five years of work experience -- to what its
faculty were teaching, the school concluded that some areas were repetitive.
RSM Dean Kai Peters also says the changes are in anticipation of more
competition in the European market for MBA programs. He says that's due to
the European Union's attempts to set common standards for higher education.
State-run universities could be prodded by the EU to separate their
Bachelor's degree programs from Master's programs. "If you want to run a
high-end post-experience MBA program, you've got to make sure that it's
tight, and that there's no air in it," he says.
MORE EXPENSIVE. .... "If [the MBAs] want to do more courses, nothing is
standing in their way from auditing [other classes]."
Less time in class doesn't make RSM's degree any cheaper -- in fact, the
cost is rising. The shorter degree will cost about $27,200, compared to this
year's $24,500 tuition. Peters says the school hasn't cut off much content
and when both London Business School and INSEAD raised their tuition in
recent years, people still enrolled. "Students [told us], 'If I can save two
months in school, [higher tuition] doesn't bother me. And if you use the
money well [on technology], it doesn't matter.'"