Mount Saint Mary’s University’s MBA program director and professor of business Christian Teeter recently shared his insights into current trends in MBA education in an interview in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
Professor Teeter provides strategic oversight to the management and development of MBA studies at the college and also chairs steering committees for accreditation and online MBA programming.
Teeter explains:
“The hottest trends in advanced education today focus on the need for cutting-edge training that helps students immediately apply academic/scholarly concepts to their professional endeavors. Faculty members and academic leaders must focus on ensuring that there is a real-world application available to students in every single course that is taken within a specific program, or risk having students grow impatient and possibly become lackadaisical about their studies.
In addition, a global and international perspective is critical to the success of any educational program, including courses in international studies and study trips/academic projects that involve students traveling to overseas destinations to enhance their studies and build their skills.”
Addressing the role of MBA education in preparing students for leadership roles, Teeter remarked on the network of analytical and critical reasoning skills that MBAs obtain throughout their education.
“The MBA degree strengthens graduates’ abilities to lead organizations, enabling them to promote a vision that will inspire and guide others, creating a culture of ethics, transparency and professionalism that develops and retains staff for the long term. MBA graduates develop leadership skills that enable them to see their firm as a system that works as one entity, as opposed to a set of silos. The MBA skill-set raises the ability of graduates to lead cross-functional groups that leverage the full capability of organizations.”