News Highlights
Author:
Maha Al-Azar,
Media Relations Officer,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
ma110@aub.edu.lb
 Suliman S. Olayan School of Business website
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AUB business school set to join ranks of top six percent in the world
 | (L-R) Fernandez discusses business school plans with Dean Najjar
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A strong business school is "a major catalyst of economic invigoration for a country," said the president and CEO of the renowned business school accreditation agency, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), during a three-day visit that ended September 26.
John Fernandez, who was on his third visit to the American University of Beirut since he first met AUB's Olayan School of Business Dean George Najjar in 2003, said he believed that, in addition to creating a secure and stable political environment, Lebanese should work on developing their business schools to help stimulate economic growth.
Since 2005, the AUB Olayan School of Business has been working on earning the coveted AACSB accreditation, which would thus allow it to join the ranks of the top six-percent business schools in the world, the likes of Harvard University, Yale University, University of California at Berkeley, HEC School of Management in France and London Business School.
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 | Fernandez: 'I expect AUB will become a leading business school in the region'
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"Countries with strong business schools are often those with a strong economy," said Fernandez. "Look at China nowadays." [China has six AACSB-accredited business schools]
Described by Forbes magazine as the " gold standard of business school accreditations," AACSB accreditation involves a long process in which a business school needs to prove that it meets 21 standards that fall under three categories. The school needs to have a mission and strategic plan and it should show that it is fulfilling them. It also needs to prove that it can recruit and maintain excellent faculty and students; and that it can meet its learning goals.
In general, most business schools face difficulties in recruiting PhD-qualified faculty, as the number of MBA graduates interested in pursuing a PhD in their field is limited, particularly because those geared toward business can find more lucrative positions in the corporate world. But Fernandez believes that AUB will manage to attract even more faculty with the completion of the state-of-the art building it will move into by the end of 2008.
"I expect AUB will become a leading business school in the region, producing global leaders of business," he said. AUB expects to earn its accreditation by 2009. |
In terms of future trends in business education, globalization has imposed added importance on communications skills, especially in cross-cultural settings, said Fernandez. "That's why all business schools need to focus more on developing students' written and oral communication skills in addition to training them on teamwork and group projects since business is rarely ever done by one person sitting in the corner in front of his/her computer," he said.
Other trends include developing curricula that include courses on entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. As a result, students will learn to think of the ethical and social impacts of their decisions. "In this manner, MBA students will not only learn to make money but also to sustain society and the environment." |
| AUB has already incorporated courses on entrepreneurship in its business school curriculum. Moreover, the school also offers workshops on leadership, corporate social responsibility and high-performance team-building among others. The school hopes that, by the time it receives accreditation, it will be ready to compete with other top business schools.
Currently, the OSB has 1200 undergraduate and 180 graduate students, in addition to 45 full-time faculty members. Once it receives accreditation, it anticipates attracting more international faculty and students.
"This accreditation will certainly help us become more competitive in attracting quality faculty and students from all over the world," said OSB Dean Najjar. "Moreover, it will allow us to institutionalize quality control measures that can be readily reviewed by third parties. We are really excited about the future of the school."
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