Source: Financial Post via Academica | Sept. 26, 2014
The Financial Post has published a report on how business schools are adjusting to meet the needs of International and Indigenous students in the face of a diversifying student body. Murali Chandrashekaran, Associate Dean of UBC’s Sauder School of Business, says that there is a broad need for a more diverse approach to business education. Diversity, he said, is critical for long-term sustainability of global business. 76% of Sauder’s business instructors have international backgrounds, up from approximately 40% 10 years ago. The school uses a team-teaching approach to provide a variety of perspectives to its students, who last year represented 32 different countries. [CIEC Academic Member] Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business has introduced an EMBA program in Aboriginal Business and Leadership to promote Aboriginal leaders’ business education as well as to help managers working with First Nations communities build stronger relationships. The program relies on guest speakers from Aboriginal communities and counts chiefs and counsellors among its student body. “There’s a lot of expertise in that room,” said Program Director Mark Selman, “and the best faculty members are the ones who learn to take advantage of that and use it as an asset in the classroom.”