I have just submitted my last coursework. As of now, I am officially done with my University education (maybe). And, with the risk of sounding too boring on the wake of the past two posts on a similar topic, I wanted to write about Business school. Again. That, plus I don’t have anything else that’s interesting enough to write about.
It could be argued that not all universities are alike, and each offers a unique curriculum, however I feel there is common ground for improvement. This are the 5 things I believe every Business School should teach. In no particular order. And I promise this is the last post about University I write (maybe).
1) Another Language. How can we aspire to live in a global world without speaking at least 2 languages? Bocconi mandates a second european language other than English in the third year. However, while this effort is commendable, it is naive to think that one could possible learn another language in one year. I believe we should make studying another language (or even better, 2) compulsory for the entire 3 (or 4) years of tuition. And possibly not limit ourselves to European languages. How about some 汉语 or 日本語?
2) History of Finance. They say that history doesn’t repeat. However it does rhyme. Every financial crisis is different from the previous, however there are common points across them. Mostly just the fact that human beings are greedy, but also the fact that in the excitement of the moment you can loose track of what really matters. I believe that studying past mistakes could help us prevent future ones. That, and I’m biased because I love history.
3) Programming. I cannot stress this enough. We live in the day and age of the computer and most of us could not even start to explain how their laptop works. It is admittedly hard to teach programming, but then, isn’t it hard to teach almost anything? Some universities do offer courses in VBA. However, at least in my experience, they are terrible. True, you could always go and study on your own, which then begs the question, what is the point of going to University if you can study anything on your own?
4) International Culture. I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone else, but I feel like I tend to think I know everything about the world, while, to quote ASOIF, “You know nothing, Jon Snow”. This one might be impossible to teach, however I feel we should try to make the effort, and understand that no two people are equal, all the more if they come from different parts of the world.
5) Something else. This one is rather vague, but I think Business Schools should try and foster interest in things other than Finance and Management. I am not a big fan of overspecialisation, and consider myself somewhat of a “renaissance” person. I believe having interests other than business should be actively encouraged. Being it Art, Music, Sports or whatever else, I believe a well rounded education is better than a very specialised one. This might well be overly utopian, however if my Uni were to offer courses in things other than business, either directly or through partnerships, I know I would sign up (and I have in the past).
Opinionated 