(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Branch campuses of business schools in the GCC should complement their national universities by developing local faculty and research, says an expert.
Demand for business schools is tremendous, especially that management of higher education landscape is fairly scarce. The localisation of some international branch campuses is a partial response, Prof Laoucine Kerbache, Dean & CEO, HEC Paris in Qatar, told this daily.
"The main challenge of management education in the region, including Qatar, is to build up a world-class education system to develop skills needed for the growth of the countries in the region. Catering to Qatarisation policies, as in the case of other GCC countries, is a major challenge to business schools since many needs are relative to management executive education. The other challenge is to build faculty and research capabilities. For instance, it is essential to attract some of the best faculty worldwide and develop PhD programmes to foster research and produce local and regional content (case studies and applied research, among others)," he added.
HEC Paris in Qatar has set up a research office to cater to these needs. A dozen of management case studies have been developed in collaboration with some companies in Qatar.
Out of 192 universities in the GCC, 89 (46 percent) offer MBA. Of these 51 (57 percent) are based in the UAE, with 32 in Dubai.
Oman has the largest percentage (75 percent of universities offering MBA), Bahrain (69), Kuwait (67) and Qatar (15).
The GCC registered about 1.5 million students, with only about 4,000 pursuing master's degree in business administration.
HEC Paris in Qatar and Qatar University are positioning themselves as major players, providing postgraduate programmes in management.
"Professionals are considering the GCC a place to settle and build a career. Thus, they seek continued education" Business schools in the region face the challenge to have effective management education in line with the countries' needs for growth and jobs," said Prof Kerbache.
The European Foundation for Management Development's 2015 EFMD MENA Conference this month will bring experts to Doha to discuss challenges and opportunities of business education in the region. It will be hosted by HEC Paris in Qatar.
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