Purdue University
News Service
1132 Engineering Administration Building
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1132
Voice: 765-494-2096
FAX: 765-494-0401
October 15, 1999
Germans/Purdue Celebrate Opening Of Graduate Business School
Sources: Dan Schendel, (765) 494-4386; [email protected]
Felix Osterheider, public relations consultant, 49-541-338-260
HANOVER, Germany -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will help showcase a new kind of graduate business school for his nation at a ceremonial opening Friday, Oct. 22.
In an initiative prompted by Schroeder, a private German foundation made up of business and government leaders contracted with Purdue University in the United States to establish the German International School of Management and Administration. Schroeder will be among the speakers at the ceremony, which is set for 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Hanover (8 a.m. to 10 a.m. EST) in the Rotunde, where the classes are held in the Hanover Medical Park.
Schroeder said earlier that his goal was to create a private business school in his country where students could learn the U.S. style of management. Purdue's Krannert Graduate School of Management is providing the faculty and administrative team, led by Dean Dan Schendel. The 23 students currently in the program come from four continents: 12 are from Germany, three are from China, and the rest are from India, Mexico, Ghana, Greece, Estonia, Russia and the United Kingdom.
"The goal is to attract an international body of students and offer them a graduate program through the Krannert School, which is recognized for preparing its graduates to successfully compete in a global business market," Schendel said.
Stephen Green, a Krannert School professor of management who just returned to West Lafayette from teaching in Hanover, said the time is right for this program.
"The European Common Market is developing so rapidly that companies in Europe are very interested in the MBA (master's of business administration) and what professionals with these degrees can do for their companies. Yet, there were only a handful of recognized MBA programs in Europe, and none in Germany. Ours is the first program of this caliber in Germany."
After a year of study, students may earn a master's of science in industrial administration or a master's of business administration from Purdue. The 23 students finished their first, eight-week module of five courses Oct. 8, and they have four more modules to complete.
Student Andrew Bowd, a native of Scotland who has worked as an engineer for a chemical company, said he values the U.S. style of education that the program offers.
"The program brings an American approach to business, a very applied approach, which is not so strongly theoretical," he said. "When I go into my chosen area after receiving this MBA, I can be effective quickly."
Firat Huseyim, one of the German students, noted that there are differences in the teaching techniques of American and European professors.
"German professors lecture, and there's not much participation with the students," Huseyim said. "American professors emphasize interaction between students and professors."
The international component is also valuable, Bowd said.
"In the classroom discussion and group work you see how people from different cultures have completely different opinions on how you should approach a problem," Bowd said. "And in a teamworking atmosphere, it can bring you to some solutions you never would have arrived at yourself, coming from your own culture."
Schendel added that the graduates not only will have the tools of professional managers to solve problems, but also will be prepared to create businesses of their own.
"The program creates broad training to teach people not only to be professional managers but also innovators and entrepreneurs capable of starting businesses and creating jobs," he said.
Beginning in February, the school also will offer the Krannert School's two-year executive master's program designed for working managers to take classes from home, supplementing them with concentrated, periodic visits to campus.
"Recruiting is under way for the executive master's program and for our second master's of science class," said Schendel, who has been a professor of management and taught in the graduate program at Purdue for 34 years.
Purdue will receive $27 million during the first five years of a 10-year contract to set up and run the program under the agreement with the German foundation. Groups of Purdue faculty live on campus, rotating in from the United States when modules requiring their expertise are to be taught. Besides teaching the classes, the Purdue faculty are training German professors to ultimately run the program.
"It's also a great learning experience for all Krannert faculty to send some of our faculty over for eight weeks at a time to learn about the European markets and how they operate," Green said.
Gerhard Glogowski, prime minister of Lower Saxony, and U.S. Ambassador Jeff C. Kornblum also are expected to be on hand for the opening, Schendel said.
stg/schendel.gisma
Writer: Susan Gross, (765) 494-2096, [email protected]
Additional source: Stephen Green, (765) 494-6852; [email protected]
Related Web site: Purdue University Krannert School of Management: http://www.mgmt.purdue.edu/
RSS