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Business Schools Redesigned to Improve Learning

Published: 18 January 2017

Form follows function.  The philosophy that drives nature also drives business school re-design, especially in Canada.  The focus?  Creating student community.  Why the push? Business schools recognize that the sprawling university model doesn’t reflect the 21st-century business model of community, collaboration, and innovation.  Instead, they reflect insular and disjointed approaches.  Many current business schools send students to classes on one part of campus, career services in a far flung corner, and student groups sprinkled about. What are business schools doing to create tighter senses of community and collaboration space? 

...McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in Montreal has taken a similar approach with its 40,600 square foot expansion in what was once the campus bookstore.  According to the Globe and Mail, Dean Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou said, “What we are trying to do is create a space where the students will feel at home.”  She added, “We hear a lot of talk about distance learning—it’s a big discussion these days—but in the end a lot of the students want to be [at school] with their peers and work together.”  What will MBA students have at the end of the renovation in January 2018?   Nineteen discussion rooms for group projects, tiered seating in classrooms, flat floors with round tables for group discussions—and plenty of common meeting space. 

Read full article: MBA Studies, January 4, 2017 

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