In Canada, Business Schools Lead Push for Globalization

At Canadian universities, business schools are light-years ahead of the rest of the campus in raising their global profile.

...At English-speaking McGill University, with its business school one-fifth the total enrollment size of HEC Montréal, delivering an international experience is central to branding efforts by the Desautels Faculty of Management.

Every year, about 30 handpicked undergraduate and graduate business students head off for a 10-day "hot cities tour"-this year to South Africa-to meet top government officials and business leaders. For a major in international management, introduced in 2009, undergraduates must pursue some kind of experiential learning in the form of an international exchange or internship, or study of foreign language.

..."Because of the globalization of business-and that is only going to continue-this is an area to differentiate yourself academically," says Don Melville, director of M.B.A. and master's programs at Desautels.

Even with higher tuition-now $69,160 over two years-Desautels is below the $98,689 rate for international students at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, and it's cheaper than top schools in the United States.

The price tag and the length of the program at Desautels were both factors in the decision by Soeren Klatt, a 29-year-old from Hamburg, Germany, to come to Montreal for his master of business administration.

"In Canada and Montreal, it is a good program for a good price compared to U.S. universities," he says, with the added bonus of Montreal as a bilingual city in an immigrant-friendly country.

Read full article: The Chronicle, April 1, 2012