A global perspective

At ESSEC Business School, it’s all about giving the right type of exposure to students

Marianne Tan
Jan 10, 2019

Increasing numbers of students from the Asia-Pacific region are seeking out further education from international business schools, like top-ranking institution ESSEC Business School.

This was an observation made by Professor Aarti Ramaswami, 38, the Deputy Dean of ESSEC Asia-Pacific and the Academic Director of the ESSEC Global MBA Program in France and Singapore.

Currently, the school has over 580 students of many different nationalities enrolled in its programmes at the ESSEC Asia-Pacific campus in Singapore in the current academic year.

One of the reasons for its popularity is its focus on offering exposure — exposure to “peers, faculty members and corporate partners representing diverse cultures, industries and expertise”.

“Our programmes encourage students to go above and beyond the pursuit of academic excellence and what is typically taught in classrooms,” Professor Ramaswami explains.

“As classes are designed to be more intimate, students can find themselves working closely with distinguished professors and fellow students, allowing them to further develop interpersonal and team-working skills, as well as critical-thinking capabilities.”

This helps foster stronger global perspectives, and at the same time, is a good opportunity for students to network. It is an experience that Professor Ramaswami describes as “truly international, diverse and culturally enriching”.

Additionally, ESSEC’s academic and programme directors also meet with industry leaders regularly to vet their learning processes and get industry insights.

These are then used to craft a curriculum that helps students build competencies to meet future business challenges, be it in strategy and digital transformation, new market entry, product innovation or sustainability.

“This ability to adapt will be a lifelong career skill and competitive advantage for [students], as the current business landscape demands professionals to be nimbler than ever,” she says.

Thanks to these initiatives, ESSEC was ranked eighth in the Financial Times’ European Business School Rankings 2018, and has over 50,000 alumni around the world.

Professor Ramaswami says: “We want to help students discover their passions and hidden talents by working through challenges. This develops valuable skills needed to not only apply knowledge, but also to creatively adapt various solutions to new situations.”