Business Curriculum in Tertiary Education

8/7/2019 Business Curriculum in Tertiary Education

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BUSINESS CURRICULUM IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

By

Dr. Sein Min

Lecturer

Thames Business School, Informatics Group

March 2002


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Abstract

Curriculums are the blueprints of educational institutions and programmes. Thewell -structured and appropriate curriculum will ensure the value and quality of the

products of the respective educational organizations. It is necessary to review regularly

the curriculums and adapt them to the changing conditions of environment. Themarketing approach is suitable to apply for the curriculum design and improvement.

Todays business curriculums are the product of todays business practices.

Business education is in fact orienting towards the business world in order to producerequired managers and qualified people for industries as demanded by them. In line with

the current business practices, the business curriculums are providing a wide range of

theories and techniques. All tertiary institutions around the world offer the same or

similar subjects in the business education programmes. Nevertheless, the content and theapproach used by individual institution differ significantly.

To consider what should we do for the business curriculum of the future, the

starting point should be the prediction of the future businesses and the complementary

role of business education - How will businesses in the future play their roles? Ideally,

future businesses should be playing a vital role not only for their belonging society, but

also for the entire mankind on the planet. At least, the societal marketing orientationshould be firmly adopted by every business around the world, in contrast to the present

orientations like sales or marketing. I

The curriculum development or adjustment should follow the marketing approach

by identifying firstly the target markets and the products such as graduates, diploma

holders, produced by the business education programmes. The potential employers of ourgraduates and their specific needs as well as the expectation should be explored and

subsequently the curriculums should be designed and developed.

The curriculum design needs to take into account different types of learnersegments such as traditional students, life-long learners, virtual universities and other

purposes, for example, training, refreshment courses, and so forth. Moreover, the

curriculum design and development is not necessarily to reproduce the standard form orpackage used in international institutions. Here again, one (international) marketing

principle is applicable. That is Think globally and act locally!


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Introduction

It is needless to say that the curriculum is very important for every educational

programmes. Indeed, curriculums are the blueprints of educational institutions and

programmes. The well -structured and appropriate curriculum will ensure the value and

quality of the products of the respective educational organizations. Likewise inmarketing, it is necessary to review regularly the curriculums and adapt them to the

changing conditions of environment. The marketing approach is suitable to apply for the

curriculum design and improvement. Business curriculums are lifeblood of programmesof business education and in the meantime, these programmes are organic parts of the

business world. Before we consider particularly about the role of curriculum, we should

begin with the changing business environment in which businesses are running and to

which business management must orient.

In general, business environment is changing very rapidly and dynamically.Hence, business management needs always to keep a pace with these changes and

accordingly business education needs to revise its programmes and curriculums. Some of

the major changes in todays business environment can be counted as follows:1. Globalization or Amercianization2. Stiff competition

3. IT or New Digital Era

4. Shift the focus in market areas, for example, from industrialized western

markets to newly industrializing and newly emerged markets5. Environmental concerns such as pollution, energy saving, recycling, and so

forth.

Due to these changes, many business organizations have also turned the way of

doing their business and methods in management. For instance, the organizations need to

be more flexible in todays environment, thus a more flexible management style called asreengineering is put into use. Again to be more flexible, these organizations are

acquiring necessary inputs and resources from outside sources and suppliers rather thantraditional way of doing everything inside the organization. As a result, the relationship,

partnering, alliances, supply chain, and so forth, are becoming the key concepts of today

businesses. Moreover, we can observe increasing importance of the following activities

and approaches, namely, merger, globalization, flattening, focusing, empowering, etc.1

As business activities and concepts are changing, it is necessary to revise some ofthe elements in the programmes of business education and subsequently, the curriculum

of business education will be necessary to be modified and upgraded. Before we touch

such particular points as what should be changed and how should be changed, we should

firstly review first the development and trend of business education in the past and, then,the current state of business practices and curriculums of business education.

1. See Kotler, P., Marketing Managemen, The Millenium Edition, The Prentice Hall, 2000, p. 680.


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Review on Business Education and Curriculum

In the business education, the management in general and business managementin particular took a major part. Management theories developed in evolutionary manner

in the past with the root of Fayols classical principles of management stretching totodays theories of system concept and contingency management. Todays curriculumsreflect actually all these theories, although individual programmes might differ in their

emphasis.

Todays business curriculums are also the product of todays business practices.Business education is in fact orienting towards the business world in order to produce

required managers and qualified people for industries as demanded by them. In line withthe current business practices, the business curriculums are providing a wide range of

theories and techniques. For examples, most of the business education courses consist of

the following subjects - general management, business management, functionalmanagement, such as production management, financial management, marketing

management, human resource management, etc., strategic management, and internationalbusiness management These core subjects are supplemented and enhanced by othersubjects such as accountancy, computing, statistics, quantitative methods, managementscience and business law.

All tertiary institutions around the world offer the same or similar subjects in the

business education programmes. Nevertheless, the content and the approach used by

individual institution differ significantly. For instance, US education system emphasizes

more on the case study and application than their counterparts in Europe wheretheoretical base is considered to be more important.

Business Curriculum of the FutureTo consider what should we do for the business curriculum of the future, the

starting point should be the prediction of the future businesses and the complementary

role of business education - How will businesses in the future play their roles? Ideally,

future businesses should be playing a vital role not only for their belonging society, butalso for the entire mankind on the planet. At least , the societal marketing orientationshould be firmly adopted by every business around the world, in contrast to the present

orientations like sales or marketing. In other words, it is necessary to change theparadigm of today businesses in terms of the value, role and orientation.

With regard to the development levels of business orientation, finally every

business organization must move towards the societal marketing orientation. This means,every business must fulfill not only the customer requirements but also societys needs

and welfares. This will be the only solution to todays unsettled problems in the world.

Businesses must change their current philosophies which are mostly still in the form of

selling and profit-maximization and shape their businesses according the societal

marketing concept. In this process, the business education has to play a vital role. This


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may also call for a great deal of changes in the current curriculums, since the underlying

concept and orientations will have already changed.

Today businesses are also responsible to tackle various problems encounteredaround the world. The new challenges for today and future businesses as well the

economic systems are concerned with such issues as world economic order, poverty

eradication, sustained economic growth, environmental conservation and ethical businesspractices. To meet these challenges as well as to support the proper and effective

functioning of future businesses, new curriculums of business education should take into

account the following aspects as essential ones:

Welfare Management Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Natural Resource Management International Business Relations and Co-operations Cross-cultural Management, etc.

Moreover, we need to consider some perspectives about regional businesses and

markets. For example, management of Asian businesses or Asian markets will beappropriate for Asian students. In the future, businesses must fulfill also regional and

local needs utmost while the process of globalization is accelerating. Importantly, thecurriculum should seriously consider the need of effective use of new technologies in the

management function and business activities. The role of business research will be

unchanged, but may require to orient towards new dimensions.

Approaches to the Development of Business Curriculum

In this part, it will be considered how to develop the business curriculum and

which approaches are suitable for it. As mentioned earlier, the curriculum development oradjustment should follow the marketing approach by identifying firstly the target markets

and the products such as graduates, diploma holders, produced by the business education

programmes. The potential employers of our graduates and their specific needs as well as

the expectation should be explored and subsequently the curriculums should be designedand developed.

The curriculum design needs to take into account different types of learner

segments such as traditional students, life-long learners, virtual universities and other

purposes, for example, training, refreshment courses, and so forth. Whenever we design

and develop curriculums, we can employ made-to-measure approach. This means, theeffectiveness of a curriculum and programme will be measured and evaluated against the

expectations.Moreover, the curriculum design and development is not necessarily to reproduce

the standard form or package used in international institutions. Here again, one

(international) marketing principle is applicable. That is Think globally and act locally!Tertiary institutions of non-US can refer the curriculum design and content of universities

in U.S. and some other leading countries, but the fine tuning should be made to offerhighest benefits to students of other countries.


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Some suggestions to current business curriculums of

tertiary institutions

Regarding the current practice and situation, some changes and improvements can

be made within the context of existing business and education system. Some of them are:

(a) Nowadays there are many education programmes with different

specializations, levels, and run by different organization, using different approaches andmethods. There are also multiple pathways and links among them. While these

programmes render definitely enormous opportunities to learners, the complex system

may overlook the construction of a very good foundation of economic and business that

should be held by everyone in businesses. Specialization should be followed only afterthe general work of good foundation. Many outcomes of poor quality of educational

products is to some extent responsible by the education system and curriculum design.

So the education process should be reviewed thoroughly and examined its order andrelevance.

(b) Many institutions are exam-oriented and result-oriented. Candidates are alsoachievement-oriented, to attain the proposed degree or certificates. Too much emphasis

on the end causes some undesirable stresses and problems on both sides of institution andstudents. The purpose of education should be achieved and the obvious benefits should be

provided. Education programmes should not only provide necessary knowledge, but also

shape the desired forms of personality possessed by a good citizen and a natural human.

(c) The knowledge and interest level of students regarding the economies and

businesses close to the students should be increased. For instance, the Asian studentsshould learn more about Asian culture, Asian businesses as well Asian economies.

Curriculums should focus the regional issues and match with some specific environments

in which learners are living.

(d) While it is necessary to provide a good foundation of business education,advanced levels should mould the proper professionalism providing specific and

technical knowledge and skills. For instance, an advanced programme of financial

management should offer a candidate necessary education to become a full-fledged

financial manager. Such education programme should consider also field training,internship, and so on. .

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important that curriculum should not be considered separately

from businesses and their environment. Constant review of curriculum should be madeand the curriculum development should adopt the marketing approach. The businesseducation should play even the leading role rather than lagging behind the actual

development of business world. The future of the businesses, business education and

curriculum will be interplaying and serious attention should be paid to that matter.

Business Curriculum in Tertiary Education

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