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For those business students who have in the past dreaded the prospect of
fighting that nagging afternoon nap as the finance professor drones on in
class, a new learning experience is on the way.
The School of Business at USIU will this year start using case studies
that are based on local companies to teach a selection of 20 courses in
strategic management, finance and information technology.
Though USIU is not going to abandon the tutorial, where a professor
lectures to a group of students, Meoli Kashorda, an Associate Professor of
Information Systems and Dean of the School of Business, USIU Africa, says
introducing the case study teaching method will enhance the learning
experience.
Under the case study system, the professor moderates class discussions of
a practical business situation. Experimentation and diversity of opinion
is tolerated here.
Take for instance, a course in strategic management offered to MBA
students at USIU. Under the new teaching system, students will not just be
taught textbook theories, but they will also gain practical experience
discussing how Kenya Airways and KLM went about sealing a strategic
alliance. This is one of the cases that will be developed by USIU’s
faculty.
"Our intention is to gradually increase the use of cases," says Kashorda."
"Initially, we shall cover 30 per cent of the curriculum and expand this
in time. We want to use active case teaching and business simulation in
our graduate programmes."
USIU’s business education program is one of the biggest in Kenya with 300
MBA students and 1,800 undergraduates. At least, 75 per cent of the majors
in the university take classes at the business school.
In a country where the standard of business education has fallen
significantly — especially in poorly funded public universities — this
initiative, which is being funded by the International Finance Corporation
(IFC) is most welcome.
It will bring together institutions like USIU and the top 30 global
business schools as ranked by Business Week magazine under the banner of
the Global Business School Network (GBSN).
The harshest criticism that has been leveled against Kenyan business
schools is that they are poorly funded. In the public universities — which
admits the best students — the business schools have been unable attract
top-notch professors.
This has limited the ability of the schools to carry out their research
missions or develop local and relevant teaching material. As brain drain
has continued to hit local public universities, students have continued to
get a raw deal because their professors resorted to recycling lecture
notes and using textbook examples.
This turn of events has faded the allure of local business degrees among
employers because they find that the students are not adequately trained.
It has not helped that the schools have continued losing touch with
industry due to the fact that the faculty is both not actively engaged in
research and the placement offices are weak.
Lack of teaching cases based on African business situations is also a
source of major concern at top business schools in the US and Europe.
"Africa is in an academic sense very isolated," says Murray B. Low, an
Associate Professor at Columbia University in New York City and Executive
Director at the Eugene M. Lang Centre for Entrepreneurship, who is
mentoring USIU as it develops local cases for the GBSN program.
"From my point of view, I teach an entrepreneurship course at Columbia
Business School that is over-subscribed," says Professor Low. "But despite
the huge interest from students, there is very little material on
entrepreneurship in Africa. This is a case based class."
He says that the few cases that professors can find only tell the story
from the focus of foreign investors doing business in Africa.
"The only way you can correct this situation is by coming here and writing
the proper cases," says Professor Low. That is why he jumped at the chance
to work with USIU to gain a first hand experience about business in
Africa.
Though winning a place in USIU’s business school is not as cutthroat and
prestigious as being admitted to the faculties of commerce at the
University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University, this perception is changing
fast in favour of the underdog private school.
USIU is considered to be miles ahead in terms of facilities, teaching
(with lecturers moonlighting from public universities) and especially in
job placement.
The latest initiative — which USIU is pioneering in Africa, is expected to
raise the school’s competitive edge.
"One thing that already distinguishes our MBA brand in Kenya is that we
integrate a lot of technology in the teaching process," says Kashorda.
But despite all the noble intentions of developing local teaching
material, Kashorda has in the past found his hands tied first because he
did not have a big budget for such an initiative and a big faculty to do
so. Then there were technical limitations that come with the fact that
Kenya does not have a huge skill base for writing teaching case studies.
When the GBSN program was advertised locally in 2004, it came as a godsend
for Kashorda’s team.
"It all started with an internal process, at a strategic planning
meeting," says Kashorda. "We identified a weakness in developing local
teaching material. We needed to move from using examples from textbooks.
We want a situation where we are connected with local businesses."
According to J. Michael Graglia, the Projects Officer at IFC and the
coordinator for the GBSN, USIU was very quick to respond to the initiative
and demonstrated serious commitment.
The University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University did not even attempt to
bid for the project despite being invited.
"There is a tremendous demand for locally relevant cases," says Graglia.
"Every B-School in Africa complains about limited supply of cases."
Under the GBSN initiative, high ranking schools like Harvard Business
School, Columbia, London Business School and many others have agreed to
co-operate with Universities like USIU to boost the quality of management
education.
"The core element of this project will be the mentoring between
experienced case writing faculty at Global Business Schools and aspiring
case writers in Africa," says Graglia.
This initiative has been supported by the IFC to boost the training of
skilled managers.
"In response to rising demand for skilled managers to support Africa’s
growing private sector," says Graglia, "Business school programs have
proliferated in recent years throughout the continent.
Most of these new programs depend on textbooks and course materials
produced by western markets. While these materials may be useful in
building global business skills, they are often only partially relevant to
conditions in African markets."
USIU was the first school chosen to host the case writing centre for
Africa in 2004. The cases are expected to be distributed for use in other
business schools in Africa. The program has since expanded to other
countries in East, West and South Africa.
"In Kenya, we are building capacity to write cases and in South Africa we
are developing a case teaching workshop," says Graglia.
USIU is initially expected to develop eight East Africa based teaching
cases immediately. The project aims at producing 24 cases. Some of the
companies that have been targeted include: Bidco, Safaricom, Makini School
(A Columbia case already exists), Avenue Health Care, E-Sokoni, Kenya
Pipeline, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya and
Kenya Airways.
Last year, some members of the USIU faculty attended a case writing
workshop at Harvard Business School.
East African Standard, Monday February 14, 2005 |
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Dean Kashorda and
Professor Low: "Africa is in an academic sense very isolated" |
