Academic

Why Is This Business School Curriculum More Flexible Than Anywhere Else?

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

Business school education is sliced and diced in a way unheard of in law schools, barring the occasional winter short course.  I've been teaching a course limited to the first half of the third quarter here at Wharton, and though you always want more time when you engage in such an exercise, for the students the variety must be pretty engaging.  Here, they take courses for semesters, quarters, half-quarters, and single weeks - the last of which might happen in Singapore, or outside of Paris.  These courses may be team taught, individually taught, or look quite a bit like science labs.  I'm surprised that few in the arts and sciences, let alone in law schools, duplicates this sort of aggressive schedule division, with the exception of the occasional adjunct-from-overseas class.  It seems to me that there's nothing particularly magic about the semester, though it may be right for some subjects.  Why is the business school curriculum scheduled so differently?

Full post as published by Conglomerate on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).