INSEAD B-school has announced improvements to its top-ranked MBA curriculum that will take effect in September 2017.

Fresh from receiving the top spot in the Financial Times’ 2017 ranking of Global MBA programmes for the second year in a row, INSEAD will be implementing changes in its MBA programme it feels will better serve its students in their preparation for a lifetime of business leadership.

INSEAD’s Dean of Degree Programmes and Associate Professor of Finance, Urs Peyer, believes the improvements in the MBA programme “will offer students a more personalised learning journey with professional coaching and career advisors, more elective choice…, an innovative ‘big picture’ course about Business and Society, as well as a leading-edge digital start to their MBA programme.”

MBA curriculum changes

During a two-year review of its MBA programme, INSEAD solicited input from key stakeholders, like faculty, alumni, and recruiters, to overhaul its curriculum. The goal was to enhance the programme by focusing on new aspects of “personal leadership and career development”. This approach to learning is designed to be transformational, equipping students with the practical skills to thrive in a global business environment and giving them the foundational education to support it.

New digital start

If you worry about having enough business knowledge to begin an intense MBA programme, or if it has been a while since you were in school, you will benefit from INSEAD’s new unique preparatory tutorials.

The INSEAD programme assesses students’ core knowledge and provides access to digital learning tools to prepare them for success in their MBA courses.

Personalised learning journey

Once you are confident of your ability to proceed with INSEAD’s MBA programme, you will embark on a 10-month journey designed to turn you into an innovative and successful leader in the new global business world, or to stimulate the budding entrepreneur in you. INSEAD has added a new Personal Leadership Development Programme to enhance your learning experience. It includes personal coaching from professionals and peers throughout the globe.

Content innovations

INSEAD’s curriculum changes are geared around a concept it is calling “Business as a Force for Good”, which helps students understand the complex relationship between business and society at large. Three new courses on ethics, politics, and policy have been combined into one “super-course”.

New electives

The 10-month MBA programme focuses first on a core curriculum of strategy, marketing, finance, accounting, and organisational behaviour courses. Following that, you can choose from over 75 elective classes so you can focus on the particular skills of interest to you and that will benefit you in your career. With the improved MBA programme, INSEAD has expanded this array of elective courses, adding new classes on digital initiatives as well as business ethics.

Personal career advisors

Intent on preparing you for the transition from student to alumni, as you embark upon a professional career, INSEAD will assign you a personal career advisor who will assist you from the start of the MBA programme to its finish.

Culminating capstone

With the virtually instantaneous spread of information throughout the world, companies sometimes have to make split-second decisions that can be critical to their future. Planning for contingencies and crises is key to steering a company through choppy waters. In an effort to drive this point home, INSEAD will thrust you into a simulated business crisis just prior to your graduation from the MBA programme. This culminating capstone exercise will force you to apply the knowledge you have gained and to use your own analytical talents to react to the simulation of a critical and realistic crisis.

INSEAD programme details

INSEAD is one of the world’s top business schools and has graduated over 50,000 students from its programmes. A popular destination for international students, INSEAD has 170 countries represented in its pool of alumni. The current class of 2017 has an average GMAT score of 707, average age of 29, average experience level of approximately six years, and is roughly one-third female.

Check out: What an MBA Degree Can and Can’t Do for You?

Its Fontainebleau, France location is INSEAD’s flagship campus, but it also has locations in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. This multi-campus learning environment allows students an international experience, further expanding their horizons and exposing them to global issues. In addition to MBA and Master's programmes, INSEAD offers a full suite of executive education courses with over 11,000 participants each year and a doctoral programme in management.

INSEAD has demonstrated it does not take its rank as #1 MBA programme in the world lightly. Rather than being content with its programme and standing, INSEAD instead seeks continuous improvement to retain its position as a global leader in business education. As its Dean and Professor of Economics Ilian Mihov said, “It is important for us to constantly innovate and to provide our MBA students an academic education of the highest standards.”