The Dispatch
The student of tomorrow
What do students want from their business education? Business school leaders weigh in on the unique challenges facing future students and the new technologies transforming education.
By Niamh Ollerton
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The 2020s will go down in history as the era of irrevocable change for higher education. The delivery of many programmes and the student experience have changed, as has the world students find themselves in.
As Federico Frattini, Dean of Italy’s POLIMI Graduate School of Management notes: “Students face an array of challenges today, this includes the acceleration of climate change, geopolitical tensions, rapidly developing technology transforming business - the list goes on.” And it is because of this awareness of the changing world around them that students want to see a shift, not only in the way they are taught, but what they are taught also.
Steve Muylle, Associate Dean of Digital Learning at Vlerick Business School in Belgium believes the students of tomorrow will demand personalised, flexible learning experiences and journeys that will enable them to take the leap in their future careers or ventures.
“At the Business School, they buy a predictor of success and expect to be equipped with the right knowledge and skills and build a strong network to thrive in their endeavours,” Muylle says. The latter includes ecosystem players that complement the faculty and peers and contribute to the learning experience.”
Frattini adds that for too long, business schools have taught one thing and preached another. “This is certainly changing now,” he says. “Many business schools have introduced a huge number of new programmes that focus on sustainability, diversity and inclusion, AI, innovation and even programmes that focus on finding inner purpose and harnessing soft skills.”
Federico Frattini, Dean of Italy’s POLIMI Graduate School of Management
"Becoming aware and taking control of our mental processes will be critical skills to harness also, as it is essential to choose our purposes freely, rather than be reactive."
What does the next generation want?
According to 2023 research by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Gen Z in the GME Pipeline: Explain Why It’s Worth It, when it comes to business school, Gen Z want flexibility, real-world application that translates to tangible skills and opportunities for personal growth through networking and exposure to different perspectives.
But what are the skills future students and leaders will need? Frattini says there will be continued emphasis on soft skills like empathy and resilience - especially for future leaders – including greater awareness of our emotions and mental processes.
He believes becoming aware and taking control of our mental processes will be critical skills to harness also, as it is essential to choose our purposes freely, rather than be reactive.
“Leaders of the new generation will need a developed awareness of this inner dimension, so they can inspire and energise others and be committed and purposeful in everything they do,” he tells QS Insights Magazine.
But future generations will also need to focus on active listening if they are to succeed, according to Frattini. “Being a great listener doesn’t just mean reflecting back what is said, or being patient and accepting pauses and short periods of silence. Being a great listener means being able to amplify ideas and energise the person you are listening to,” he says.
Martin Butler, Professor of Management Practice at Vlerick Business School, notes that with a global shift towards sustainability and a growing appreciation for developing people-orientated skills, students will increasingly value opportunities outside the formal classroom to grow their social competence and engage with other students and industry to develop these competencies.
Steve Muylle, Associate Dean of Digital Learning at Vlerick Business School
“With the technologies maturing and examples of successful and failed initiatives becoming commonplace, there is an expectation of business leaders to be more detailed and accurate when developing metaverse-related business cases.”
Unique challenges for students in the 21st century
Today, the world of business and society at large is going through huge changes. And this was one of the reasons POLIMI decided to redesign its full-time MBA programme in 2022, to prepare a new generation of managers, entrepreneurs and professionals who are equipped to meet the grand challenges that are arising.
“When considering what is required in response to these challenges, managers point not only to the realm of hard skills but most importantly, to skills such as the capacity to engage people, understand motivation, and the ability to connect to emotions — especially in highly charged situations,” Frattini says.
POLIMI’s MBA intends to equip students with the ability to consciously pursue higher levels of engagement, motivation and alignment and to combine the pursuit of higher purpose and positive impact on society with sustainable financial performance.
Education in the coming decades
Today’s students want to be purposeful leaders and the way this viewpoint changed over time will influence how it continues to evolve. Frattini notes there is a new awareness of the key role that universities and business schools have as agents of change and that profit is no longer the sole depicter of success for a company.
“Compared to 20 years ago, many organisations and business leaders now realise that to hold true purpose within society; profit, sustainability and inclusion must co-exist and this is also reflected among students.
“A fundamental part of our approach is to help our students in knowing how to recognise and choose purposes to consciously move their will, embrace authentic values and strengthen their inner compass.
“Inner work complements, empowers and enriches everything you do in your job and life. Business schools have a responsibility to give students the tools to choose to pursue something more than success and profit, and the skills to find their own path.”
Muylee says Vlerick actively experiments with members of the Future of Management Education (FOME) Alliance in pilots on AI, hyflex learning, and VR; it also offers an array of metaverse programmes, which Butler says address future business challenges.
“With the technologies maturing and examples of successful and failed initiatives becoming commonplace, there is an expectation of business leaders to be more detailed and accurate when developing metaverse-related business cases.”
Martin Butler, Professor of Management Practice at Vlerick Business School
"The holy grail of learning is moving away from the one-to-many interaction where professors teach to a group of learners homogeneously as if they have the same learning preferences and knowledge before commencing the learning."
Vlerick’s metaverse programmes take place in-person rather than online, which, although Butler says may seem counterintuitive, it was an important decision for an experiential learning programme.
“We are balancing foundational theories, cases and guest lectures by business leaders who have implemented the technologies with learning laboratories,” he says. “For these laboratories, we decided it best to have participants present as we design digital IDs, create digital artefacts and engage in immersive experiences.
“In the future, we may deliver a section of the programme online. For now, it is essential to experience what is possible in the metaverse in person.”
As technology advances, the demands on students will continue to change rapidly, and Frattini believes everyone needs to keep up with the rapid pace. “I imagine a ‘phygital’ future, which seamlessly integrates the online and on-campus experiences. We see this trend continuing throughout the higher education community – blending the physical with the virtual to create highly immersive study experiences for students.”
Tech will continue to influence the space significantly, playing a critical role in many aspects. Butler says three are immediately apparent, namely reducing the friction of learning, richer and immersive learning, and mass customisation of learning.
“Technology's traditional role has always been to enhance operational processes, strengthen decision making and make organisations more efficient,” Butler notes. “Many of the design, collaboration and delivery tools are seeing us reach new levels of efficiency. This will continue, and I note many instances of AI finding use cases to assist in quickly creating new and innovative content and interaction.”
In October 2023, INSEAD launched the INSEAD XR Portal, an innovative platform hosting the world's most extensive collection of learning experiences using virtual reality (VR) technology, offering immersive VR experiences covering a wide range of management topics to classrooms across the globe.
Technology provides richer learning experiences, and this will continue as higher education institutions create more connection surfaces with students from the classroom to online, mobile and immersive environments.
Muylle notes the importance of personalised learning, and Butler agrees that the next generation of students want customised learning.
“The holy grail of learning is moving away from the one-to-many interaction where professors teach to a group of learners homogeneously as if they have the same learning preferences and knowledge before commencing the learning,” says Butler.
“The idealised model of learning takes individual preferences and requirements into account. With the power of technology, we will increasingly curate different learning pathways to engage learners in different ways to reach the same end goal most efficiently. The combination of learning analytics tracking progress and knowledge, and the power of AI to create a rich yet individualised experience, is set to shape the future of learning.”