Business Education: US vs. Europe

by William W. Keep, Dean, School of Business

A trip this past spring to partner schools in France, Germany, and the Czech Republic highlighted some interesting similarities and differences in the educational experience we offer relative to a typical European experience. These reflections are not solely that of a visiting dean but also come from conversations with our students.

The most apparent similarities are in curriculum and the attitudes and experiences of the average undergraduate student. One could easily confuse an undergraduate business curriculum at a US school with one found at a European business school. Finance, accounting, marketing, management, economics, information technology, international business, etc. are typically offered in one or more required courses. With an increasing number of global companies recruiting in countries around the world, overlapping curriculum makes sense. I took some notice of the recruiting posters that line the halls at the University of Economics in Prague, because they were from firms we would expect to find at US schools—PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and Proctor & Gamble, just to name a few.

Walking through the halls and listening to students reminded me of what young people around the world have in common. Students in the cafeteria at Goethe University in Frankfurt and the young man who gave us a dormitory tour in Prague showed the same passion for their friends and cell phones (or is it cell phones and friends) as do ours. They also display the same combination of excitement and concern when discussing their future careers as young business professionals.

One striking difference evident in European students is that most speak two languages and many speak three, and virtually all have regularly visited other countries. As a result, a typical European student will see global engagement as an inevitable part of his/her future career in business, an attitude not yet fully adopted among US students.

While in Germany, our students quickly noted that undergraduate business education is available at low or no cost to young Europeans. Even the private business schools in France are affordably priced. Instead of price serving as a barrier to access—an increasing problem in the United States—students face the challenge of passing a qualifying exam. While it is true the low cost may cause a student in Europe to undervalue the experience and squander a tax-supported opportunity, we in the United States have similar problems even as more of higher education gets financed by parents, students, and/or debt.

Differences extend into the classroom as well. Over the past two decades debates in the United States about higher education have inevitably contained elements of the “consumer model.” Support for the “student-as-consumer” approach seems to parallel increasing reliance on tuition at both private and public institutions. Yet the approach has clear limits as a typical consumer does not pay to be criticized, forced to meet deadlines, or required to repeat poor work.

On the contrary, consumers typically pay to have someone else do the work for them—a definite problem when it comes to effective business education. Our students in Frankfurt, Germany, found faculty held infrequent office hours, responded to e-mails less quickly, and for the most part expected students to solve their own problems. Help was available but the student needed to be persistent and demonstrate some previous effort to solve the problem. In short, the consumer model has not gained ground there.

Regardless of the country, in the end, students need to learn how to achieve success under different circumstances, a skill that will last a lifetime. We will continue to urge our students to increase their global engagement and to craft paths that build both their skills and their confidence.