New York Times.
… For universities, business education is a kind of cash cow. Business schools are less expensive to operate than graduate schools with elaborate labs and research facilities, and alumni tend to be generous with donations.
Business education is big business, too. Some 146,000 graduate degrees in business were awarded in 2005-06, roughly one-fourth of the 594,000 graduate degrees awarded that school year, according to the Education Department.
Still, there have been signs that all is not well in business education. A study of cheating among graduate students, published in 2006 in the journal Academy of Management Learning & Education, found that 56 percent of all M.B.A. students cheated regularly — more than in any other discipline…
More mumbling about trying to make MBA spell ETHICAL.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:28AM
Some chatting over at Liberating Education about getting universities to offer a liberal arts MA in place of the so-called Executive MBA — better for the institution and better for society (not to mention those of us who would like to teach in such a program).
March 15th, 2009 at 8:47AM
Can’t remember if I’ve linked this here before, but Michael Hammer offered some interesting thoughts on business education.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:57AM
Also, MaxedOutMama has a discussion on this subject today.
March 15th, 2009 at 11:21AM
Given the generous grading in business schools (as my MBA-candidate daughter tells me, "Dad, that’s why they call it ‘B-school’!"), the fact that some students even feel a need to cheat shows an even more profound character deficit than one might think. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, most B-school profs run the gamut of grading from A to B.
March 15th, 2009 at 11:51AM
Econprof is disappointed with you, UD. Why are you so mean to B-school students? 56% of them are honest – they admit that they are cheating!
Only 44% (a significant, but nevertheless a minority) claims not to cheat!
March 15th, 2009 at 1:53PM
The business majors in my undergrad elective courses were always one of 2 sorts:
1/ Cheaters & plagiarists.
2/ The lowest scorers on any assessments.
At one school, the department office manager could guess the major of a Student Misconduct subject with about 75% chance of accuracy by asking, "Business major?"