5. Top Business Schools by Specialisation in 2007

In the last ten years, international management has become the most popular MBA specialisation. Two leading business schools have designed their curriculum to focus on international management. INSEAD, based in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore, which is selected by the most recruiters for strength in this specialisation, has a student population made up of 48 different nationalities and constituting 95% of its class, and all courses place an emphasis on the international dimensions of the subject. The Dean, Frank Brown of INSEAD confirms, "INSEAD’s strategy for the last 40 years has been to build a truly global business school."  The Wharton School, based in Philadelphia, redesigned it's curriculum in 1992 to focus on international management and has subsequently lead the way in 'recruiter reviews' such as TopMBA.com survey, and in various rankings.

What are the benefits to an MBA candidate of having a highly international MBA programme? Douglas Dunn, Dean of The Tepper School at Carnegie-Mellon University argues "global business leaders today, need to be able to lead and contribute effectively to diverse teams in multicultural settings... A highly international class create opportunities for teaming and sharing of cultural experiences." He adds that the experience of studying overseas encourages a "willingness to embrace change as second nature... and an ability to see opportunities to develop new entrepreneurial businesses (40% of Carnegie Mellon alumni start their own business). Thunderbird in Arizona places an emphasis on learning new languages and mixing nationalities of project teams to maximise cultural as well as business learning. Cynthia Zoubir at Thunderbird Europe says: "A truly international b-school must include 'soft-skills' training in languages and cultural understanding, global job postings, an international faculty, overseas study opportunities, and worldwide alumni network... not to mention diversity in the student body."