Capitalist Schools

Young people from all over the world still want American business degrees

If education is any predictor of the future, fans of global capitalism may still have their day. This past summer, as world markets wobbled and foreign money said adieu to emerging economies, hundreds of thousands of young professionals from all over the world mailed in their business-school applications. Most of them went to the United States, where a lucky hundred thousand students are just starting their M.B.A. classes. And many of them came from outside of America, where free markets and large bonus checks are, apparently, still something to strive for.

This year, as many as 30 percent to 40 percent of the students in America’s top M.B.A. programs will be from outside the United States, up from the teens and twenties 10 years ago. Many more of them would like to attend but get turned down; the McLean. Virginia-based Graduate Management Admission Council estimates that foreign students comprise up to 65 percent of the total applicant pool to business schools. The interest is nearly global, with many of the top schools drawing equally from Europe, Asia and the rest of the world – notwithstanding the deep recessions now gripping most of Asia. Indeed, the Wharton School and the University of Michigan Business School report that applications from most Asian nations are holding steady and, in some cases, have even increased slightly.

Foreign university students in the United States are nothing new, of course. The total number has held constant at about half a million since 1994. What has changed is their preferred field of study – and what they do once they get their degrees. A generation ago the top choice was engineering, and many students hoped to stay on to market their new skills in the United States. No more. Now the hot diploma is in business and, having earned it, most students eventually head back home.

Neither trend is hard to fathom. For some years now, multinational corporations have pursued a strategy of global expansion. That creates a global demand for skilled managers – both at the multinationals themselves and also at the bigger local companies that have to compete with them. European companies restructuring to meet the challenges of a single currency want managers with M.B.A.s. So do the giant auto companies now slugging it out in Brazil.

Indeed, a lot of companies are sponsoring the education of their most promising young managers. Twenty-nine-year-old Brazilian student Rodrigo Abreu is attending the Stanford School of Business courtesy of his employer, Promon, a Brazilian telecom-systems integrator. With the rapid deregulation of that country’s communications industry, Promon must do battle with the likes of Lucent and NEC. The financial and organizational skills that Abreu brings home from Stanford will help. “We were always a company run by engineers,” says Abreu, who has an engineering degree himself. “Now we are starting to get more into the business side of integration.” Abreu and another Promon employee were the first to be sent for degrees in the States. Eight others take videoconferenced courses in Brazil through a University Michigan Business School program.

For an ambitious young businessperson, all that new competition back home means opportunity. Consider Guy Yang-Ting, 30. Raised in France by a French mother and a father of Chinese origin, Yang-Ting worked as a management consultant for Groupe ABC (a French McKinsey spinoff) before coming to the Yale School of Management for his M.B.A. His goals: to refine his financial skills and learn more about the information-technology industry by completing a summer internship at a high-tech firm. After graduation he hopes to head back to France and start his own information-technology-consulting company with former colleagues. “IT consulting is not that advanced there,” he says. “I can find a real competitive edge in Europe.”

Annachiara Marcandalli also came to Yale from Italy for skills she can sell in a changing Europe. She believes the euro will force the Italian government to become more efficient, creating a new not-for-profit sector to compensate for downsized social programs. She hopes to capitalize on this change. “The welfare state is still strong in Europe, but the single currency will change that,” she says.
In the next few years, I think there’s going to be a need for consulting firms that can teach nonprofits how to run themselves in a more efficient way.”

Marcandalli chose Yale because of its strong not-for-profit offerings. But she also applied to INSEAD, which, along with the London Business School and a few other European schools, rivals top U.S. programs. This is especially true in areas like investment banking, and among student who want to work primarily in Europe. Where American business schools may have the edge is in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, where they have begun recruiting very aggressively. “Branding matters,” says Meyer Feldberg, dean of the Columbian Business School. “We’ve been doing it abroad for 70 years, whereas the European schools have been doing less of it for a shorter time.”

Foreign students who opt for a school in the States will be loaded up with plenty of practical training. Along with courses on economic theory and organizational behavior, student at Yale might take a class titled “How to Start a High-Tech Company.” At MIT’s Sloan School of Management, students team up to practice communication skills. One Taiwanese student was encouraged to perfect a more aggressive “Hey” to get her peers’ attention. Learning how to interrupt properly might sound trivial, but for student unfamiliar with Western business culture, communication skills are crucial. “International students tend to come with a lot of formal education,” says Seda Mansour, Stanford’s assistant director of M.B.A. admissions. “Traditionally, education is perceived differently here. It’s more practical, which is especially good for business.”

Most practical is the hands-on experience with corporations that sponsor students for internships, both at American and European schools. At the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Business School, Andrew Lawlor shepherds teams of students who work on consulting projects for major multinationals. Last year, KitchenAid, which has 85 percent of the U.S. mixer market, hired Lawlor and several students (including two Chinese) to evaluate whether or not fusion cuisine was creating a new market for mixers in China. The students spent several weeks touring restaurants and cooking schools, then presented a report dividing the Chinese market into three sectors and advising KitchenAid where to put its resources. Projects like this can lead to full-time jobs. One M.B.A. student who worked on a health-care-management project for Eli Lilly was hired right after graduation to head a six-person market-research team in South Africa.

In fact. non-Americans with American M.B.A.s are among the world’s most coveted employees. “Multinational companies are heavily weighted towards executives who have lived abroad.” says Caroline W. Nahas, a managing director at international headhunter Korn Ferry. Hoyle Jones, head of global recruiting for Citibank, which has a work force that is more than 50 percent non-American, says, “Our hiring profile requires an international background. An American with a Harvard M.B.A. who had never been outside his country wouldn’t fit that profile.”

One of Jones’s main concerns these days is keeping those workers who do fit this profile. As more and more companies go global, people like Yang-Ting, Marcandilli and Abreu can write their own tickets. To get the likes of Abreu to stay put, Promon has come up with a Silicon Valley-style way of appeasing its employees. The company stock is 100 percent employee-owned. With that he learns at Stanford, Abreu aims to increase the value of those shares.

Rana Dogar

/Newsweek, September 28, 1998/

Set Work

I. Say what you know about:

a. Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Silicon Valley;

b. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, BSS.

II. Say what the following abbreviations stand for:

MBA, NEC, IT, telecom-system, high-tech.

III. Name the capitals of the countries and be ready to show them on the map:

The US, France, Italy, China, Taiwan, Brazil.

IV. State the meaning of the affixes and stems:

Non-Americans, Virginia-based, deregulation, Silicon Valley-style.

V. Clarify the meaning of the phrasal verbs:

To turn down, to stay on, to capitalize on, to team up, to work on, to come up with.

VI. State the difference between:

Firm – company – enterprise; area – district – region; mail – post; to divide in – to divide into; to turn down – to reject – to refuse – to decline.

VII. Account for the use of:

Businessperson (instead of businessman or businesswoman)

A changing Europe (What makes it changing?)

To recruit aggressively (choice of words)

VIII. Explain what is meant by:

- to have one’s day

- to say adieu to emerging economies

- to market one’s skills

- to find a real competitive edge

- to opt for a school

- to shepherd students

- to be heavily weighted towards sb

- headhunter

- to fit one’s hiring profile

- to stay put

IX. Several neologisms were used in the article. Can you guess their meaning? How were they formed?

To take videoconferenced courses;

Internship;

Down-sized (programmes);

Not-for-profit (offerings);

Transnationals;

Nonprofits.

X. Scan the article for the English equivalents of:

Рынок пошатнулся, отправить заявление в школу бизнеса, премиальный, общее количество абитуриентов, экономический спад охватил страну, оставаться на том же уровне, самый популярный выбор, сбыть, возвращаться домой, самый престижный, дочерняя компания, улучшить свои навыки, извлечь выгоду, некоммерческая организация, загружать, умение общаться, группа специалистов по изучению рынка, присматривать, смешанная кухня, ходить по ресторанам, председатель приемной комиссии, выезжать из страны, жаждущие, ориентированные на кого-либо, выйти на мировой уровень «вербовщик», такие люди как кто-либо, угодить, являться полной собственностью кого-либо.

XI. Say what is meant by and enlarge on the idea:

1. For some years now, multinational corporations have pursued a strategy of global expansion.

2. … the giant auto companies now slugging it out in Brazil.

3. With the rapid deregulation of that country’s communications industry, Promon must do battle with the likes of Lucent and NEC.

4. ‘Now we are starting to get more into the business side of integration.”

5. For an ambitious young businessperson, all that new competition back home means opportunity.

6. “The welfare state is still strong in Europe, but the single currency will change that.”

7. Where American business schools may have the edge is in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East…

8. “International students tend to come with a lot of formal education.”

9. In fact, non-Americans with American M.B.A.s are among the world’s most coveted employees.

10. “Our hiring profile requires an international background.”

11. … people like Yang-Ting, Marcandilli and Abreu can write their own tickets. To get the likes of Abreu to stay put, Promon has come up with a Silicon Valley-style way of appeasing its employees.

XII. Sum up the main points of the article. Why do young people from all over the world still want American business degrees? Would you like to study abroad? Why or why not?

Вам «неуд», сэр

Один из самых любимых американцами национальных праздников – День Колумба, или День открытия Америки, служба Гэллапа отметила очередным опросом. Его устроители выяснили, насколько широк кругозор и глубоки знания у молодежи в стране, которая выделяет на нужды образования колоссальные суммы – в начавшемся 1 октября финансовом году на это в США будет израсходовано 353 миллиарда долларов, – на 23 миллиарда больше, чем в прошлом. Результаты опроса огорчили: четвертая часть учащихся старших классов, принимавших участие в исследовании, не знали, в каком веке было сделано великое открытие континента – в XV или в XVI. Лишь немногие указали его точную дату.

Выводы исследования не вызовут удивления, если вспомнить проведенную за несколько дней до этого в Шарлотсвилле (штат Виргиния) конференцию по проблемам образования в США. В ней принимали участие президент Буш и губернаторы штатов. Как отмечалось в репортаже телекомпании Си-Би-Эс, присутствие президента на конференции подчеркивала сложности положения, в котором оказалась система школьного образования. На конференции приводились факты, которые кажутся невероятными. Действительно, трудно поверить, что в США среди 17-летних учащихся 13% не умеют читать, писать и считать, а каждый пятый из 12-летних не может найти на карте свою страну.

Участники конференции в Шарлотсвилле выдвинули проект программы повышения качества школьного образования. Предложено, например, использовать средства из бюджета всех министерств, в том числе и министерства обороны, на решение конкретных проблем школ, которые находятся в особенно бедственном положении.

Еще одна проблема – преподаватели. Лишь восемь процентов первокурсников колледжей всерьез интересуются преподаванием в школе. По данным журнала «Ньюсуик», «примерно в трети школ США естественные науки и математику преподают учителя неквалифицированные. В средних школах по этим дисциплинам к выпускникам предъявляются минимальные требования, особенно в сравнении со школами в Советском Союзе. К тому же лучшие ученики американских школ к профессии педагога не стремятся. Выход специалисты видят в значительном повышении заработной платы учителям, что, в свою очередь, поднимет и престиж профессии.

Первый такой эксперимент уже проводится в Рочестере, городке на берегу озера Онтарио. По новому трудовому соглашению, учителя там станут одними из самых высокооплачиваемых в США и будут получать до 70 тысяч долларов. Это соглашение по утверждению властей города, может радикально изменить положение во всех 15 тысячах школьных округах Америки. Для решения задачи в Рочестере был создан Национальный центр но проблемам образования и экономики. Первый взнос в его казну в размере одного миллиона долларов сделали власти штата Нью-Йорк. Деньги пойдут, в частности, на выплату учителям заработной платы и приобретение новейшего оборудования для школ.

Закономерен, однако, вопрос: если американцы такие невежды, то откуда берутся лауреаты Нобелевских премий, блестящие хирурги, юристы, изобретатели, специалисты по космической технике – словом, создатели всего того, чем располагает сегодняшняя Америка?

Говоря о кризисе школьного образования в США, нельзя не сказать, что он затрагивает, конечно, государственные, муниципальные школы, в которых учатся дети не конгрессменов, не юристов, не врачей. Для этих ребят в США есть другие школы, частные. По данным Национальной ассоциации независимых частных школ, ежегодная плата за обучение составляет 7-12 тысяч долларов. Для преподавания в них нередко приглашают именитых ученых, которым школьный совет выплачивает солидные гонорары из специальных фондов, чего не может себе позволить ни одна муниципальная школа.

Но, несмотря на различия между государственными и частными школами, можно сказать, что как те, так и другие прекрасно оборудованы. В одной из муниципальных школ Нью-Йорка мне показали обычные классы. Во всех кабинетах – математических, физических, по литературе и истории – компьютеры. Неотъемлемый атрибут любой школы – спортивная площадка с примыкающим к ней теннисным кортом или бассейном.

И осе же значительный процент выпускников школ США – люди полуграмотные. Лишь время, говорят американские специалисты, покажет, удастся ли вывести систему школьного образования в стране из кризиса.

С. Атарщиков

/Комсомольская правда, 1989, 12.10./

Set Work

I. Find in the article the Russian for:

The Gallop Polls, to allocate vast sums of money for… needs, seniors, to be held… days before sth, to refer to facts, incredibly unlikely facts, every fifth in 12, to put forward a project, to come out with, to advocate, the Defense Ministry, to be in plight, freshmen, graduates, to put massive demand on sb., lenient, to aspire to, a considerable increase in sth, to make an experiment, under some agreement, to change sth drastically, district, to set up, the first donation of $..., contribution, Here a question arises, the Nobel prize laureate, eminent surgeons, tuition fees, sports ground, half-literate, to lead sb. out of the crisis.

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