Dr. Joyce Kurpiers and Brian Mahoney of Percept Research, attended the 2017 Executive MBA Council Western regional meeting from June 25-27. The University of Las Vegas Lee Business School hosted over 50 attendees at the event.
The theme of the meeting was, “Best Practices Across the Executive MBA Experience” and included sessions covering topics such as “Cultivating Leaders Who Transform Business,“ “EMBA Recruitment Trends and Best Practices,“ “Maximizing the Orientation Week Experience,“ “Best Practices in Online/Hybrid Course Design,“ “Unique Opportunities for Student Engagement,“ “Understanding the Millennial EMBA Student,“ as well as several other sessions.
We wanted to share some of the interesting insights we heard at the meeting…
- Attendees indicated they are seeing increased interest in micro-credentials, in-house corporate learning, and short, focused courses given prospects’ waning confidence in degree ROI.
- Randell Hernandez (Washington Foster) presented research on how smartphones are used for initial research, but desktops are used for transactions in the e-commerce platform journey and how that relates to the EMBA student journey.
- Randell Hernandez also pointed out the short attention spans with websites — 7 seconds is typically the abandonment threshold in general.
- Rob Villanueva (Loyola) commented on how business schools are missing corporate tools in the academic space. EMBA program recruit corporate executives, who recognize value in corporate productivity and collaboration tools – EMBA programs should adapt with capital investments in similar tools to support students.
- Attendees offered several ideas for Maximizing the Orientation Week Experience such as creating team charters, challenging “groupthink” with a commitment to open dialogue, and rotating team leads, among others.
- Nikkole Liesse (UNLV Lee) relayed success in encouraging new students to minimize preconceptions of fellow students by instructing students to refrain from talking about their job for the first three days of orientation.
- Gonzalo Freixes (UCLA Anderson) provided many great tips on improving the in-country experience and the company visit during international seminars (view these tips in our Facebook meeting photo album).
- Karen Durki (UNLV Lee) facilitated a discussion of ideas on Concluding the EMBA Student Experience such as swearing to the MBA Oath, offering Master of Tolerance diplomas to partners of graduating students, and many other ideas (check out our Facebook meeting photo album to view multiple pages of notes recorded during the session).
- Coni Zingarelli (UC Irvine) referenced how the Merage School engages our EMBA Student Exit Survey to gauge student satisfaction and loyalty as part of the school’s Circle of Success strategy during her session on the Best Practices in Alumni Relations and Engagement (view the diagram in our Facebook meeting photo album).
Do you have other meeting insights that you would like to share in the article comments section below?
Dr. Joyce Kurpiers shares insights about Western Region EMBA programs
Dr. Joyce Kurpiers led a session focused on key business school metrics in the industry that were measured in the 2016 Executive MBA Council Membership Program Survey and from the MBA Student Entry Surveys and MBA Student Exit Surveys offered by Percept Research.
The session included an interactive discussion on trend drivers and how Western EMBA programs are adapting to the market including competition not only from other degree programs but from a candidate’s decision to delay matriculation.
Gonzalo Freixes describing how to design unique and educational international seminars
Percept Research serves as the research partner to the Executive MBA Council. The mission of Executive MBA Council is to educate, network, and inform. The council both captures and disseminates valuable industry data to member schools, the media, and the corporate sector.
Percept Research also conducts higher education market research and communications consulting for over 240 business schools worldwide. Consulting engagements include new program feasibility studies, brand positioning, student lifecycle assessments, and messaging strategy.
Attendees enjoy fun discussions during small group dinners
Be sure to check out more photos from the regional meeting on the Percept Research Facebook page.