The Business of Education

What do you think are the biggest education trends we are likely to see in the future? 
Segmentation is crucial. Too often, we’ve felt that all degrees of a certain kind (for instance, engineering or MBAs) must look the same. However, these degrees serve different populations with different motivations. Different institutions that offer MBAs could offer different content and experiences. So, two people can walk away with MBA degrees from different institutes and how and what they’ve learned could be different. For instance, the Chicago Booth School of Business has a very flexible curriculum with some core subjects. 
 Institutes need to define who they want to educate and who they are using to educate. We need to educate future leaders so that they can have a significant positive impact on organisations and societies around the world. Faculty should create enduring knowledge and have thought leadership, that they use to teach students. Raghuram Rajan, for instance, is a member of the Booth faculty on leave. Our faculty enables us to give students access to original thought and educate them with knowledge that our faculty have created themselves. 
Technology is going to have a significant impact on education. It will be an excellent complement to education by helping institutions scale up and lowering the cost of education.  

What does one need to get into the Chicago Booth School of Business? 
A high GMAT score and good performance at the undergrad level. Most of our students are relatively mature, with about five years of work experience on average. 

What can you tell us about Chicago Booth’s Social Enterprise Initiative? 
We support initiatives that simultaneously promote entrepreneurial innovation and social benefit. The social sector is a large sector of the economy and can benefit from business created by students who want to go beyond a job. We help students create ventures to take on social challenges, hone their ideas and build a team as well as to gain access to mentoring and critical feedback, which help them get a sense of what the market will be like. 

Is business education essential for everyone? 
Some amount of business knowledge is essential, particularly in understanding the basic principles of economics, as irrespective of career, you would interact significantly with the business world.

What do you regard as your greatest achievement in the education sphere?
I have helped people a lot more successful than me to succeeed. I’m fortunate to have been leading the school when it won a Nobel and a Clark award. I’ve helped a lot of smart, driven students; it’s not so much what I did, but what I helped other people do.