An International Education

Local Outlook

Educators at Minnesota colleges and universities say that while the boat has been rocked over the last couple years, it’s nowhere near sinking. Some schools report fewer international applicants. The desire of U.S. students to study abroad decreased right after 9/11. But overall applicant figures for MBA students are not substantially different from five years ago, and some schools are seeing a rebound this year.

Even more significant, the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, Metropolitan State University, St. Mary’s University, and other schools have embraced new global-minded programs, classes, student exchanges, and curriculum. Increased international competition for MBA students, some educators say, has been beneficial, as it has forced schools to evolve. 

“The emphasis on global education and international curriculum has been changing since the dot-com boom and bust,” says Steven Zitnick, associate director of the MBA program at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. “Most businesses now have international facets, and curriculum has been changed to reflect that.”

Zitnick says a string of international events—including the opening of markets in China, direct foreign investment in India, outsourcing of American jobs, recovery from the Asian financial crisis, and strengthening of the European Union—has driven the change to a more globally focused American business climate.

Responding to the changing world of the MBA, Augsburg has refocused its business curriculum. Almost all business courses, for example, now weave in case studies and practices for operating internationally, Zitnick says. And new this year, the college offers an international business certificate, which is a five-class graduate program that educates students on law, marketing, human resources, market logistics, finance, and other areas—all from an international perspective. The certificate, which students earn in addition to their MBAs, was created after students requested more in-depth international course content. “Our international business certificate offers MBA students the opportunity to complete the equivalent of a concentration in international business,” Zitnick says.

Karen Gulliver, associate dean and MBA program director at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, says 90 percent of the classes an MBA student is required to take at St. Mary’s have specific international learning objectives.

The school’s PowerTrak MBA, which is promoted as blending innovative delivery and real-world experiences with strong academics, is an “internationalized program,” Gulliver says. This means that one of the primary objectives is to develop a global perspective in students and to give them the skills they need to be successful in a global business environment.