One way to raise qual­ity of classroom dis­cus­sions

It is good news that the Lon­don Busi­ness School is now pro­pos­ing to offer a shorter MBA pro­gramme (Report, Janu­ary 29).

As a junior lec­turer at LBS more than 50 years ago, I always thought it had been a mis­take to ignore the Franks Com­mis­sion’s recom­mend­a­tion for a one-year course (at both Lon­don and Manchester). One of the big advant­ages of a one-year MBA that we found at Cran­field (where I spent most of my teach­ing career) was its rel­at­ive attract­ive­ness to older stu­dents with more busi­ness exper­i­ence.

Their pres­ence greatly improved the qual­ity of classroom dis­cus­sions. (Cran­field fol­lowed the Har­vard Busi­ness School approach of extens­ive use of case stud­ies.)

DR Myddelton
Emer­itus Pro­fessor of Fin­ance and Account­ing, Cran­field School of Man­age­ment, Bed­ford, Bed­ford­shire, UK