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When it comes to offering the best business degrees, competition between universities has been heating up on a global level. Fortunately, Australian universities have managed to keep up.
Recent polls from the 2020 QS Global MBA Rankings found that two Australian universities made it to the list of the world’s best higher education institutions offering business administration degrees.
The University of Sydney’s Business School, which placed 34th worldwide in the QS rankings, was also the only Australian university to make it to Financial Times’ list of the world’s best business schools for its flagship Master of Management program.
The University of Canberra is also keen to join the race, having recently launched its own business school last week, after it merged its School of Accounting and Finance and the School of Management.
Aside from offering postgraduate degrees, which will include the flagship MBA degree, the new Business School will offer the following undergraduate degrees:
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Business
- Bachelor of Accounting, and
- Bachelor of Events and Tourism Management
Canberra Business School students will also go through work integrated learning. These can come in the form of internships, industry projects and research projects.
Future-oriented
Professor Raechel Johns, who serves as the head of Canberra Business School, said they are particularly focusing on the practical aspects of their curriculum such as tying up with industries to ensure their students would be ready for employment upon graduation.
“It’s impossible to predict what the future may hold, but business graduates must be equipped to handle these challenges. So, we are supporting them to be decision makers to be creative thinkers to be problem solvers and mostly importantly, to be lifelong learners,” Professor Johns said.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who had attended the launch, noted that the Canberra Business School will ensure that the future workforce will “are the skills necessary to meet and adapt to the future” to keep the city prosperous.
Minister Barr had referred to an Institute for the Future report which said that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 10 years have not been invented yet. For cities to keep up with the changing business landscape, it would need to make the most of its knowledge capital, he added.
Canberra Business Chamber CEO, Dr Michael Schaper, in his keynote also highlighted the importance of a business school’s ties with the local business community.
"If you’re going to be the Canberra Business School, you want to be the business school first for the Canberra business community, but more importantly, we want you to succeed as a business community,” Dr Schaper said.
“We want to work with you, but we would also love you to become a world leading business school. We’d be very happy to share you with the rest of the world when you get there.”
Dr Schaper is also a member of the University of Canberra Council.