In business schools, time for renewal

The pandemic has also accelerated the changes underway, in particular in the digital sector. Tens of millions of euros have been invested to equip schools with multimedia equipment while teachers have been trained in distance education. And if the students have returned to classrooms, hybridization, with an element of e-learning, is now the norm. These transformations can be seen on the campuses opened in recent months. Digital is invading classrooms: Neoma has created an innovative pedagogy department. Kedge uses a virtual room to live managerial experiences in virtual reality. And Skema is developing an application that will bring together all of the school’s services. The well-being of students is also receiving greater attention. Finally, issues of gender-based and sexual violence are no longer ignored. Referents have been appointed. Serious acts are now subject to strict procedures.

Other movements are at work. Business schools are increasingly questioned by young people aware of planetary limits. Social and environmental responsibility (CSR) infuses the courses: from green finance to responsible management. At the ISC, an Impact Week is organized to reflect on these issues. At Inseec, renamed Omnes Education, thousands of students will work in associations of the SOS Group. New masters have been created, such as the MSc in Management for sustainability at Iéseg. And Audencia publishes the CO emissions of its students and teachers in its CSR report.

Fairer and more united

But if these schools want to impact the world, as their slogans claim, they need to be less inward-looking. “What remains today of the Republican promise of social advancement, of a higher education of excellence and inclusive?” recently asked the directors of the Insa group. In recent months, several establishments have adopted the status of mission company. Like the emlyon. The school, owned by investment funds, has set itself the purpose of “training and supporting throughout the life of enlightened people who transform organizations effectively for a more just, united and respectful society. of the planet”. She will be judged by her actions.

For now, families are mainly seeing an explosion in tuition fees. This does not prevent the bachelors from attracting more and more those who want to avoid the university and its crowded amphitheatres. And the distortions are growing. In January, a report by the Institute for Public Policy at the Paris School of Economics showed that children in the highly advantaged classes are overrepresented in business schools. In 2017, they accounted for 83% of the cohorts at HEC.

From this point of view, the testimony of Yasmine Abdelaziz, at the beginning of October, during the annual evening of the Foundation of the school, was overwhelming. “The first time I heard about HEC, it was at Questions pour un champion,” said the young woman who grew up in a low-rent housing in Argenteuil. I was 7 years old. That evening, it was the edition of the grandes écoles. I have no idea what that means. I was so far from the HEC champion who wins. And I dream of being like him one day. But not to enter at HEC, because where I come from, we say entering HEC as we say going to the Moon “. The impossible has, however, become reality. Graduated in 2015, she is now in charge of digital marketing at Air Liquide in Spain and Portugal, thanks to a double course with Sup-aero funded by a grant from the foundation.

Social openness

Others should follow suit: the share of scholarship holders based on social criteria – 15% of master’s students in management – must reach 20%, then 25%. Because social openness is one of the priorities of the new director, Eloïc Peyrache. This normalien, doctor in economics, also wants to make entrepreneurship a vector of transformation (see page 102). And it intends to disseminate the research produced by the faculty more widely. “HEC is part of the solution,” he says. Next year, therefore, HEC will modify the rules of its competition in order to increase the proportion of students of modest origin. The school will award bonus points to candidates who take the competition for the first time. Fellows will benefit again if they take it again the following year. Not the others.

At Essec, the management opted for a double eligibility bar in 2022, in order to pick up around forty scholarship candidates after the writings. They often stand out orally by their personal background. Within three years, they will have to represent 27% of students in the Grande École program in Cergy. As for the ESCP, it announced free studies for state scholarship holders in steps 4 to 7.

Flexible tuition fees

“There is an expectation from companies to resolve problems such as gender issues, notes Jean Charroin, CEO of Essca. All these debates, considered political five years ago, have become societal.” Recently, the post-bac school adopted the status of a mission society and it now modulates its tuition fees according to the student’s family quotient. They vary between 3-000-and-12-000-euros-per-year. -Même-Sciences-Po- Paris, – which- celebrated- last year the twenty years of the Priority Education Conventions, modified its competition for more social and territorial diversity. And the results are there, with baccalaureate holders from Font-Romeu, Morlaix or Brive received at the rue Saint-Guillaume school. Their high school had never had any students admitted until this year.

Another lever makes it possible to diversify the profiles of business school students: learning. Thanks to the law on the freedom to choose one’s professional future-of-2018, -which-simplifies the system, and the bonus of 8,000 euros paid to companies as part of the 1 young 1 solution program, work-study contracts are exploding. Including in business schools. At EM Normandie, three quarters of the students in the first year of the master are apprentices, against half in the previous promotion. This means that they do not pay their tuition fees; it is the employer who takes care of it against one week per month in the company. They are even-paid-by-her. – “Soon, with the new university bachelor in three years, a young person will be able to integrate a business school in master and obtain his diploma in work-study program without spending a cent”, estimates Stephan Bourcieu, director of Burgundy Business School. It’s a game changer, as the startuppers say. Transformer.

HEC reception hall, in Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines). At the top of the list of Challenges, the school will modify in 2022 the rules of its competition in order to increase the share of scholarship students / C. Gloag / HEC Paris

How to make a choice

When it comes to designing your future, the first question to ask yourself is that of the type of course. “If you like competition, general culture and want to work on intellectually stimulating subjects, go to a post-preparatory business school, summarizes Emmanuel Métais, CEO of Edhec. If you want to be more operational , choose a post-bac school. “

In all cases, business schools target young people who want to travel and discover the world of business. The IAE (institutes of business administration), for their part, train future experts at the university and the IEP (institutes of political studies) well-made and cultivated heads. Second question: which school to choose? Our rankings allow us to see more clearly.

But they cannot be enough. “The question ‘what is best?’ does not make sense, warns Vincenzo Vinzi, CEO of Essec. The good question is “what is best for me?” “At 21, Audrey Bruschi has just thrown its focus on Montpellier BS. “I wanted to stay in the South and follow my studies in alternation”, explains this Marseillaise. For modest families who are targeting business schools, which are much more expensive than university, it will be necessary to study the possibility of apprenticeship, the existence of financial aid and a degression, or even elimination of fees for scholarship holders. In this regard, our diversity ranking is enlightening. The international prize list will be useful for backpackers.

Do not forget to scan the brochures and the websites of the schools, to question students and graduates, to trust your feelings during the open houses and the oral examinations, and, above all, to verify that the diploma is targeted by the State, even labeled by international accreditations.

A French model that is very expensive

“I did the math,” said this somewhat annoyed executive. Between school fees, accommodation and stays abroad, my daughter’s five years at Kedge cost me 150,000 euros. The price of a beautiful studio in Marseille for a master’s degree in management … “In twenty years, the tuition fees of business schools have skyrocketed, and not only those of Parisian women, whose three years of studies exceed 51,000 euros now. This outbreak is due to the French model, which wants these grandes écoles to live on the fringes of the university. To exist in international rankings, in order to recruit students all over the world, they must invest in research. And therefore recruit high-level teachers. “Obtaining a master’s degree and accreditations such as AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) has changed the situation,” explains Elian Pilvin, the general manager of EM Normandie. Before, a marketing director came to give a course for 500 euros a day. “

Today, a researcher with a PhD costs 150,000 euros per year for around sixty hours with the students. Because if he is very good, he is entitled to a discharge of 300 hours to carry out his work, attend conferences. It is said that the publication of an article in a scientific journal of rank 1 would cost 50,000 euros. This move upmarket took place when the chambers of commerce, which control most of these grandes écoles, have reduced their subsidies to zero.

“The support of students by our career teams, the investment in new campuses equipped with technical equipment, all of this is costly”, adds Alice Guilhon, president of the Conference of Directors of French Management Schools and director of Skema. And remember that most are not intended to make a profit. But their best argument is the level of integration of their graduates. Insurance – almost – all risk that families are willing to pay dearly.