BUSINESS CURRICULUM IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

By
Dr. Sein Min
Lecturer
Thames Business School, Informatics Group

March 2002

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 Abstract
Curriculums are the blueprints of educational institutions and programmes. The
well -structured and appropriate curriculum will ensure the value and quality of the
products of the respective educational organizations. It is necessary to review regularly
the curriculums and adapt them to the changing conditions of environment. The
marketing approach is suitable to apply for the curriculum design and improvement.

Today‟s business curriculums are the product of today‟s business practices.

Business education is in fact orienting towards the business world in order to produce
required managers and qualified people for industries as demanded by them. In line with
the current business practices, the business curriculums are providing a wide range of
theories and techniques. All tertiary institutions around the world offer the same or
similar subjects in the business education programmes. Nevertheless, the content and the
approach used by individual institution differ significantly.

To consider what should we do for the business curriculum of the future, the
starting point should be the prediction of the future businesses and the complementary
role of business education - How will businesses in the future play their roles? Ideally,
future businesses should be playing a vital role not only for their belonging society, but
also for the entire mankind on the planet. At least, the “societal marketing orientation”
should be firmly adopted by every business around the world, in contrast to the present
orientations like sales or marketing. I

The curriculum development or adjustment should follow the marketing approach

by identifying firstly the target markets and the products such as graduates, diploma
holders, produced by the business education programmes. The potential employers of our
graduates and their specific needs as well as the expectation should be explored and
subsequently the curriculums should be designed and developed.

The curriculum design needs to take into account different types of learner
segments such as traditional students, life-long learners, virtual universities and other
purposes, for example, training, refreshment courses, and so forth. Moreover, the
curriculum design and development is not necessarily to reproduce the standard form or
package used in international institutions. Here again, one (international) marketing
principle is applicable. That is “Think globally and act locally!”

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Introduction
It is needless to say that the curriculum is very important for every educational
programmes. Indeed, curriculums are the blueprints of educational institutions and
programmes. The well -structured and appropriate curriculum will ensure the value and
quality of the products of the respective educational organizations. Likewise in
marketing, it is necessary to review regularly the curriculums and adapt them to the
changing conditions of environment. The marketing approach is suitable to apply for the
curriculum design and improvement. Business curriculums are lifeblood of programmes
of business education and in the meantime, these programmes are organic parts of the
business world. Before we consider particularly about the role of curriculum, we should
begin with the changing business environment in which businesses are running and to
which business management must orient.
In general, business environment is changing very rapidly and dynamically.
Hence, business management needs always to keep a pace with these changes and
accordingly business education needs to revise its programmes and curriculums. Some of
the major changes in today‟s business environment can be counted as follows:
1. Globalization or Amercianization
2. Stiff competition
3. IT or New Digital Era
4. Shift the focus in market areas, for example, from industrialized western
markets to newly industrializing and newly emerged markets
5. Environmental concerns such as pollution, energy saving, recycling, and so
forth.
Due to these changes, many business organizations have also turned the way of
doing their business and methods in management. For instance, the organizations need to
be more flexible in today‟s environment, thus a more flexible management style called as
“reengineering‟ is put into use. Again to be more flexible, these organizations are
acquiring necessary inputs and resources from outside sources and suppliers rather than
traditional way of doing everything inside the organization. As a result, the relationship,
partnering, alliances, supply chain, and so forth, are becoming the key concepts of today
businesses. Moreover, we can observe increasing importance of the following activities
and approaches, namely, merger, globalization, flattening, focusing, empowering, etc.1
As business activities and concepts are changing, it is necessary to revise some of
the elements in the programmes of business education and subsequently, the curriculum
of business education will be necessary to be modified and upgraded. Before we touch
such particular points as what should be changed and how should be changed, we should
firstly review first the development and trend of business education in the past and, then,
the current state of business practices and curriculums of business education.

1
. See Kotler, P., “Marketing Managemen”, The Millenium Edition, The Prentice Hall, 2000, p. 680.

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Review on Business Education and Curriculum
In the business education, the management in general and business management
in particular took a major part. Management theories developed in evolutionary manner
in the past with the root of Fayol‟s classical principles of management stretching to
today‟s theories of system concept and contingency management. Today‟s curriculums
reflect actually all these theories, although individual programmes might differ in their
emphasis.
Today‟s business curriculums are also the product of today‟s business practices.
Business education is in fact orienting towards the business world in order to produce
required managers and qualified people for industries as demanded by them. In line with
the current business practices, the business curriculums are providing a wide range of
theories and techniques. For examples, most of the business education courses consist of
the following subjects - general management, business management, functional
management, such as production management, financial management, marketing
management, human resource management, etc., strategic management, and international
business management These core subjects are supplemented and enhanced by other
subjects such as accountancy, computing, statistics, quantitative methods, management
science and business law.
All tertiary institutions around the world offer the same or similar subjects in the
business education programmes. Nevertheless, the content and the approach used by
individual institution differ significantly. For instance, US education system emphasizes
more on the case study and application than their counterparts in Europe where
theoretical base is considered to be more important.

Business Curriculum of the Future

To consider what should we do for the business curriculum of the future, the
starting point should be the prediction of the future businesses and the complementary
role of business education - How will businesses in the future play their roles? Ideally,
future businesses should be playing a vital role not only for their belonging society, but
also for the entire mankind on the planet. At least, the “societal marketing orientation”
should be firmly adopted by every business around the world, in contrast to the present
orientations like sales or marketing. In other words, it is necessary to change the
paradigm of today businesses in terms of the value, role and orientation.
With regard to the development levels of business orientation, finally every
business organization must move towards the societal marketing orientation. This means,
every business must fulfill not only the customer requirements but also society‟s needs
and welfares. This will be the only solution to today‟s unsettled problems in the world.
Businesses must change their current philosophies which are mostly still in the form of
selling and profit-maximization and shape their businesses according the societal
marketing concept. In this process, the business education has to play a vital role. This

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may also call for a great deal of changes in the current curriculums, since the underlying
concept and orientations will have already changed.
Today businesses are also responsible to tackle various problems encountered
around the world. The new challenges for today and future businesses as well the
economic systems are concerned with such issues as world economic order, poverty
eradication, sustained economic growth, environmental conservation and ethical business
practices. To meet these challenges as well as to support the proper and effective
functioning of future businesses, new curriculums of business education should take into
account the following aspects as essential ones:
 Welfare Management
 Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
 Natural Resource Management
 International Business Relations and Co-operations
 Cross-cultural Management, etc.
Moreover, we need to consider some perspectives about regional businesses and
markets. For example, management of Asian businesses or Asian markets will be
appropriate for Asian students. In the future, businesses must fulfill also regional and
local needs utmost while the process of globalization is accelerating. Importantly, the
curriculum should seriously consider the need of effective use of new technologies in the
management function and business activities. The role of business research will be
unchanged, but may require to orient towards new dimensions.

Approaches to the Development of Business Curriculum

In this part, it will be considered how to develop the business curriculum and
which approaches are suitable for it. As mentioned earlier, the curriculum development or
adjustment should follow the marketing approach by identifying firstly the target markets
and the products such as graduates, diploma holders, produced by the business education
programmes. The potential employers of our graduates and their specific needs as well as
the expectation should be explored and subsequently the curriculums should be designed
and developed.
The curriculum design needs to take into account different types of learner
segments such as traditional students, life-long learners, virtual universities and other
purposes, for example, training, refreshment courses, and so forth. Whenever we design
and develop curriculums, we can employ „made-to-measure‟ approach. This means, the
effectiveness of a curriculum and programme will be measured and evaluated against the
expectations.
Moreover, the curriculum design and development is not necessarily to reproduce
the standard form or package used in international institutions. Here again, one
(international) marketing principle is applicable. That is “Think globally and act locally!”
Tertiary institutions of non-US can refer the curriculum design and content of universities
in U.S. and some other leading countries, but the fine tuning should be made to offer
highest benefits to students of other countries.

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Some suggestions to current business curriculums of
tertiary institutions
Regarding the current practice and situation, some changes and improvements can
be made within the context of existing business and education system. Some of them are:
(a) Nowadays there are many education programmes with different
specializations, levels, and run by different organization, using different approaches and
methods. There are also multiple pathways and links among them. While these
programmes render definitely enormous opportunities to learners, the complex system
may overlook the construction of a very good foundation of economic and business that
should be held by everyone in businesses. Specialization should be followed only after
the general work of good foundation. Many outcomes of poor quality of educational
products is to some extent responsible by the education system and curriculum design.
So the education process should be reviewed thoroughly and examined its order and
relevance.
(b) Many institutions are exam-oriented and result-oriented. Candidates are also
achievement-oriented, to attain the proposed degree or certificates. Too much emphasis
on the end causes some undesirable stresses and problems on both sides of institution and
students. The purpose of education should be achieved and the obvious benefits should be
provided. Education programmes should not only provide necessary knowledge, but also
shape the desired forms of personality possessed by a good citizen and a natural human.
(c) The knowledge and interest level of students regarding the economies and
businesses close to the students should be increased. For instance, the Asian students
should learn more about Asian culture, Asian businesses as well Asian economies.
Curriculums should focus the regional issues and match with some specific environments
in which learners are living.
(d) While it is necessary to provide a good foundation of business education,
advanced levels should mould the proper professionalism providing specific and
technical knowledge and skills. For instance, an advanced programme of financial
management should offer a candidate necessary education to become a full-fledged
financial manager. Such education programme should consider also field training,
internship, and so on. .

Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important that curriculum should not be considered separately
from businesses and their environment. Constant review of curriculum should be made
and the curriculum development should adopt the marketing approach. The business
education should play even the leading role rather than lagging behind the actual
development of business world. The future of the businesses, business education and
curriculum will be interplaying and serious attention should be paid to that matter.