Asia focus makes Singapore a popular location for learning
Insead, arguably the most prestigious business school in Europe, was facing a dilemma in the late 1990s - albeit a happy one. The school was growing at such a rapid rate that it had to invest in expansion - but where? Extend the famous Fontainebleau campus on the elegant outskirts of Paris, or open a second school elsewhere?
After much deliberation, the decision was taken to create a second campus in Asia. Singapore won the vote for location, and in 2000 Insead's first MBA class using the new Asian Campus opened for business with 56 students.
The investment paid off. In July this year, Insead announced it was increasing its annual intake in Singapore to 400 - a figure which, when combined with the 580 students following the same curriculum in Fontainebleau, would make Insead's one-year, full-time MBA programme the largest in the world, outstripping even Harvard.
Gopika Spaenle, associate director of admissions, marketing and financial aid, MBA programme, at the Singapore campus, was acknowledged that Insead's rapid expansion in Asia was due in no small measure to the world's growing focus on the region. There was, she said, increasing interest from students and recruiters, much of which has proved to be recession-proof.
However, the key to Insead's market-beating success, she believed, lay in the fact that the school's MBA programme was delivered identically and simultaneously on two campuses on two continents. 'This August we enrolled 180 students in Singapore - our largest intake - and there are an additional 320 in France, but we refer to them all together as one class. You can, for example, choose to enrol in Singapore, then go to Fontainebleau after you've finished your foundation courses, and finally come back later to complete your electives in Singapore.'
For people looking at career change, she said, this opened up very important opportunities for spending time in Asia and benefiting from all the networking activities and contacts on a different continent.
Insead claims to be one of the world's most international business schools in terms of demographics, citing the presence of students from 80 nationalities in the two 2009 classes as evidence.
The syllabus and timetable are not the only elements synchronised between Europe and Asia. The student mix is also balanced. Spaenle said that when the Asian campus was opened it was difficult to define the optimum demographic for the classes. Now, however, Insead ensured a parallel balance of students - at least in terms of regional representation - on both campuses.
'Whether you're in Singapore or in Fontainebleau you're going to have a diversity of nationalities and cultures that's remarkably similar,' said Spaenle. 'The September 2009 class has a total of 500 students, and the mix will be roughly 25 per cent from Asia, 15 per cent from North America and 40 per cent from Western Europe. It makes the dynamics of the classroom and the learning experience that much richer, because you're mixing with people who have business experience from every area of the world.'
Increasingly, too, the Americans and Europeans on the programme are choosing to start their MBA on the Asian campus. Spaenle saw this as part of a broader trend, with the status of Asia as the world's most exciting and potentially rewarding business region proving an irresistible lure. Recruitment figures for Insead over the past few years showed that 20 per cent of class graduates now end up working in Asia.
The Insead MBA is a one-year, full-time programme, with two intakes per year, in January and September. Students are required to spend the first four months of their programme at the campus where they enrol, following which they can take their elective courses at the sister campus. A further exchange affiliation offers the option to spend two months at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton College, again following the same curriculum.
Fifty to sixty per cent of all students also take up two-month internships with relevant businesses, particularly in the financial sector, which the school helps broker.
Spaenle sees this flexibility - academic and geographical - as the key to Insead's recent success. Applications have increased by 20 per cent over the past year, with the biggest growth at the Singapore campus. The average student profile is 29 years old with five to six years of management experience (two years would normally be the minimum acceptable to the school).
A further key factor in any full-time programme's attractiveness is its success rate in terms of the class members finding jobs once they have graduated. Here, too, Insead insists on full co-ordination between its two campuses. 'We have about 150-200 companies who visit us for career exchange,' explained Spaenle, 'and companies can come on campus either in Singapore or Fontainebleau. However, any company that recruits in one campus must make itself available to the other campus, too.'
Scholarships are awarded every year, now at a value of more than HK$20 million. Fees for the MBA are Euro51,000 (HK$581,808).
