Deck: Professor G. Richard Shell, chair of the MBA Review Committee of the Wharton School, talks to Beijing Review about the school's recent curriculum overhaul

Beijing Review: According to a Bloomberg report, Wharton follows the Yale School of Management and the Stanford Graduate School of Business in overhauling its curriculum. Is there any correlation between Wharton's decision to change its curriculum and a similar decision made by the other two schools?

G. Richard Shell: We examined in detail the curriculum change processes and outcomes over the past five to 10 years at Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Berkeley, MIT Sloan, and Yale. We also re-examined in great detail the Wharton experience from the early 1990s. We surveyed the content and flow of existing programs at some 30 peer institutions both in the USA and abroad. Finally, we conducted an in-depth study of MBA programs in the USA. All options were on the table, but our focus was on finding the approaches that would best work for Wharton.

How long has the current curriculum been used by Wharton? When did Wharton start to think about a change of curriculum and why do you think it is time to make these changes?

The last change in architecture was 17 years ago, although the curriculum has been changed intermittently throughout the years. In May 2009, Dean Robertson asked a committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire MBA program, including its curriculum. A comprehensive faculty survey was conducted in 2008-2009.

The MBA Review Committee surveyed alumni, recruiters and business leaders and formulated ideas on how to enhance the overall MBA program for Wharton. Wharton is larger in scope and size than most MBA programs, so a unique combination of enhancements was needed. The committee considered many program designs before settling on the basic design. Students and faculty were consulted again in 2010 and final design ideas gelled in the summer of 2010. The final design ideas were presented at the end of September, and faculty, departments, and staff were consulted in the fall of 2010 to validate the feasibility of the program ideas and consider implementation. The proposal went up for approval December 3, 2010. We were gratified when our work was met with overwhelming approval by our faculty.

Can you explain how the new curriculum offers greater flexibility for MBA students?

There are five major changes that make the program more flexible. The new curriculum offers a slightly smaller total number of required credit units, more courses taught in intensive week-long formats, more opportunities for students to mix required and elective classes throughout the program, greater degrees of flexibility for faculty to innovate in required courses and greater flexibility for departments in adding and removing courses to the curriculum.