Dr. Stephen Hodges, President at the Hult International Business School since 2006, speaks about the active part Hult’s global network takes in shaping your career.
Nowadays, it seems to be expected from many business schools to claim to have an international student body. Is Hult simply following the trend?
Hult International Business School has always offered one of the most diverse educational environments on the planet. When we started in 1964 we had students from 15 different countries, primarily in the Middle East and Africa. Today we have students from more than 120 countries who chose Hult as their business school. This is an incredible number and truly reflects the main purpose of Hult to not only provide an excellent business education, but to bring together people and ideas from all around the world.
How does Hult International Business School achieve such a high rate of applicants from abroad?
Hult is unique in having campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. These campuses are all equally important and there is no ‘main’ campus. We are operating as a borderless school, which has a global network of more than 6,000 Alumni and 2,000 current students. We believe that this network connecting all corners of the world is very attractive to incoming students who wish to launch a career in international business.
Get in contact with Hult International Business School
Katja Gomer is the Associate Director of Recruitment at Hult International Business School in London. She would be happy to answer your study-related questions about all our Master programs and encourages you to request more information.
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With five campuses on three continents, you seem to be everywhere. What are your plans for the next five years in term of campus development?
Whilst we believe Hult already has a global footprint, we do see room to open further campuses. For example, we believe that there is a lot of interest to study in South America. This would extend the reach of Hult and offer students a greater range of options of where to study. It is very gratifying to see how the Hult brand has grown over the past ten years and how alumni developed their careers with the help of this unique global network.
What makes you different from Universities that also offer an exchange program with Business Schools in a second or third campus location?
The main difference is that Hult does not offer exchange programs with other business schools, but rather offers students the option to move between Hult campuses. This is referred to as “global campus rotation”. We believe rotation is much more efficient than traditional exchange programs because we control both campuses the student is transferring between. Firstly, curricula are synchronised globally so that there is no duplication or omission of core topics. Secondly, students settle in much quicker because the learning platforms, organization structures and even furniture are consistent.
Masters at Hult International Business School
- Master of International Business (MIB)
- Master of Finance
- Master of International Marketing
- Master of Social Entrepreneurship
If Hult owns all five campuses, is it not hard to operate these and maintain control?
Hult would not exist if we struggled to ensure the same quality at every campus. We ensure that all Hult students, regardless of their campus location, are offered the same quality throughout. Many of our faculty members rotate as well and teach at several campus locations to provide the exact same course content and way of teaching to our students. Staff also regularly move between campuses. I don’t think there is a single Hult member of staff who has not been to at least to 2-3 Hult campuses around the world. From the start we have built our campuses with videoconferencing capabilities. This makes it possible for staff and students to regularly interact with the counterparts elsewhere. This is gradually being built into the educational experience, our executive speaker series is broadcast globally so students at other campuses can learn from industry leaders no matter where they speak.
You seem to offer a lot of flexibility to incoming students in terms of study location. Would an online degree possibly be the program structure of the future for Hult?
Although there are very successful examples of business schools offering online degrees, Hult does not have any motivation to introduce an online degree to its students. Hult International Business School stands for experience, global relationships and getting plugged into the world. We are however looking to enhance the educational experience of our students through technology. We give all incoming students an iPad. Our faculty are now using this to get live feedback from students in class on whether they are following the material.
Did you deliberately choose not to offer PhD programs?
Yes. The focus of Hult is on teaching excellence and we have a strong emphasis on business practice not business theory. We are giving future entrepreneurs, business leaders and innovators a general management education and offering research programs is not part of our mission.
Many master programs require work experience from prospective students. What kind of profile is Hult looking for?
Hult offers a range of Master level programs that do and do not require work experience. Our MBA and Executive MBA programs require a minimum of 3 years work experience. The remainder of our programs are specifically designed to suit recent graduates with zero to three years of work experience, aiming to open up career paths for our students who have not yet resided in one industry for too long. Hult seeks highly motivated students with leadership skills and the ability to perform in a dynamic environment who value the international experience and top-ranked education we provide.
As President of Hult, which message would you like to convey to prospective students?
If you are interested in international business then I promise you there is no better place to learn than Hult.
