FRANCE-US: HEC and MIT Sloan sign global MBA alliance

Two top international schools of management, France's HEC and the American MIT Sloan, have signed a strategic partnership agreement to develop exchanges and collaboration through educational, research, professional and cross-cultural activities between students and faculty.

Under the global academic alliance the two institutions will create a double-degree programme between HEC's MBA or MSc and MIT Sloan's new Master of Science in Management Studies or MSMS.

The highly selective MSMS will begin in the 2009-10 academic year and will include 20 to 25 international students who have completed or are completing MBAs or equivalent degrees abroad. Eventual enrolments will be no more than 50.

Other foreign participants in the MSMS are Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University in Shanghai, and the Sungkyynkwan University School of Business in Seoul.

Plans under the HEC-MIT Sloan agreement also include an exchange programme for MBA students to study for a semester in the partner school, and an exchange scheme for teachers to carry out joint research in disciplines such as strategy, product development and leadership. These will include joint doctoral committees for supervising theses in each institution.

HEC (Hautes Études Commerciales) Paris is France's leading management school and was ranked the top business school in Europe by the Financial Times 2008 listing. Founded in 1881, the HEC today has a permanent faculty of 105 professors and 3,200 students of more than 80 nationalities who live on its campus at Jouy-en-Josas outside Paris.

MIT Sloan, the school of management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has students from more than 60 countries and is an academic world leader in innovation in management theory and practice. Its MBA programme is globally ranked seventh by the Financial Times.

Announcing the alliance earlier this month, David C. Schmittlein, the John C. Head III Dean of MIT-Sloan, said: "As management education and knowledge become more global, there are limits to what any one school can do in the world."

Schmittlein said the world needed new leaders in management more than ever, and the partnership would "provide students and professors with the global perspective they need to succeed".

HEC Dean Bernard Ramanantsoa said the intercontinental partnership provided both institutions with the opportunity to produce "truly international leaders."

Valérie Gauthier, Associate Dean of the HEC MBA programme responsible for developing the joint project, said: "This partnership is a real opportunity for HEC to increase its reputation in the United States and throughout the world, and for our students to benefit from a double education, in France and in the US, with two key degrees and access to two networks at HEC Paris and MIT Sloan."

jane.marshall.@uw-news.com