MSU solidifies Middle East partnerships

Business students and professionals in the Middle East and north Africa are anxious to learn American business practices as they look to diversify their economies, and Missouri State University’s Management Development Institute is well positioned to assist in those pursuits.  

Through business educators International Business Drivers License and International Professional Managers founded by Egyptian entrepreneur Khaled Khallaf, MDI evaluates curriculum, materials, objectives and methodology for courses offered at several university programs in such countries as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. This past month, three MDI administrators visited Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, off the Persian Gulf, where IBDL recently signed on to offer professional development courses.

The agreement provides noncredit professional and executive training in 26 programs, including the most popular: the mini-MBA. The international business license, issued by IBDL, teaches students the principles of entrepreneurship while giving them skills for finance, human resources and public relations.

“It’s not about driving. It’s a take on learning the rules of the road when you’re learning international business,” MDI Assistant Director Jeff Schmedeke said of IBDL, noting the partnerships with IBDL and IPM have been in place since 2006.

“What Missouri State has provided over the years is curriculum oversight, and certification and validation of the curriculum they develop.”

Schmedeke said the training programs typically range from 40 to 120 hours of class time and conclude with a certificate of some sort.

“The mini-MBA is a big one,” he said. “This is something that has been taught by American universities for a while, but now IPM is specializing in specific areas.”

Schmedeke, along with MDI Director Rayanna Anderson and MSU Associate Vice President of Research and Economic Development Allen Kunkel, took the 16-hour flight from Chicago to Doha on April 25. As part of the weeklong trip, the MSU group and Khallaf also visited Dubai to observe the Springfield-guided curriculum in action.

“We were able to see a couple of graduation ceremonies. One was a mini-MBA ceremony in Doha,” Kunkel said. “You never know what to expect. Obviously, we were wanting to see that these are high-quality programs, but that made us feel appreciative of the efforts they go through and the high-quality standards they maintain.”

Class sizes range from 20 to 60, and roughly 500 students are enrolled in the 2014 academic year between IPM and IBDL. Schmedeke said class hours range from 40 hours for general management training to up to 100 hours for mini-MBA courses.

Schmedeke said the partnership is growing in step with the demand for skills.

“The broad impetus for having these training programs is so the economies over there can diversify and become more professional,” he said, adding the typical participant is college educated and seeking professional development.

He said the relationship formed after Khallaf turned to MSU and MDI for help years ago, based on the reputation of the school’s College of Business.

“Having an American university with a high accreditation as well as an excellent business school was important, and that’s why they sought us out,” Schmedeke said.

Khallaf did not return requests for comment by press time.

Anderson said the training completed in the region is similar to the professional leadership training MDI has provided in Springfield since 1979.

“They have entrepreneurship programs just like we do here,” Anderson said of Qatar University, which has a center for entrepreneurship similar to The eFactory where MDI is located. “They have a student incubator and entrepreneurship programming. It was very interesting.”

American business practices continue to be a draw around the globe.

“All of these programs are interested in western business methods,” Anderson said. “They recognize the United States as having the premier businesspeople in the world, and they want to learn and be educated by those methods.”

Schmedeke said while no programs have been certified for India or Malaysia, those plans are in the works over the next year or so.

“There is a real interest in the region in getting young people who are educated to really get professionally oriented and develop their skills as far as they can after university, so that their economies can get past just depending on oil and gas,” Schmedeke said.

Kunkel said the partnerships have led to instructors from MSU’s College of Business visiting participating schools to teach a couple of sessions on the material certified in Springfield.

“They aren’t longer-term arrangements like in China, where there are credit classes and faculty might stay over there for a semester or a year at a time. These have been short-term opportunities and the classes are noncredit,” Kunkel said.

Looking ahead, Kunkel visualizes opportunities for similar arrangements with partners in Europe and South America. For now, the arrangements with IPM and IBDL are unique.

“The Middle East is where we’ve been focused, but I think there are other parts of the world where there is demand for that noncredit, professional management training,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]