A truly international MBA program...
The International Master's in Management (IMM) Program is a unique executive program designed for experienced professionals who seek to obtain an international MBA degree while maintaining their full-time job responsibilities. It is a collaborative effort of the Krannert Graduate School of Management of Purdue University in the United States; TiasNimbas Business School of Tilburg University in the Netherlands; CEU Business School in Budapest, Hungary; and GISMA Business School in Hannover, Germany.
The schedule of six concentrated two-week sessions interspersed throughout a two-year long program period allows participants to maintain their job responsibilities while they acquire the broad range of managerial skills needed to be effective in today's and tomorrow's international business environment. The program is divided into three modules, each of which corresponds in course content to an academic semester. Each module includes two, two-week residences which are hosted by the collaborating universities allowing for a rich exchange of cultural backgrounds in addition to the academic focus on international business management.
The IMM Program spans approximately a two-year period, beginning with a five-day orientation session at Purdue University in February of the first year. It is distinctive in that the subsequent instructional sessions are concentrated into six two-week residential periods spread over two years, rather than following the evening or alternating-weekend class schedule format which is typical of traditional Executive MBA programs. This schedule makes it possible for participants to be drawn from around the world, and it eliminates the problem of potential interruptions in their education for participants who experience job transfers during the program.
A unique international MBA degree opportunity...
The Internet-supported IMM Program offers an innovative alternative to the traditional part-time executive MBA and to the usual "transplant" American MBA in Europe both in its educational delivery system and in the international character of its student body, faculty, and residential sessions. The program focuses on the educational needs of high-potential, talented managers and managers-to-be from multinational businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Graduates earn both an MBA degree from Purdue and an MBA from either TiasNimbas or CEU.
The target audience for the Program is mid-career managers and managers-to-be who will earn an MBA degree from Purdue University, and a 2nd MBA degree from either TiasNimbas, or CEU, while continuing their full-time employment. The IMM Program provides broad general management training, with an emphasis on international business, to experienced corporate personnel who presently have-or are about to assume-significant administrative responsibilities in their organizations. These are individuals who require such training both to function more effectively in their current assignments and to enhance their career advancement potential. Past and current participants in the four schools' existing Executive programs have come from locations across the United States and Europe, as well as from Canada, Latin America, and Asia. The IMM program builds on this experience bringing together the resources of the Krannert School, TiasNimbas, CEU and GISMA in a collaboration designed to serve the expanding needs for graduate management education in today's integrated global economy.
The Program provides an unusually rich environment for interaction among its multicultural participants, because of the intensive residential character of the instructional sessions, as well as the Internet linkage with the faculty and participants during the non-residential intervals. The time prior to each residency is spent on reading and computer-based written assignments in preparation for the class sessions. The residencies in the three modules of the Program rotate among the campuses of the four collaborating institutions.
A global executive MBA requires a dynamic learning environment...
Today's and tomorrow's managers confront increasingly complex organizations, accelerated technological change, and a demanding business environment. The International Master's in Management Program equips managers to handle these challenges by putting its students in a learning setting where they can focus on the key elements of management science framed by the dynamics and issues resulting from the increasingly global nature of international business. IMM is designed to strengthen a corporation's managerial resources and to enhance its organizational effectiveness. Financial Times has confirmed this by rating IMM the world's #14 international MBA program.
The career demands and needs of the practicing manager dictate the curriculum design of the IMM Program. The constituent courses are founded on the theory, but have an applied decision-making focus. IMM is a "cohort" program - that is, all students in each class enter together, take a common set of courses in sequence together, and graduate together. This format, coupled with Internet-based communicatons tools, is what makes it possible for the class sessions to be concentrated into a series of two-week residencies.
Built upon the fundamental areas of economics, quantitative methods, information technology, and the behavioral sciences, the program extends the participants' comprehension of the latest buinsess concepts and techniques. IMM courses include a mixture of individual and group assignments with the membership of study groups designed to allow each of the participants to benefit from an exposure to diverse business and cultural backgrounds during the residencies. The study groups remain active in the interim periods between residencies as well, with participants linked to each other and to the faculty electronically via the Internet and a central World-Wide Web site.
A "Top 20" International Executive MBA Program...
Students maintain contact with faculty, support staff, and KEEP administration on a daily basis, if necessary using a variety of Internet-based technologies. Online esources include library services, tutoring, access to campus computer networks, e-mail services, academic advising, and online discussion forums and chatrooms.
Participants in the IMM Executive Master's Program are subject to the same academic standards as apply to all students in the Krannert School's full-time and executive graduate programs. Eligibility to receive the Purdue MBA degree, at the end of the program is contingent upon attainment of at least a 3.0 grade point average (B) on a 4-point (A) scale. Upon successful completion of the Program, participants are eligible to take part in Purdue University's regular December graduation ceremony. In addition, each graduate will receive an MBA degree from TiasNimbas, or CEU, as the participant chooses.
The fact that IMM has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Financial Times, and U.S. News & World Report as a "top 20" executive MBA program and is accredited by the AACSB International (the Association for the Advancement of College Schools of Business) is indicative of the respect paid Purdue degrees.
Between residencies, the IMM Program participants have remote interactive access with each other and with the faculty via the Internet, supported by the resources of the four schools' computer centers. Industry standard software and databases can be called up and used for off-campus assignments, which are transmitted to the faculty electronically and returned to the students in the same manner. A central website provides course materials, a discussion forum and chatroom for each course, and data on the program participants. Hence, even when dispersed, study groups can interact productively and efficiently, maintaining the group dynamic that makes the in-residence sessions a team effort in learning.
Each participant is required to have access to a Windows-based laptop computer, both to complete course assignments that call for computer applications and to communicate over the Internet to the faculty and the other program participants. Software requirements for this purpose will be mailed to participants before their orientation session. A laptop computer is strongly recommended - in fact program participants uniformly express the opinion that a laptop is a necessity because of the convenient fit between it and hands-on classroom tutorials which begin starting with the orientation session.
