Leading French school invites UAE students

Oliver Guillet, Director of the International Division at the INSEEC Business School in Paris, is recruiting international students from 83 countries into their courses.

INSEEC participated in the Access Master’s Tour event in Dubai on November 23. The tour provides many options for business students at different stages of their research through thematic workshops and customised meetings. Top international business schools were represented to recruit local talent for their specialised masters programmes. The tour offered business students a unique opportunity to find the right Masters degree that will allow them to stand out in the job market.

Guillet talked to Education about the relevance of their curriculum and their special interest in students from the UAE.

What plans of expansion does INSEEC’s international division have?

The mission of INSEEC international division is to develop and promote INSEEC programmes worldwide. At the core of the international strategy is the work done by our academic teams to engineer the best possible programmes. Only with top-quality programmes can we target the best students of all the main world regions.

The objective is for INSEEC to become one of the world’s first global provider in business and management higher education by offering a wide range of top undergraduate, graduate and MBA programmes.

We already have around 20 per cent of our student population coming from overseas and we want to increase the proportion.

As director of the international division, what has your experience been? Does the French curriculum meet the regional or national expectations of various countries?

From my experience, I’ve learned that education is, at the same time, a must and not the most, important factor for success. The most important factor to succeed is, of course, the person himself, meaning an individual who knows what he wants, enjoys doing it and who does it respecting certain values and ethics and his partners.

It is impossible to exhaustively develop the skills of a student to meet every regional or national expectation. However, we can provide the student with not only cutting-edge management knowledge but also with the required analytical and interpersonal skills to adapt to as many work and human situations as possible.

From this perspective, a French curriculum is very relevant. In France, we do not train super specialists in business, rather generalists with strong areas of expertise. This is very important in terms of understanding other departments inside a company, in terms of the capacity to solve a wide range of problems and eventually to evolve rapidly to top management level with relevant ease and legitimacy.

Where does the UAE figure in this?

The UAE has a very interesting place in all this: they enjoy the unique situation of being a region with very strong cultural content and very strong adaptability. This is quite unique. Usually, countries with really strong identities have difficulties understanding different cultures and adapting when going international. It is not the case with UAE.

This is why we are so keen on recruiting students from here. Students from the UAE bring a lot culturally to our campuses and at the same time adapt well, learn well and quickly access to positions with high levels of responsibility.

Although business is an international subject with worldwide appeal, how do you plan to tailor the course to suit the needs of this market and the aspirations of the students of this region?

As I said earlier, I am not sure we can tailor the theoretical content of the programme. ‘Think global, act local’ is what we advocate. So the thinking needs to be oriented towards the international markets. The actions, however, need to be adapted and the students will have to remain attuned to the specificities of their local markets. However, we provide specialisations in areas of business which are extremely relevant to the UAE markets such as the luxury, hospitality and finance sectors.

Are your courses online or are you planning to open a branch here or do you expect the students to move to the campuses in France?

For the moment, we mainly offer opportunities for students to come to our campuses in France. However, we do have a top executive MBA at the International University of Monaco (part of the INSEEC group) which is offered fully online. As for local presence, time will tell, but the area is very appealing to us.

How does INSEEC plan to stay ahead on the learning curve?

Innovation, corporate relations and international visibility are the key elements of our present and future success.

What is the strongest point of your programmes and which one is relevant to the UAE?

Probably the global view we have on business and for this, the International Management Graduate Programme of INSEEC is one of our best.

How do UAE students measure up to the expectations of INSEEC?

The students from UAE are known for having a good education, being international-minded and very entrepreneurial — qualities which are most important to us and which justify our presence in the area.

Elaborate on the role INSEEC had at the Dubai Access Master’s Day that took place on November 23?

INSEEC was represented at Dubai Access Master’s Day by Dr Amir Dhia, who is the Dean of Studies of our MSc and MBA programmes in Paris. Thanks to his position within INSEEC and to his experience in the education sector, he was able to provide the candidates with important information regarding business studies at INSEEC. His guidance was of great help for candidates who wanted to discuss their future projects in management studies.

What are the job opportunities for students from this region once they complete the INSEEC degree?

Our graduates hold a wide range of position within the business and management sector. I believe that opportunities in finance, hospitality, luxury management, project management, as well as marketing and communications will be particularly interesting for students in this region.