THE degree to which commercial organisations should dictate the syllabuses of MBA programmes is a thorny issue. Business schools are clearly preparing students for a commercial life; and many students want the skills that will make them as enticing as possible to the big employers. Business professors, on the other hand, bristle if they are told they are teaching mere vocational qualifications; they like a bit of academia thrown in too.

The new curriculum at HEC Paris, which launches in September, is an interesting case in point. The school called in Bain & Co, a large consultancy, to help revamp its MBA programme. Businesses, even consultancies, like the idea of hiring students who have some real-world know-how. So it has suggested the school focuses more on students’ practical experience. It will thus beef up its involvement in MBA tournaments and off-campus activities. 

At the same time, HEC is stressing that the programme will remain academically rigorous. “Firms are interested in having people who can develop new business applications,” says Bernard Garrette, the school’s associate dean of MBA programmes. But, he goes on, “we also need to make sure that we teach the core business skills properly”.

But are students’ and firms’ interests always so closely aligned? Mr Garrette admits that there is a debate to be had over “whether it is the students or companies who are our clients”. MBAs are becoming more interested getting jobs outside the habitual areas of finance and consulting. Many are looking to start their own companies, join smaller firms or even work for charities or NGOs. Having Bain—as traditional a recruiter of MBAs as one could find—leading the curriculum review could lead to accusations of self-service.

Mr Garrette says the school was careful to think more broadly. “We met [both] with companies who hire from the programme and that do not” he says. This led it to implement a new core course on ethics, and also to focus more heavily on entrepreneurship. 

It is an interesting time to be a French business school. Below HEC and INSEAD, the country’s two behemoth instiutions, the market has been consolidating, with smaller schools having to merge in order to compete. They have also had to contend with an attempt to limit the number of visas that are issues—a sop to rightwingers in the run up to this year's presidential election. Fortunately, says Mr Garrotte, this has not had the feared affect of keeping too many non-EU students out of HEC. 

Perhaps even more important, for a school wishing to lure students from across the world, is the overall business environment in France. Big business is still relatively healthy in the country. There are more Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Paris than in London, and more in France overall than in Germany. However, with its heavy bureaucracy and exacting employment laws, it is not considered an easy place to be an entrepreneur. It still, for example, lags behind many of its competitors when it comes to tech start-ups. And times might be about to get a bit tougher, with the expected election of François Hollande as president—a man seen by many, including The Economist, as bad for business. On this point, Mr Garrette refuses to be drawn. Mr Hollande is after all, he politely explains, an HEC alumnus.

Forum: HEC Paris