Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63913
Headlines Kai Peters Appointed Dean of RSM After a successful period as interim dean of the Rotterdam School of Manage - ment, Kai Peters has been confirmed as dean of the RSM, the Graduate School of Business at Erasmus Univer - sity Rotterdam in The Nether lands. Peters thus becomes one of the young - est deans of a major global graduate business school. Peters, who was born in Germany and raised in Canada, also brings an international background to his position. "It is my goal to continue the de- velopment of the RSM as a global leader in business education," says Peters. "Our focus will be on the glob- alization of both technology and finan- cial markets, and how these devel op - EYE ON . . . E-BUSINESS Business schools worldwide are adding e-business programs at a rapid rate, but most of the time they're responding to external pressures rather than an internal drive to join the e-commerce boom. In fact, student and business community interest in e-business has been the primary driver for the creation of these programs, according to an e-business study recently completed by AACSB International and two researchers from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Harlan Etheridge and Kathy Hsu. Deans and directors of 282 schools worldwide participated in the survey. Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents (72.4 percent) noted that their schools have already introduced at least one course in e-business. Integrating e-business into existing courses has been the strategy for 76.9 percent of the respon- dents, who had such courses in place by the spring of 2001. Another 21 percent said they are actively considering integrating e-business into existing courses. Such course in- tegration is viewed as more effective than general e-business courses, and a general de- gree that includes some e-business is considered more useful than an e-business degree. Finding faculty to teach the courses has been challenging, although nearly half of the respondents are retraining existing faculty in e-business skills. Again, integration seems to be the answer, as most schools assign these trained professors to established departments that recognize a formal specialization in e-business. 6 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 Why establish an e-business program? Faculty interest in teaching e-business Faculty interest in e-business scholarship Average Current student or prospective student interest 4.29 Business community interest 4.08 3.88 3.28 Pressure from university administrative officials 2.50 Scale: 1=Not Important; 5=Very Important How are e-business faculty deployed? Assigned to functional business department (such as management or marketing) with formal recognition of a specialization in e-business Average 3.26 Assigned to functional business department with 3.17 concurrent assignment to an e-business center or program Assigned to functional business department without formal recognition of a specialization in e-business 2.68 Established in separate e-business department 2.39 Scale: 1=Not Effective; 5=Very Effective ments affect internationally oriented managers." Prior to his appointment as dean, Kai Peters was director of MBA pro- grams at Erasmus University Rotter- dam. His team was responsible for the growth of the full-time MBA program and the development of the part-time MBA program, increasing overall en- rollment from 160 to 500. Before beginning a university ca- reer, Peters worked at IBM Canada, Volkswagen Germany, and a company in the German publishing sector. In other news, RSM announced THESE NEW COURSES WILL COVER ISSUES THAT riculum accommodates the needs of students who are increasingly older and have significantly more work experience than students of the past decade. The three months have been shaved off the time frame by decreas- ing downtime between semesters; uti- lizing technology more effectively; and developing a more structured approach to projects and internships. Cardean University Adds Law Courses that it is condensing its MBA degree program from 18 months to 15 months starting in October 2002. Designed to provide a high-quality education with a minimal interruption to participants' careers, the new cur- Cardean University, the online educational subsidiary of UNext, has announced plans to expand its business and man- agement curriculum to include law- related topics. These new courses will cover issues that are of particular con- cern to business, such as contracts,