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41 BizEd March/April 2014 class discussions. Little by little, he learned to contradict and challenge, skills instinctive to those educated in Western institutions. In the end, this student was amazed by his abil- ity to debate; it was a quality he had believed was not in his DNA. For students from countries such as India, social integration can be as difficult as academic participa- tion. Our Indian students are usu- ally fluent English speakers, but some have difficulty with soft skills such as collaboration and Western etiquette. "They often do not think these skills are important," says MB Sarkar, who teaches "Doing Busi- ness in Emerging Countries" for our Global MBA program. "It is criti- cal that they understand that they cannot slide by just on the learn- ing and study habits they honed in their college days in India." In some cases, Sarkar takes students aside and speaks with them about the importance of these issues; he also strongly encourages students to work in cross-cultural groups to ensure their social integration. Creative Strategies As indicated above, a third dimen- sion of an MBA program is edu- cating students in soft skills and emotional intelligence. One of the fundamental pedagogical levers in EDHEC's soft skills courses is hon- est self-disclosure. As part of this self-reflection, students evaluate their peers' soft skills. However, speaking publically about emotional or intimate expe- riences, a common activity for American and European students, is deemed inappropriate in many Asian countries. Shlomo Maital, a professor of macroeconomics and innovation in our Global MBA pro- gram, has developed an approach to help Asian students overcome these barriers. He boosts their confidence by encouraging them to speak out in class, give oral presentations, and express audacious ideas. "My first goal for my Asian students is to restore their faith in their own creativity," Maital says. "Asian stu- dents bring a superior work ethic to the classroom and in short order their creativity finds expression." Maital adds that he doesn't assign grades for class participa- tion, as this tends to produce rather artificial and forced con- tributions. "Instead, I try to elicit their stories—for example, an illustration of a creative solution they've applied to a problem when their resources were scarce. Or I ask them to write on a Post-it note something they know that they're willing to share with the class, which other students might find of value or interest. Then, when I get tired of talking, I pull out one of these notes and ask the student who wrote it to explain. The results are often fascinating!" Maximum Diversity Maital stresses that just as the world's dominant economic pow- ers are shifting, so too is the makeup of the MBA class. Now is the time to take into account this change in several important areas, including faculty recruitment, stu- dent body diversity, new student orientation and integration, degree program organization, and staff cultural awareness. At EDHEC, we have found that Career GuidanCe for asian students Sandra Richez, head of EDHEC's Global MBA Career Services, suggests the following career counseling approaches for diverse Asian students: n Select career coaches who have experience with Asian countries and mindsets. n Draw from your school's network of Asian alumni to find the right men- tors for students. "'Asian' doesn't mean much," Richez points out. "We must consider the differences between students from India and Japan, or from China and Malaysia." n Keep cultural gender norms in mind. "It helps to put a Korean woman in touch with another Korean woman, or a Japanese man in touch with a Japa- nese man," Richez says. When schools pair students with mentors of similar gender and nationality, "they can have far more direct and meaningful conver- sations and develop deeper ongoing mentoring relationships." n Organize a peer mentoring program. "Our students can help us better respond to other students' specific, personalized needs." In 2011–2012, 60,000 Chinese citizens took the GMAT—triple the number that took the test in 2007–2008.