The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) is gearing up to welcome the students of new MBA batch for the year 2018. LUMS is a top most university in the education sector of the country, responsible for producing top graduates who hold the potential to become leaders of tomorrow. "We make sure that we take in the best recruits for our MBA programme and quality is the top priority.
The students have to meet our admission criteria because we are looking to produce leaders who are well prepared to make a mark with their business acumen," said Dr Jawad Syed, Dean of Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB) while talking to Business Recorder. LUMS started its flagship MBA programme in 1986 and was the first private university exclusively focused on offering an MBA programme in Pakistan. From day one, the LUMS MBA programme is different from other programme due to its style of pedagogy which is different from conventional pedagogy as it relied on the Case Method technique of teaching.
According to Dr Syed, "In conventional pedagogy, there is unilateral transmission of teaching or giving out information to students whereas in the Case Method we share a specific organizational problem or issue and we expect our students to be able to resolve and address the issue."
For this reason, and more particularly for the MBA programme, emphasis is placed on class participation (CP) and students are made to share their opinions, building on their confidence and analytical and reasoning skills. Meanwhile for admission, while GMAT or GRE is a requirement, proficiency in English is also a must.
He shared that over 800 case studies were written by the LUMS Business School faculty based on real life organisational issues and challenges. He said that after completing MBA at LUMS students were able to practically solve management issues. He also said that MBA programme has full accreditation by the National Business Education Accreditation Council (NBAEC), placing the School in the highest quality category of 'W'. Additionally, in 2017, SDSB was approved as a partner distributor by Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), which means that a selection of cases written by the SDSB faculty is now available online on the HBP catalogue.
He further said LUMS is an institution that not only focuses on academics but also on the impact it has on society and the practice of management, in particular. Dr Syed believes that the MBA programme provides students with immense career prospects within and outside of Pakistan. While answering a question that LUMS is often perceived as an expensive university and this perception makes students hesitant to apply here Dr Syed said, "The quality and the value we offer to students, if we compare it to other competitive schools within the South Asian region and also global, ours is the least expensive MBA programme in terms of its academic value, quality of content and the overall ecosystem it provides.
"He also said LUMS offers multiple scholarships which are available through generous endowments of not only its own trustees, alumni and other community members but also the Asian Development Bank. While answering a question regarding scholarship criteria Dr Syed said scholarship criterion is solely based on merit as LUMS thoroughly evaluates the academic performance of any potential student before they qualify.
"We offer 50 percent and 100 percent scholarship. Those who qualify our admission criteria and are outstanding students by virtue of their academic score as well as their performance in the interview are eligible for funding," said Dr Syed. He said LUMS provides dedicated scholarships for international students.
When inquired about accepting transfer credits, Dr Syed said it depends on the ranking of the institution they are coming from. "For instance, if the institution falls in the top 250 business schools in the world or is accredited by AACSB or EQUIS, then we would perhaps consider it, but if it is of lower quality then we would have to carefully look at it on a case to case basis."
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