ESSEC-Mannheim European Executive MBA

The new program to be set is the ESSEC-Mannheim European Executive MBA, initially for some twenty students, with a modular curriculum taught over two years at ESSEC, Mannheim, and in several other universities in various countries. The program will open in 2004, and aims to attract students from throughout the world, in competition with the best Anglo-Saxon universities. This initial program can be the basis for other joint offerings.

As an “academic European Airbus” the alliance hopes to create a range of integrated programs, with a common brand and a joint international advisory board. “Launched by visionary Europeans some 20 years ago, the Airbus consortium, today EADS, must have seemed just as utopian. Who could have foreseen that it would become number 1 in the world, ahead of Boeing?” asked Pierre Tapie.

Rector Hans-Wolfgant Arndt noted that this initiative reflects the leading role played by Franco-German relations in Europe. ESSEC and Mannheim want to create a key player for the continent, resting on the basis of a strong couple, each member of which is top-ranked in his home country.
Nicole Fontaine noted that Europe is faced with world-class competition to educate the most talented students, with many of the best American universities disposing of budgets five to ten times greater that their European counterparts, and of worldwide reputations.

The Bologna Declaration of June 1999, co-signed by the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries, remarked on Europe’s need to catch up in the matter, calling for “a European space of higher learning.” Minister Fontaine emphasized that “Europe must become the world’s most competitive economy in terms of knowledge".

ESSEC’s partnership with Mannheim dates back to 1992, when the double-degree agreement concerning ESSEC MBA was signed. In 2002, ESSEC further developed this union by launching the “European MBA “ with its partners, Mannheim and Warwick in the UK. In the longer term, a true, pan European Business School may be set up on the basis of this partnership. For the moment, a common research fund will be set up, with 50 000 euros per year, starting in 2003 and a common legal structure will be created.

Didier Desert, President of the Alumni Association, feels that the playing field has become worldwide and that ESSEC is already considered a credible peer abroad, even in the US. “Now we have to go from the academic area to the economic: we must be recognized by professionals throughout the world and become a world class establishment. The new MBA goes in that direction.”

The existence of higher education and research in management science in the social traditions of continental Europe, contributing to the continent’s development, is part of the proposal of this model for all emerging countries. The latter would like to invent their own development model based on a plurality of experience, especially when it is rooted in ancient cultures, with large, dense populations. It is to the construction of this multi-polar world that ESSEC and Mannheim want to contribute.

ESSEC, 13.01.2004