After a year of global economic turmoil, the question of whether ethics can be taught is still being pondered across the international business school community. This week, Financial Times debates the question: are ethics a personal matter, or can they be taught to business school students?

Here’s a glimpse at some of the opinions highlighted in the FT article.

Rakesh Khurana, professor of leadership development at Harvard Business School:

…Students often arrive with a broad view of business but leave thinking mainly about maximizing shareholder value. They are socially intelligent and skilled. If you introduce ethics classes they often know the “right” answer. The challenge for business schools is to develop a group of people who are self-governing and capable of critical thinking. The only alternative may be a highly regulated environment.

Kai Peters, chief executive of Ashridge Business School:

Can ethics be taught? Yes it can, and yes it should. The whole purpose of education is to help individuals develop their judgment…A discussion of ethics will never make the seven sins disappear. What teaching ethics can do is to make as many people as possible make as thoughtful decisions as possible.

Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, Toronto:

…The underlying premise of our courses must be that our world would be a very miserable place if we didn’t have important socially-constructed laws, regulations and norms that constrain and guide our behavior. And as a graduate, their job isn’t personal profit-maximization but rather contribution to that indispensable civil foundation through their business career.

James O’Toole, professor of business ethics at Denver University’s Daniels College of Business:

…When ethics is taught in almost every course as part and parcel of good business practice, students may learn to become virtuous professionals. The problem is that too few business professors see examining the ethical implications of their disciplines as part of their job, or are comfortable dealing with the broader, long-term, and indirect consequences of applying the narrow techniques they teach.

To read more about what each of these participants had to say about teaching ethics at today’s business schools, click here.

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The Insider’s Blog from UCLA Anderson School of Management recently posted an entry with advice for applicants flummoxed by the multimedia essay question.

So, why does the Admissions Committee want to see/hear your response in audio or video format? The inclusion comes in response to applicants who requested an additional way to present themselves to AdCom before an interview. But it also strengthens the written essays by demonstrating the candidate’s verbal/visual communication skills.

“Based on our experience last year, multimedia gave us additional insights into applicant personality, sense of humor, intonation, verbal skills, creativity, etc,” writes Mae Jennifer Shores, assistant dean of admissions at Anderson.

Here are some suggestions Shores offers to anyone feeling intimidated by the multimedia question:

• Submit a written essay if you prefer that option to an audio or video clip
• Avoid the Shakespeare Syndrome: we are more interested in your ability to communicate cogently and clearly than in your ability to write like a future Nobel Laureate
• Forget the Hollywood Lights: we are more interested in your ability to communicate cogently and clearly than in your ability to present like Elizabeth Taylor or Kirk Douglas
• Listen to a few from audio clips from last year on our MBA home page to get a sense of what applicants submitted (and close your eyes; the animations associated with these clips were created after-the-fact by UCLA film students)
• Learn from your predecessors, who enjoyed creating an audio clip once they got over the fear!

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For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

The October newsletter from UC Berkeley‘s  Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation heralded the launch of the center’s new Venture Launchpad initiative, a step-by-step directory for students that outlines all of the opportunities and offerings available to help budding entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.

The  UC Berkeley Venture Launchpad is a platform designed to propel entrepreneurship through the entire lifecycle of developing a business, from idea creation to going live. While several components of the Venture Launchpad have been in place at the Lester Center for many years, this new initiative more clearly delineates which component can help an entrepreneur at one of seven stages of entrepreneurship.

A statement announcing the news explains that features such as the Launchpad Passport provide a roadmap to all of the Lester Center’s programs and a guide to those exploring and preparing for new venture creation.  For student entrepreneurs taking the plunge, the Launchpad New Venture Accelerators will provide access to a network of experienced entrepreneurs and other support services tailored to entrepreneurs-in-process.

Dean Richard Lyons, Lester Center Co-Faculty Director Jerry Engel and more than 80 friends of the Lester Center gathered at a private home earlier this month to celebrate the public unveiling of the new initiative.

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The new economy blog by Christian Science Monitor posted a great bit Monday on five things you don’t know about top MBA programs. After combing through The Economist‘s recently released annual rankings, writer David Grant discovered several interesting facts.

A drum roll, please…

You’ve never heard of the most competitive MBA program.

With 680 applicants for every one of its 297 spots, the International Institute of Management in Ahemdabad, India is the world’s most competitive MBA program and 99th best worldwide… With a price tag of just over $20,000 per year (versus over $50,000 at Stanford), maybe even some American MBA students will be looking to a new eastern locale for their graduate education.

The best program is … affiliated with Opus Dei?

The IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Barcelona took home the Economist’s top spot. The Opus Dei connection has more to do with business ethics than Dan Brown-esque intrigue, though. While European business students tend to have twice as much work experience as American students, according to the report, IESE came in second on immediately boosting students’ incomes from their pre-MBA level.

Have deep business experience? Go UK.

Ranked by post-MBA salary, five of the top 10 programs are in the United Kingdom. Like Ashridge, the top MBA for salary growth, many top European programs focused on executive MBA training grounds before expanding standard MBA education. Thus, their deep experience working with seasoned managers can take them the extra mile.

American business grads take care of their own.

Of the top 25 schools with top alumni effectiveness, 21 are American, led by the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and the Mendoza College at Notre Dame. Founded in 1900, Tuck is the world’s oldest business school and has a honed curriculum that focuses on building students’ ability to work both within teams and intimately with faculty members. Those personal connections may be something what translates into alumni who will really go to bat for freshly-minted grads.

Head down under for a top student experience.

Monash University in Caulfield East, Australia, claimed the top ranking for personal development and educational experience. It’s superlative only in the quality of one’s eventual MBA colleagues (where it ranks 3rd). It isn’t barn-burning in any other category – 15th in faculty quality, 17th in diversity, and 25th in educational experience – but in aggregate these strong showings build a cohesive whole. The trade-off? Its post-MBA salaries lie in the bottom quarter of schools surveyed.

Thanks to David Grant for pointing out the unusual and intriguing from this latest round of MBA rankings!

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A $3 million gift to the Northwestern University School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management from General Dynamics Corporation will support a special law and business professorship named after Nicholas D. Chabraja, the company’s retired chief executive officer and a Northwestern alumnus.

With the increasing integration of the fields of business and law, this first-of-its-kind professorship will also provide support for the JD-MBA program, the largest and most integrated joint law and business program in the world. The program was the first to introduce a three-year, rather than four-year, course of study.

“Northwestern’s JD-MBA program truly is at the cutting edge,” said Sunil Chopra, interim dean of Kellogg. “Gifts of this nature allow us to continue on our innovative path, and we are very grateful for General Dynamics’ generosity.”

Bernard Black, a nationally recognized expert in corporate law and finance and healthcare regulation, will be the inaugural holder of the professorship.

School of Law dean David Van Zandt also expressed his gratitude for the gift, saying “The Nicholas D. Chabraja Professorship solidifies the strong relationship between Northwestern Law and Kellogg and our concerted efforts to prepare students for careers in which these two disciplines converge.”

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For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.

Today’s edition of The Harbus features an extended interview with Harvard Business School dean Jay Light. Here are just a few kernels extracted from Kathy Wang’s interview…click on the link above for the whole conversation.

Do you think a class size of 95 is too large to allow for a personalized learning experience? Do you think that a size of 70 or 50 would be better?

No. I think there is a flat optimum. I think the case method is better in large class sizes. I’ve taught a lot of class sizes in my life. I think 60 people is too small. You don’t get the diversity of opinion. An individual student may say, “Oh, this is great, I get to talk more.” But from the point of view of the quality of the discussion, I think it continues to ramp up as the number of students in the class goes up, to the 80-100 range.

How have the events of the last year played into curriculum planning for HBS?

It certainly has influenced a lot of cases, but more importantly, it has led to new courses that are part of the EC curriculum, and redefinitions of existing courses. What really happened is student demand changed. The second year curriculum is a function of what students really want to do with their lives, more than anything else.

As students start to become more aware of the risks out there, I think what you will see from them is the appetite to look at things in a different way, and you will see the second year curriculum respond to that. Part of that is faculty leading the charge saying “Hey, we should be teaching about these things,” and part of it is students saying, “Hey, we should be learning about these things.”

You identified in 2006 the globalization of HBS and its executive program overseas as some of the school’s largest issues. We’ve now seen the results of those efforts-what will be the focus of the school going forward? What do you see as the greatest issues facing HBS and the most necessary areas of focus for the school?

Well, in terms of the MBA program, you will see 2-3 things. One is continued emphasis on becoming more global in terms of cases, courses, curriculum, etc. Work on that is never done.

Second would be leadership-ways to work on leadership skills beyond the 90-person classroom. We have a number of faculty test courses working on this now, so that is really important.

Thirdly, I would say two combined things-the structure of the fourth term, and opportunities for experiential learning, by which I mean having students go out of the classroom into the field, etc.

I think by the fourth term, students tend to get a little bored with the 3-cases-a-day routine. And I think that’s both a problem and an enormous opportunity to think about how to structure that fourth term differently to allow for a whole different range of educational experiences for students. Some won’t take place in Boston and will involve field projects, etc. So I think working on those ideas for fourth term is something we need to push ahead on.

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We are now on Facebook – please join the Stacy Blackman Consulting group, or become a friend of Stacy Blackman. I am posting news about MBA related events, job listings, and of course MBA news.

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For a concise, thoughtful guide that will help you navigate the MBA admissions process with greater success, order our NEW book, The MBA Application Roadmap.