Yale SOM Expands International Offerings

The Yale School of Management (SOM) has announced that, starting in fall 2008, second-year students will have a chance to live a true study abroad experience by spending a semester at one of four exchange partner schools: the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK; IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain; the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India; and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Beijing, China.

This announcement reflects SOM’s increased dedication to expanding its international programs. With the creation in 2006 of the Yale Management Integrated Curriculum, first-year students must now participate in an overseas trip known as the International Experience. The SOM hopes that this new, semester-long International Exchange Program will provide students with the option of spending more time in another country in order to pursue their global interests in greater depth.

While shorter trips abroad have their value, this new program offers greater academic and cultural interest by connecting SOM students with a wide range of international students from the exchange partner schools. “Students spend one semester in a leading international MBA program,” said Sherilyn Scully, director of Student and Academic Services. “But in addition to their academic studies, they will be meeting students from all around the world at their host schools, and they’ll bring back those experiences to SOM. Their experiences and interactions with students from our partner schools will enrich all of our students, I think, in a very meaningful way.”

For its launch year, Yale expects that up to 12 participating SOM students–three per each of the four international host institutions–will study abroad through the exchange program, with a reciprocal number of exchange partners attending SOM. The host institutions, the SOM says, were chosen on the basis of academic standing and prior history of international exchange involvement, and that the interests of SOM students, administration, and faculty were also gauged during the selection process. Each exchange partner offers programs in English.

SOM students hoping to take part in the exchange must prepare an essay application, to be submitted to a selection committee for review. Participants will remain enrolled at and pay tuition to SOM while they are overseas.

Calling the initiative a classic study-abroad program, SOM Deputy Dean Stanley Garstka beleives it is one that will add something new to SOM. “After graduating, our students are involved in business transactions all over the world, and this program will be another way of increasing awareness of the global marketplace, cultural diversities, international business norms, and of developing a firsthand understanding of today’s world.”