International business curriculum is on its way and may someday be a standard by which universities judge themselves. As the world integrates and international workers gather around needed knowledge sets international business curriculum will become more common. A paper in the International Journal of Social Sciences & Education begins to discuss their evaluation of accreditation bodies (Nzeh, 2014).
International businesses are common and seek qualified talent that can effectively work in cross-border commerce. Up until this points most business schools focused on curriculum that was national in orientation and represented the needs of local stakeholders. As the nature of international commerce and employment changes so will the educational process that meets those needs.
According to the authors a review of business school accrediting bodies such as ACBSP, AACSB, and IACBE found that many of them contain similarities of themes that set a foundation for standardized international business curriculum. Other accrediting agencies in Europe and Asia also share foundational similarities with American accreditation agencies.
Knowledge doesn’t exist in a bottle and curriculum from different localities borrow from each other to generate market relevancy. As the needs of international business become easier to define and online education grows there will be a subtle push toward standardization. Such standardization is likely to be formal but could work equally well on an informal basis.
There will be certain underlying needs of international businesses that will apply to equally to each of them. International students may need additional training in systems thinking, multicultural communication, and international management but don’t often get these skills from local colleges. Developing international curriculum helps ensure that the global mindset is created among new recruits.
Nzeh, O. (2014). The new paradigm shift-internationalizing business education curriculum. International Journal of Social Sciences & Education, 5 (1).
