Master in European Business: Learning by Doing

Pascale Martin Saint Etienne

The HSE International Institute of Administration and Business implements a Master in European Business programme together with ESCP Europe business school. The programme director, Pascale Martin Saint Etienne, told us about its specifics.

— Why did ESCP Europe decide to partner with a Russian university for your Master in European Business (MEB) programme, and why did you choose the Higher School of Economics in Moscow?

— The Master in European Business is just one of the programmes in ESCP Europe's portfolio. HSE has been a partner of ESCP Europe for a quite a while now; students on our Master in Management programme can study with HSE during their time with us and earn a double-degree in the process.

The MEB is an international management programme which lasts for one year and requires participants to study in two countries. The curriculum is of an MBA style, with a strong emphasis on a cross-cultural approach. It’s taught at our five European campuses and four partner schools in emerging countries: Russia, Mexico, India and Thailand. When choosing who our new Russian partner would be, HSE was the obvious choice: we know HSE and we believe in HSE.

The first semester of MEB partnership with HSE will have a mix of students recruited both locally in Russia and across Europe. Those choosing this option will then pick an ESCP Europe campus on which to complete their studies: Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid or Torino.

— What criteria should an institution meet in order to become an ESCP Europe partner?

— Our partner universities must be ranked amongst the best in the world. ESCP Europe is highly ranked (12th in Europe and 2nd worldwide for the Master in Management), so we obviously want to work with similar institutions. HSE is one of the best universities in Russia – it’s known for its high level academic quality and a strong reputation.  

— How big is the MEB programme in terms of the number of students enrolled? What kind of students are you looking for?

—This year we enrolled 216 students from the approximately 950 who applied.We look for people who have not studied business or management before, such as graduates from engineering, science, language, politics, history or literature degrees. The average age of our students is 25 years old, with the age range stretching from 23 to 30. Successful candidates often have two or three years of professional experience (internships or direct employment) after graduating from their first degree or master. They are looking for a management programme which will broaden their skill set and increase their employability.

Our MEB students are committed; this is a very intensive management programme with around 500 teaching hours.

The MEB is designed like an MBA for its content and cross-cultural approach to management, and it attracts an extremely diverse range of profiles and nationalities. We focus on the basics of management, such as strategy, finance, marketing, human resources and operation management. We also focus on a practical approach through the two integrated company projects students must complete, as well as the professional experience portion which requires at least 12-weeks of in-company experience (via an internship or direct job).

— What is the application procedure? Does a candidate have to pass tests in order to be eligible for the programme?

—The selection process has three steps. First, there is an application form; this is used to analyse the candidate’s profile and their professional goals, and counts for 30% of the admission grade. After that we have a logical test (for example GMAT or TAGE MAGE), worth 20% of the grade.

Finally, candidates attend a personal interview; this counts for the remaining 50% of the grade. This is the most important step because these interviews allow us to understand if the candidate is truly motivated enough for the MEB, and also whether the programme will benefit the candidate.

It’s a mutual selection process. Not only do we want to recruit the best students, but we also want the programme to fulfill the goals of the individual participants in the long run.

— Why would European MEB students be interested in coming to study in Russia? Let's be honest here: Russia's image in Europe is not that great.

— We all have some form of reputation, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change! At ESCP Europe, we believe strongly in the French expression “ ces idees toutes faites” – essentially, learning by doing.We stand by our principle of learning through everything we do, not just in the classroom, and our students can only truly understand cross-cultural management if they study techniques and live in an environment different to that to which they are used.

Europe is not closed in itself; it's open to the world, and it looks for commercial and business partners across the globe. Russia is an interesting and simply enormous market – not to mention a country with amazing history, literature and culture, all of which need to be experienced to understand what makes Russia work.

Diversity and mobility is also an important asset to our graduates. To have a successful international career, they must be prepared to move countries – and even continents – if a job requires it. This applies not only to European students, but also those from emerging markets such as Russia and China: it’s equally as interesting for them to see how business is done in Europe.

When you spend six months studying abroad, you really learn a lot about the country and how to work alongside people of different backgrounds. We try to manage in our programme to allow it a good balance of profiles and nationalities for this very reason. We hope that next year we will have a group of 30 MEB students attending HSE, both Russians and non-Russians, with around half the class coming from outside the country. 

— What kind of teachers work at MEB program?

— Our professors provide both theory and a practical approach to business and management. They teach conceptual courses, but they also invite successful professionals to speak on specialist subjects. For instance, students may have a guest lecture by a manager from a large company such as L'Oréal, offering insight into what their company has done to launch a new product in Russia. These companies are really interested in our students because of their expertise and mindset, as well as their capacity to work within multicultural groups (a major skill acquired during the MEB).
 

— So this is one of the main assets the students develop while studying the MEB?

— In short, I strongly believe that the MEB’s multicultural mix of students, all of whom are able to move between countries to live and work, produces graduates with a vastly expanded professional profile.