Three for the world

Macquarie offers new business degrees designed for the evolving global marketplace. By Antonia Maiolo From next year, Macquarie University will offer three new degree options designed to equip students to become leading professionals in international business. The degrees are the bachelor of business leadership and commerce, bachelor of business analytics and bachelor of global business. Professor Mark Gabbott, executive dean of the faculty of business and economics at Macquarie University, says the courses were developed in response to the evolving expectations and needs of the university’s students, as well as what businesses now require from graduates. “[Each degree represents] a major change to the workplace for our students,” Gabbott says. “We’re experiencing important technological advancements and the rise of consumer data and global trade, which requires cross-cultural management as well as [increasing the] need for collaborative work that fosters innovative solutions to business problems.” Macquarie University is renowned for its business programs; eight of the top 15 degrees it offers are in that field. The three new degrees join: the bachelor of commerce; bachelor of commerce – professional accounting; bachelor of business administration; bachelor of applied finance; master of commerce; master of applied finance; master of business administration; and master of accounting. Inside the new degrees Gabbott says he believes the bachelor of business leadership and commerce is the first of its kind. It is a four-year integrated degree program designed with industry input from the Business Council of Australia. The course combines high-level skills graduates will need – such as leadership, decision-making, problem solving and communication – with the technical expertise developed in the bachelor of commerce. The amount of leadership content will be progressively increased from the second to the fourth year. As the course is highly selective, just 40 students will be offered a place. Applicants will be assessed through an interview process as well as on their ATAR score. “The reason for this is that we don’t believe you can teach leadership skills from scratch,” Gabbott says. “There has to be some basis on which we can develop those skills; we don’t believe an ATAR is a good representative of that potential.” The university states a degree in business leadership can lead to roles including accountant, business analyst, human resources manager, management consultant, marketing consultant and sales manager. The second degree, bachelor of business analytics, was designed in response to employers’ demands for graduates with business intelligence skills. “One of the biggest changes taking place in the work environment is around being able to extract useable information from big data sets,” Gabbott says. The three-year course aims to give business graduates the skills and knowledge necessary to understand big data, information management and analytics. Jobs for graduates can include business analyst, business process improvement specialist, data analyst and IT planning manager. The third degree, the bachelor of global business, combines the faculty of arts with the faculty of business economics. It aims to build skills in global business strategy, cross-cultural dynamics and international trade, to prepare graduates to work in international companies. The course will combine commercial understanding of global business, a major in an Asian or European language and an internship in an international company. A qualification can lead graduates to careers including global business analyst, political adviser and international relations manager, as well as roles in public services. What the experts said Gabbott says the university spent two years consulting with partner organisations within the business community to find out what new skills graduates need for the workplace. These experts and businesspeople were able to provide feedback in terms of the design of the courses and curriculum. Karl Lijun Qin was one of about 10 experts who sat on the faculty of business and economics industry advisory committee to assist in with development. Qin, a part-time lecturer a Macquarie University who has his own manufacturing business producing parts for global mining companies, as well as a corporate background in engineering and manufacturing, was a committee member. “I gave feedback in terms of what the current business environment changes are, as well as what skills graduates need to meet the demands of employers, as I am one of them,” Qin says. He says the two main drivers of change for business in the past 20-30 years have been the advent of globalisation and the internet. Before these developments, Qin says, Australian businesspeople may not have worked with any foreigners throughout their careers, but this is no longer the case. “Now it’s almost certain that a graduate will have to work with a person from another culture from their very first day,” he explains. “There is a strong demand on everybody in the business world, including most importantly the graduates, to be familiar with the globalised environment.” He says the idea of introducing these three new degrees is not to create a brand new curriculum but to modernise the learning criteria for graduates to meet the demands of employers. Bob Miller, former marketing chief for Toyota Australia and part-time adjunct lecturer at Macquarie University, also sat on the advisory board. Miller is still heavily involved in industry as a consultant and therefore has a clear idea of the skills graduates will need to succeed. He says the degrees are also about giving students new ideas to take to employers. “[They can tell employers] what they have learnt and how it can apply to their business,” Miller says, adding that they will offer practical skills that can apply on a global scale. “They are good practical skills in Mumbai or Singapore, they are not just practical in Sydney.” Break out box: Head: Business graduates’ bottom line In terms of employment prospects shortly after course completion, business studies graduates have outcomes relatively close to the average for all graduates (in 2012, 74.5 per cent compared with 76.1 per cent overall). This cohort earned a median starting salary of $48,000, compared with $52,000 for all graduates. This median is calculated based on the reported annual earnings of bachelor degree graduates aged less than 25 and in their first full-time job in Australia four months after course completion. In 2012, a three-year follow-up of 2009 management and commerce bachelor degree graduates found that their employment figures had grown from 82.1 per cent in 2009 to 94.9 per cent in 2012 and their earnings had grown from a median of $50,000 in 2009 to $70,000 in 2012. In 1999, 29,374 domestic students completed courses in management and commerce. In 2011, that number had grown to 38,689, an increase of more than 30 per cent. Over the same period, course completions for all domestic graduates grew by over 39 per cent. Management and commerce courses are popular with international students. In 1999, there were 43,013 course completions by internationals. This grew to 100,290 in 2011, rising more than 133 per cent. Source: Graduate Careers Australia, DEEWR course completions statistics