The Euro-Arab

Management
school
Tawfik
ielassi, Dean of Academic
Affairs of the Euro_
Arab Management
School (EAMS),
stared past the
Alhambra Palace towards
the distant snow_capped
Sierra Nevada mountains
on Spain,s southern
coast.
The town of Granada, where he was located, was rich
in cultural and political
history. For centuries it had
been regarded as a crucial bridge between the Arab
and European worlds. Indeed,
this was one of the
main reasons why the European
Union (EU),
along
with the League of Arab States and the Spanish govl
ernment, had decided to locate the
joint
manaqemenr
school in this Andalusian
centre.
It was
January 1999, and
Ielassi pondered
the year
ahead. Even though EAMS had been operating for over
three years, this would be the first year that the school
would take in students for its bicultural blend of man_
agement education. He felt that the school was ready for
this step, although some lingering
doubts did remain.
Could a business school that counted only l4 full_time
staff members on its payroll, from the
janitor
to the
director, really compete with established
academic
institutions?
Could a truly'virtual'
multinational
organ_
ization be managed effectively?
Had managemenr
education really come to the point where students
would accept the learning model proposed
by EAMS?
The Euro-Arab
Management
Schoot
EAMS was formed in 1995 by the EU in the Barcelona
Declaration
as part of its contribution
to the develop_
ment of human resources,
especially
in the fields of
professional
training and education
technologies.
The
venture was funded l007o by the EU, but it had the full
support of the Arab League and the Spanish govern_
ment. The EAlvlS mission was to prepare,
through
different educational,
training and research activities,
competent
managers from the fuab world and Europe.
EAMS was owned by the Euro_Arab Foundation,
a
trust consisting
of representatives
from the EU
Commission,
the European
parliament,
the Arab
League and the Spanish government.
The owners of the
trust appointed a Board of Trustees to oversee the
EAMS governance
structure. The board appointed a
Governing
Council consisting
of representatives
of the
EU Commission
and the Spanish government
Ministry
of Education
and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This
body, in turn, appointed
the Executive
Committee of
the school, the group that managed the school on a
day-to-day
basis. The Executive
Committee
consisted
of the director and the dean of academic affairs. The
committee
shared much of the managerial
responsibil_
ity for the schoolwith two other bodies, the Council of
Partner Institutions,
which approved the delivery of
EAMS programmes
in partner institutions,
and the
Academic
Council, which granted the diplomas and
degrees, set the admission and assessment policies,
and
controlled
the quality of the content and its delivery.
For a schematic representation
of EAMS's governing
structure, see Exhibit l.
The school's mission statement stated that the soal
of the EAMS was to
'deliver
managers/entreprenJurs
capable of working within the Euro-Arab
market_
place, equipped with the skills to function in a
rapidly changing business environment'
and to
'extend
the understanding
of managerial,
economic
and social issues that confront Arab and European
managers in dealing with each otherl The school
would offer a one-year management
diploma, a two_
year MBA programme
and various
executive
education
seminars and customized programmes
to
This case study was written by sid L. Hutf, Professor and Michael wade, doctoral student, both at the lvey School of
Business Administration,
University of Western Ontario, Canada. Case released in 1ggg.
247
Case study 4'The Euro-Arab Management School
Exhibit 1 The Euro-Arab Management Schoot's
governance structure
students and executives in the 15 countries of the EU
and the 22 countries of the Arab League.
It was determined that even though the management
school would be located in Spain, educational pro-
grammes would be offered throughout Europe and the
fuab world. There was considerable debate early on as
to the most efficient method of accomplishing this. It
was considered impractical to establish a physical infra-
structure in multiple locations. The cost of building
and staffing multiple campuses was prohibitive' Other
models were considered, including various self-directed
learning options such as web-based education, corre-
spondence courses and the like. However, it was felt
that priority should be placed on some form of interac-
tion berween students and EAMS tutors and professors.
After much consideration, a model was adopted that
combined self-directed learning with local tutorship by
EAMS trained and certified trainers.
The Master in Management Development
Programme
The Governing Council of EAMS decided to work in
collaboration with academic institutions throughout
248
Europe and the fuab world to oversee the local deliv-
ery of EAMS
Programmes.
EAMS would train tutors
from these partner institutions at its Granada facility'
The tutors, who were typically
junior business profes-
sors or business PhD students, wouid meet for five
modules, each lasting three weeks' during the one-year
programme. The tutors would learn skills in bicultural
(Euro-Arab) management and be exposed to the
EAMS pedagogical structure and course content'
Between sessions in Granada, the tutors would have to
complete various pedagogical projects and assign-
ments. Upon passing the course, tutors would be
awarded a Master in Management Development
Programme
(MMDP) diploma. They would then
return to their institutions to act as tutors to students
taking EAMS courses locally in their native countries'
The role of the tutor was different from that of a
teacher. Tutors did not teach EAMS programmes
directly but acted as'facilitators' or'helpers' to students'
Students received the course material either by mail or
through the World Wide Web. Students would work
independently on the course material and meet with
the tutor, usually once per week for three hours or for a
whole day every two weeks. The tutor would answer
questions about the course material and provide advice
on particular approaches or directions for projects and
assignments. The tutors would also lead students in
case analysis. Case-based learning was prioritized in the
EAMS system.
The EAMS Academic Council had decided to follow
a'business-process'approach
to learning, in contrast to
the'functional-area' approach adopted by most busi-
ness schools. The functional area approach, which is
characterized by learning from distinct perspectives
such as marketing, finance, information systems,
organizational behaviour and so on' was considered
unrepresentative of actual business practices. The
business-process approach analyzed a process, such
as a new product launch or an expansion option, from
a variety of perspectives. The consequences of business
decisions on all functional areas were to be studied
concurrently. Case-based learning lent itself particu-
larly well to this style of learning. Another key function
of the tutors was to help students to appreciate the cul-
tural dirnensions of the course material. An essential
part of the programme was to provide students with an
appreciation of the similarities and differences between
European and Arab cultures. Part of the tutor's respon-
sibility was to facilitate this type of learning'
The Euro-Arab Management
School
Tabte 1 EAMS partner
institutions
Algeria
Egypt
Finland
France
Italy
Jordan
Lebanon
Morocco
Institute Sup6rieur de Gestion, Algiers
lnstitute Sup6rieur de Gestion d,Annaba (ISGA), Annaba
TEAM International,
Calro
Abo Akademi University, Turku
Ecole Sup6rieure de Commerce (ESC), Toulouse
Scuola di Amministrazione
fuiendale (SM),
Turin
Applied Science University, Amman
lnstitute of Public Administration,
Amman
Jerash University, Amman
TEAM International,
Beirut
Ecole Nationale de Commerce et de Gestion (ENCG),
Settat
Groupe Ecole sup6rieure d'rnformatique et de Gestion (ES|G),
casabranca
Groupe des Hautes Estudes commerciales
et Informatiqu"r
iHrct),
casablanca
Institut des Hautes Etudes de Management (HEM), Casablanca
Al-Azhar University of Gaza, Gaza
Hebron University, Hebron
lslamic University of Gaza, Gaza
Arab Development Institute (ADl), Al-Khobar
Escuela de Administrati6n
de las Empresas (ESADE), Barcelona
Uppsala University, Uppsala
Ecole Sup6rieure de Commerce (ESC), Tunis
Institut des hautes Etudes Commerciales (IHEC),
Carthage
Institut Sup6rieur de Gestion (tSG), Tunis
School of Business, University of Bradford, Bradford
Palestinian National Authority
SaudiArabia
Spain
Sweden
Tunisia
UK
EAMS began taking in students for its MMDP
(train-the-trainers
programme)
in October i995,
Students came to Granada for five three-week mod_
ules throughout the ten months of the academic
year. Each module was organized around a particular
theme, such as'bicultural learning' or.project man_
agement'. EAMS paid all the expenses of the
admitted MMDP participants.
This included tuition
fees, travel between Granada and their home institu_
tions (typically
five round-trip
air tickets),
accommodation
and a small weekly per diem rate
while studying in Granada.
Most of the faculty would also travel to Granada to
conduct the sessions, often for a week or a few days at
a time. This was necessary, since EAMS staff was kept
to a minimum (EAMS
had 14 employees in December
1998). Instructors came from all over the world,
although most worked for European
academic institu_
tions. The future tutors would typically receive
instruction from 15-20 instructors
during the year_
long MMDP. Allcourses were conducted in English.
TWo batches of tutors had graduated by the end of
1998. These two groups represented
30 tutors from
I I institutions in ten countries throughout Europe
and the Arab world. A third group was set to gradu-
ate in early 1999. This group represented lg future
tutors representing an additional seven institutions
and three countries. A fourth MMDP was set to
begin in February t999.By February 1999, EAMS
would have graduated 48 tutors from lg institutions
in l3 countries, seven of which were Arab and six of
which were European. By the end of 199g, EAMS had
24 partner institutions in 14 countries. See Table 1
for a list of these institutions and countries.
Student programmes
Once the tutors were in place throughout Europe and
the Arab world, student courses could begin. The first
course for students, the Euro-Arab
Management
Diploma (EAMD),
was scheduled to be launched in
October 1999. The EAMD was a ten-month manage-
ment training course, which included, among others,
modules on communications
skills, managing people,
conflict management, human resource tnanagement,
planning
techniques, organizational design, change
) /,a
Case study 4'The Euro-Arab Management School
management, operations, marketing, information sys-
tems, data analysis, accounting and budgeting. Special
emphasis was placed on bicultural contextual learn-
ing. In addition to regular course work, students
would complete various projects and case analyses.
Students would meet often with tutors in their native
countries during the programme. The EAMD was
estimated to require 450 hours of self-study time and
110 hours of study time with a tutor
(three hours a
week for nine months). In addition to course work,
there was a major project component, which was esti-
mated to add an additional250 hours to the time
required to complete the course, making a total of 810
hours to receive a EAMD.
In order to complete the EAMD, students must
attend at least 90o/o of classroom sessions with the
tutor. Assessment of the student would be made by
the tutor monthly on a five-point scale
(strong pass,
pass, bare pass, bare fail, fail). The tutor also assessed
project work. An EAMS-designed final examination
would be administered by the tutor at the end of the
course. Students must pass this examination in order
to pass the course. Students who passed the final
examination and completed their projects with a
passing grade, and regularly attended tutor sessions,
would be referred to the Academic Council, which
made the final decision on whether to award the
EAMD to the student.
To be admitted into the EAMD programme, candi-
dates must hold an undergraduate university degree,
have two years of work experience, be proficient in
English, and pass the EAMD admission test.
Candidates who fail to fulfil any of these require-
ments may still be admitted in exceptional
circumstances, with special permission from the
EAMS Executive Committee and the Academic
Council. The EAMD targeted managers and entre-
preneurs working or intending to work in an
Euro-Arab context. Students who successfully com-
pleted the EAMD, and managers with substantial
and related work experience, could apply to the
Euro-Arab Masters in Business Administration
(EAMBA) programme. The EAMBA was a ten-
month course designed around the business-Process
model described earlier. It would be taught partly in
Granada and partly in the student's native country,
utilizing the same methodology as the EAMD pro-
gramme, namely tutor-facilitated self-study' The first
EAMBA programme was scheduled to be launched
in October 2000.
Exhibit 2 The Euro-Arab Management School. education detivery
process
EAMBA, Euro-Arab MBA; EAMB, Euro-Arab Management Diploma; EDP, Executive Development Programme;
MMDB Master of Management Development Programme.
Euro-Arab
Management
School (EAMS)
.
Granada
.
SPain
r
MMDP
received
from EAMS
250
Tuition fees for students taking the EAMD pro-
gramme would be collected by partner institutions.
For example, students taking an EAMS course in
Sweden would pay tuition fees to the EAMS partner
institution in that country. That institution, in turn,
would transfer a franchising fee back to EAMS, typi-
cally 200/o of the gross tuition amount. EAMS
recommended tuition fees for the EAMD pro-
gramme to be between 3000 and 4000
(about
US$3500-4600), although a certain amount of vari-
ability in this rate was expected to reflect local
market conditions. While rates for the EAMBA pro-
gramme had yet to be finalized, the tuition structure
was expected to resemble that of the EAMD.
In addition to the flagship EAMD and EAMBA
programmes, the EAMS offered public as well as
company-specific executive education seminars that
focused on bicultural management (Euro-Arab).
EAMS also conducted research activities, primarily
from its Granada headquarters. Research in 1998
focused on two areas
-
banking and finance and
information technology and telecommunications.
See Exhibit 2 for a schematic diagram of the EAMS
learning model.
Academic quatity
A concern with any virtual learning model is to
ensure consistent quality of education. In an attempt
to ensure the quality of its programmes, EAMS
entered into a contract with the European
Foundation for Management Development (EFMD),
which had recently launched the European
Quality
Initiative (EQUAL). The EQUAL was designed to
ensure a consistent quality of management education
across Europe, in part by providing accreditation to
qualifying members. The accreditation process
involved a detailed audit of each institution's pro-
grammes and procedures. These included an audit of
admission policies, pedagogical standards, assess-
ment guidelines and so on. In addition to the
standards imposed by EQUAL, EAMS decided that it
would individually audit partner institutions and
tutors on an ongoing basis.
Competition
EAMS was not the only institution offering accred-
ited business education programmes on a'virtual'
The Euro-Arab Management School
basis. A number of universities had begun to offer
various forms of distance learning options for stu-
dents who wished to study remotely. The most
established option offered by many institutions was
distance learning through correspondence courses.
These programmes typically followed a self-learning
model, whereby students would receive learning
material and assignments from an institution, often
by mail, which they would complete and send back
to the institution for marking. Correspondence
courses usually involved minimal direct contact
between students and faculty. Time periods for com-
pletion of these courses were often flexible.
The USA-based research organization, the Gartner
Group, estimated that demand for online training
would increase 100/o per year between 1998 and 2000,
to $12 billion. Another research organization,
Quality
Dynamics, also based in the USA, predicted
that half of all corporate training would be delivered
via technology by 2000.
Recently, many institutions had modified the tra-
ditional correspondence course learning model to
take advantage of the speed, interactivity and ubiq-
uity of the Web. Learning material was being posted
on websites rather than being mailed, and students
were given the option of returning assignments by e-
mail and even corresponding with faculty through
interactive means such as
'chat'
programmes or
video-conferencing. Other institutions had begun to
offer full video-conferencing MBA programmes,
whereby students would gather in small groups in
remote locations and conduct classes with students
from other remote locations and faculties, through
the use of cameras, microphones and TV monitors.
The trend toward the'virtual MBA was being led
by business schools in North America; yet by the end
of 1998, some European universities had also begun
to offer distance learning options. A number of
schools in the UK, such as the Open University,
Brunel University, Henley Management College, the
University of Warwick and Leicester University, had
established accredited MBA programmes that were
administered remotely, mostly using some form of
web-based learning. Some continental schools were
also offering MBA programmes on a'virtual'basis.
This list included the Virtual University of Hagen in
Germany and the Open University of the
Netherlands. In addition to schools offering accred-
ited programmes, there were many academic and
251
Case study 4
.The
Euro-Arab Management School
quasi-academic institutions that offered MBA pro- interested in a bicultural
(Euro-Arab) management
grammes and other management degrees and education. Now that tutors were in place throughout
diplomas over the web. Europe and the Arab world, these students would
Jelassi
was comforted by the fact that the mix of be able to study in their native countries through
self-directed distance education and tutor-based the EAMS systems. But how would they adapt to
learning, as adopted by EAMS, was unique in Europe. the EAMS distance learrring model? And how would
Also, EAMS was the only business school tailored to an EAMS adapt to the inevitable changes and develop-
Euro-Arab audience. Clearly, there were many stu- ments that would occur as new courses and new
dents, both of Arab and European decent, who were students entered the system?
DISCUSSION OUESTIONS
1 What do you think of the EAMS learning system? Does it seem to make sense to you? What are
the strengths and weaknesses of the system?
2 How successful do you feelthe EAMS will be in attracting students? From European countries?
From Arab countries?
3 Who are the EAMS's competitors?
4 How should the EAMS market itself? To whom? Where?
5 More generally, what are some of the challenges of running a virlual organization? What can be
gained or lost?
6 How do you seee the future of (managemenVhigher) education? Do you think that in the future
we will be taking most classes remotely? What technologies would be needed to make a virtual
education experience as beneficial as a traditional one?
252