Paul Danos, Dean Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
"Amba Student Of The Year Award: Finalists show why 'the nerds don't win", The Independent News Channel, 26 November 2006, 21:56
The AMBA audience heard a forthright defence of the MBA against its various critics from Paul Danos, Dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, one of America's top schools. Criticism of the degree, he said, has become fashionable.
"A few years ago applications were down and critics said deficiencies in our programmes were the cause. Today, we know that their reports of our demise were grossly exaggerated."
According to Danos, the detractors said the research was irrelevant, that the material was outdated or that the MBA did not teach students to be managers. Some even said they weren't teaching management and lamented the influence of economic theories on management research.
In reply, Danos pointed out that at the top schools, full-time students were in their late twenties or early thirties, with a wealth of management experience already under their collective belts. Critics of research, he suggested, read too many popular books and not enough peer-reviewed papers.
"Business people know that research published in our top journals is very important. Our researchers deal with real data and real businesses, with very practical topics.
"At Tuck, the average student triples his salary and the average international student has a five-fold increase. So to say that there is no value to the MBA is factually wrong. Many of the critics are just making rhetorical points; just being provocative. The MBA is changing people's lives. I don't think the critics understand that."
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