Chicago Booth to offer new MBA courses analyzing financial crises
Students to improve analysis of moral dilemmas through CSR, ethics and environmental issues
The Analytics of Financial Crises is one of several new courses to be offered to MBA students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business during the 2009-10 academic year. A second new course, The Firm and the Non-Market Environment, will examine business lobbying, regulation, environmental issues and corporate social responsibility.
Other new courses include Introductory Finance; Business, Politics, and Ethics; Advanced Microeconomic Theory; and Game Theory.
The class on financial crises is an advanced course that uses the tools of corporate finance to analyze financial crises. Much of the material will pertain to the most recent global crisis, but the class will also study past crises.
The class dealing with the non-market environment facing firms will help students develop the best strategies for dealing with the political, legal and civil contexts in which firms operate. The cases to be discussed are set in both international and US environments.
The course on business, politics and ethics pushes students to deal with business decisions and practices that raise ethical questions, subject companies to negative publicity or political pressure, or raise other issues related to corporate social responsibility. The goal is for students to improve their analysis of business situations which raise moral dilemmas or appear to call for unpopular actions.
The curriculum changes at Chicago Booth add flexibility to an MBA programme already known for allowing students wide latitude in course selection. Graduation requirements for students in the full-time MBA programme remain unchanged and include nine required courses, 11 electives and a leadership course. However, additional approved substitute classes have been added to satisfy the nine required courses.
The changes now make it easier for students to navigate course work within their chosen careers, not just toward completing concentrations in areas of interest.
Chicago Booth also added a new academic concentration in analytical management and required all students in the evening MBA programme and weekend MBA programme to take a leadership development course similar to the one required of full-time students.
