Exclusive: The Professor Who Called To Abolish Business Schools Tells P&Q What He’d Build Instead

Key Points:

• Christopher Marquis, a Cambridge Judge Business School professor, wrote a widely shared New York Times essay calling for the shutdown of traditional business schools, sparking extensive discussion among deans, students, and applicants.
• Marquis clarifies he does not advocate for abolishing business schools entirely but calls for a fundamental redesign of curricula, faculty incentives, and programs to address contemporary business challenges like sustainability and social impact.
• He highlights that many MBA students abandon their initial altruistic goals within a single semester, influenced by the culture and recruiting pressures, alongside the burden of high tuition costs.
• Marquis praises the Sustainable Innovation MBA at the University of Vermont as a model for integrating sustainability across all courses and emphasizes the need to reform faculty incentives to prioritize real-world impact, similar to the UK's Research Excellence Framework.
• He advises prospective MBA students to carefully consider if the degree aligns with their goals, especially those aiming to address social and environmental issues, and stresses that meaningful change in business education requires collective faculty involvement and systemic reform.