As every year by this time, the International Business School Alliance (IBSA) has held its annual summer meeting on 29, 30 June and 1 July. On this occasion, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia hosted the network, and staff from the remaining five partner universities were scheduled to visit: Hochschule Bremen (Germany), The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration RANEPA - Institute of Business Studies Moscow (Russia), University of North Carolina Wilmington (USA), University of Hertfordshire (Great Britain) and ESSCA School of Management in Paris (France).
Unfortunately, the current health circumstances have not allowed the meeting to be held in person, but this has not prevented a fruitful time of work across the screens, with the celebration of numerous video conferences in which the directors of the Master in International Business Management - iMBA of the partner universities, coordinators of core modules and administrative coordinators of all the universities of the alliance have participated. The digital meeting was inaugurated by the dean of the Faculty of Economics, Dr. José Manuel Pastor and directed by the co-directors of the iMBA Master at the University of Valencia, Dr. Enrique Bigné and Dr. Carmen Pérez-Cabañero.
The objective of these meetings is to share teaching and management experiences, as well as to review common standards in terms of content, methodologies and evaluation. New specialities were also proposed by the partners as a response to the new demands of the global economic environment.
With more than 40 online participants in the plenary sessions, the Faculty of Economics hopes to hold this meeting again, this time in person, next summer.
Since 2004, the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia has been offering the Official Master's Degree in International Business Management (iMBA) as a member of IBSA. Currently, the iMBA welcomes students from all over the world from diverse cultural, geographical and professional backgrounds, thus facilitating interaction and the exchange of experiences among them and with the faculty. This opportunity is favoured by the possibility of studying for one academic year in two different countries within the institutions that make up the IBSA network, as the first semester is common to all the universities in the network, corresponding to the core subjects of an international MBA, while the second semester covers a different specialisation depending on the destination which, in the case of Valencia, is International Marketing.
The iMBA program offers a unique learning experience and is aimed at people who are prepared and enthusiastic about the academic demands of the master's degree. The majority of the students have graduated in business administration, economics, finance, tourism or engineering, with a good level of English. They are ambitious, cosmopolitan and adventurous people, as they have a great interest in learning about other cultures and broadening their horizons and communication perspectives. The orientation of this Master's degree goes beyond addressing trade issues between countries, encouraging critical analysis of what makes a company competitive in the international context. In this way, the iMBA program aims to train professionals who are capable, among other things, of leading decision-making in global environments, of assuming an awareness of economic and cultural diversity, of developing professional management skills, and of detecting and anticipating changes in the environment.
