Scottish business education finally gets itself together

School without incurring a huge fare between our two major cities and

baffling the driver. From this month, however, it's easy to locate the

office of the Association for Management Education and Training in

Scotland -- at Stirling University. But it's taken a while for Scots

business schools to get there.

The Franks Report on business education in the late sixties suggested

that the UK needed to move forward on business education by setting up

three specific business schools. London and Manchester were named as

major centres, with new and more or less independent institutions

established for business education. Scotland got the Scottish Business

School.

''One of the special features of the so-called Scottish Business

School was precisely that it wasn't like that,'' explains Michael

Makower, senior lecturer in business science at Stirling University.

''It was a kind of agreement between existing institutions to act

jointly to some extent.'' Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Glasgow

universities were the participants. In 1971 they agreed to operate

certain activities together, while remaining independent institutions

offering their own degrees.

''There was some collaboration and some new initiatives prospered from

this, but it wasn't a single institution, of course, and it didn't have

that degree of direction that other places could and did have.'' In 1986

the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Committee reported on the

Scottish Business School but didn't find its operational arrangements

convincing or of an internationally competitive standard.

The council of the Scottish Business School then decided to change the

organisation's name to make clear that it was not a single business

school -- they called it the Confederation of Scottish Business Schools

and redefined its objectives and strategies.

Makower was part-time director of CSBS. ''We started off in August,

1987. After two years we reviewed again the whole question of what we

could do and how we should do it. It was then decided that even the name

Confederation was misleading people and damaging some of our members'

interests.''

The Confederation started with five members: Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt,

Glasgow, Strathclyde and Stirling universities, but Strathclyde objected

to the #12,000 annual subscription.

''It wasn't only Strathclyde which felt that #12,000 was quite a

significant sum. Some members certainly argued strongly that we should

be a trade association with a much wider membership and also a lower

subscription.''

The Confederation gathered and disseminated information in response to

enquiries from individuals and companies about courses and

opportunities. Direct promotion came from appearances by CSBS at

exhibitions, with some advertising of a generic kind, urging that

management education in Scotland had much to commend it. Research

projects were also undertaken and representations made to government.

''Strathclyde University went public on the fact that it was very

unhappy and that, if the Confederation didn't change, it wouldn't wish

to continue in membership. But Strathclyde wasn't the sole reason for

change.''

The change came at the beginning of September, when the Confederation

became the Association for Management Educ-

ation and Training in Scotland, with an office provided by Stirling

University and with Michael Makower as vice-chairman. The current

subscription is #3,000. The membership has expanded to include Napier

Polytechnic, the Open University, Queen Margaret College and, most

recently, Paisley College and Dundee University.

The expansion of Scottish business education is shown by the recent

launch by Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon's Institute of

Technology of a joint MBA degree. Will they join AMETS? ''We have been

in happy correspondence and meetings with both institutions for over a

year, and we would be very glad to welcome them. At the moment they feel

that it is not justified for them to join at the #3,000 subscription

we're asking. Either they come round, or we come round to lowering the

subscription enough for them to join.''

First-year classes comprising hundreds of students are common in this

boom time for business studies. Places are available in the

association's member institutions for business people who want further

training.

''It's true of all the institutions that there is a considerable

increase in demand from people for postgraduate business education,''

says Makower. ''Not all of them by any means are sponsored by companies.

In fact, quite often it's the individual taking a chance for

self-improvement because he or she feels it's worth both the cost and

the break in time to complete the programme for career reasons.''

There are part-time two- or three-year MBA programmes as well as a

full-time one-year programme. It will cost a student several thousand

pounds in fees to complete the degree.

Do many overseas students want to come to Scotland? ''They do.

Certainly the institutions here have a financial incentive to attract

them from Malaysia and Hong Kong and other non-European countries. The

income is extremely important to all the members of the association.''

A number of the association's members are actively pursuing direct

links with other institutions in Continental countries preparatory to

1992. But isn't there a danger in Scotland that our business schools are

expanding too rapidly, creating a surplus of places? ''All the evidence

I've seen shows that demand is still away ahead of supply of facilities.

All the institutions are desperately trying to get additional resources

and additional staff and computers in order to meet the excess demand

that undoubtedly now exists. I'm talking in terms of the Scottish market

and the rest of the world.''

But Scotland's business schools have not received preferential

treatment from the Universities Funding Council and other funding bodies

in this time of financial restraint. Additional support has come from

commercial sponsorship and the income generated from non-UK sources,

like overseas students.

Sir Donald McCallum, former chairman of Ferranti, is chairman of the

Scottish committee of the UFC, and was chairman of the STEAC which

criticised the Scottish Business School. Surely he's sympathetic?

''There's no question of him needing to be converted on those general

issues,'' Makower says. ''But of course his powers are limited, and the

funding is determined by the Treasury. He has very little scope to go

far.''

But the Confederation had

a constructive meeting with

Michael Forsyth last year, and the CBI has also been helpful. ''I had

extremely friendly and helpful contacts with the late and much-missed

John Davidson. Bill Hughes, then chairman of CBI Scotland, was one of

our council members in the Confederation, and recently we had a private

meeting with Sir Trevor Holdsworth, the present CBI president.''

The chairman of AMETS, Robert Reid of Shell UK, is also chairman at

the UK level of the Management Charter Initiative. Reid has involved a

wide variety of bodies, including the CBI, the Department of Trade and

Industry and the Department of Education and Science in his Charter

Initiative to try to get a strong response to the Handy

Report of 1987.

International comparison with West Germany, Japan and the US indicated

that Britain had some way to go in improving

its management development arrangements. The Management Charter

Initiative is intended to bring this about, with 30,000 individuals a

year becoming managers for the first time in the UK. ''That's a huge

number compared with the available facilities throughout the UK for

handling management programmes,'' says Makower.

AMETS, a company limited by guarantee, hopes to expand facilities

through various services to members, including organising meetings and

receptions, disseminating papers, lobbying through briefing lunches, and

assembling at least one working party.