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Off to a great start: MIT Sloan-Portugal Program closes chapter on first year

As the MIT Sloan-Portugal program heads into its second year, Faculty Director Paul Osterman and Program Director Jonathan Lehrich are delighted with how the program is shaping up. The primary focus of this five-year initiative is to assist two Portuguese schools—the School of Economics and Business at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the School of Economics and Management at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa—with their goal of strengthening their capacity in business education and management science and to launch a new, world-class degree offering, the Lisbon MBA. The program is also designed to provide an opportunity for MIT Sloan faculty members to continue to broaden their exposure to new global business developments and challenges.

In its first year, the program’s entering class consisted of 32 students, 25 percent of whom hailed from countries other than Portugal, including the United States, Brazil, China, and India. This intelligent and engaging group of students was a great complement to the high caliber of the Portugal faculty that participated in the program. A total of seven international faculty fellows (IFFs) visited MIT Sloan in June to take part in the summer session. Osterman and Lehrich expect six or more IFFs to visit Cambridge each summer over the remaining four years of the program.

Educating each other

In addition to the IFFs, all 32 students spent 17 days in June at the MIT Sloan campus to attend three targeted classes: Global Markets and Strategy, Managing Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Global Compliance and Ethical Issues.

But education in the MIT Sloan-Portugal Program comes from more than the coursework—and for more than the students. Through the program, MIT Sloan faculty are exposed to the business realities of an area of the world with which they may not have been familiar. While teaching a module on business law and compliance for managers, MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer John Akula found that because of their extensive backgrounds, the Lisbon MBA students had remarkable insights on the differences between U.S. and Portuguese legal issues. Sharing such information provides both faculty and students with knowledge that enables them to better understand global economic and business practices.

Making the grade

A longer-term objective of the MIT Sloan-Portugal Program is for it to be included in the Financial Times rankings of the best management programs available. Although ranking requires programs to be in existence for a minimum of three years, Osterman and Lehrich are confident that with the initiative’s success to date, it is on track to earn a place on this important list.

Learning how best to manage an international program of this kind is as critical to its success as the quality of the courses and faculty. To that end, staff members from the Portugal schools have received advice from MIT Sloan staff on marketing, admissions, career services, and student affairs—all of the elements necessary to make a management program of this type operate effectively.

The MIT-Portugal Program has had a great start and a promising foundation for the next four years. Osterman and Lehrich are both pleased to report that next year’s class is increasing from 32 to 40 students. This news, along with the excitement and commitment of all those taking part in the program both in Cambridge and abroad, suggests that with MIT Sloan’s help, the Lisbon MBA is well on its way to becoming a world-class international program.