Given the kind of “Human resource crisis” that we see in Europe today along with other parts of the world, how are you as a Rector of Bocconi University preparing for the next set of challenges?
I really connect to the underlining thought of your question, as I have seen huge challenges for the right human capital in recent years. This human capital has become more internationally mobile and of course there is a lot of competition to attract them. We are doing our best in strengthening our financial aid, scholarships, etc. and launched the Bocconi Merit awards few years back on the same lines. We are also stretching all over the world in terms of recruitment. We do have quite a number of specialized Masters programs on top of the MBA that are quite often also taken up by people planning to take a sabbatical and then rejoin the workforce after acquiring new skills. So there is some support in that respect.
Is there any way you think you can contribute in the improvement of the current job market scenario in Europe, or do you feel that once the economies improve you will automatically see more relevant jobs?
Well, you know, it’s not our task to run governments, but we do actively participate in the public policy debates. We have a number of economists at Bocconi contributing to that, and some of them are also involved in labour market reforms. We also tend to be actively supporting our graduates when they get out in the job market by leveraging our Alumni network which is significant, and we have strong partnerships with companies.
Do you feel the introduction of MOOCs would affect the delivery of classes at your University?
I am not very worried about MOOCs substituting the education process the way it is today. I think that the edu process as it is today has a number of advantages like – the networking experience, the debate and interaction you can have with faculty etc. When a major employer comes to Bocconi and recruits graduates, it doesn’t only do so because of the training and teaching that we provide to the students but because of additional reasons. We are a big selection machine wherein some way we did “select” these students amongst other candidates. Also we provide students with “experiences” via International exposures and exchange programs, double degrees, etc. So there are many such activities that we do that go beyond the simple teaching, videos, slides that you can do through an online open course. Having said that it is true that there are implications for our activities. First of all, if you provide good quality courses online, it means that what you offer on campus should be bit more than that. Secondly, we are developing our own MOOCs, because we need to learn and process the technology and be ready. We have signed an alliance with Coursera for developing and delivering our own MOOCs.