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Consistent Degree Nomenclatures
Perhaps the most important challenge facing institutions competing in the post-Bologna environment is how to migrate smoothly and effectively to a system with distinct bachelor’s and master’s stages. To succeed, institutions must create self-sufficient, stand-alone programs at both levels to attract good candidates who could then graduate with skills valued by employers. Institutions that pay lip service to bachelor’s degrees by making them an inconsequential step toward a final master’s degree might inadvertently undermine the credibility of undergraduate degrees in the eyes of employers.
A second, and far more insidious, problem surrounds naming conventions. Consistency in nomenclature can confer immense benefits if each bachelor’s, master’s, or MBA degree is roughly equivalent. However, a common naming convention could end up making comparisons across national systems problematic if degrees that share the same names are fundamentally different.
To address the question of comparability in business education, Europe needs to ensure that traditional pre-experience graduate management degrees (e.g., those leading to a master of science, master of arts, or master of something else) are not positioned as being equivalent to the MBA. Although in Europe the MBA title is almost exclusively reserved for professional, post-experiential graduate management programs, there are some schools and countries that are including pre-experiential qualifications under the MBA moniker. It is essential that a clear differentiation between the MBA and other degrees be maintained.
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