RESTON, VA--(Marketwire - July 13, 2010) - One idea. Three paragraphs. Fifty-thousand dollars.
That's the simple premise behind a global contest to find ways to change management education for the better launched today by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the nonprofit association of business schools that owns the GMAT exam. GMAC is inviting anyone to submit three paragraphs that answer this question: What one idea would improve graduate management education? The GMAC Management Education for Tomorrow (MET) Fund will award a total of US$250,000 in prizes to 15 people whose ideas rise to the top, with the most promising proposal taking home US$50,000.
GMAC will accept entries to the MET Fund's Ideas to Innovation (I2I) Challenge at www.gmacmetfund.org beginning Wednesday, July 21. The contest closes Friday, October 8, and winners will be announced in mid-December. Entries will be judged by a panel of educators and business leaders from around the world.
During phase two of the I2I Challenge, to begin in 2011, GMAC will post the winning ideas online and ask schools and other nonprofit organizations to develop ways to implement them. The Council will underwrite one or more of the best proposals using funds dedicated to the MET Fund, a $10 million initiative to invest in the development of management education worldwide.
"The Ideas to Innovation Challenge is particularly timely because today's students see business school as the place where they can learn the skills to make the world a better place and empower others," said Allen Brandt, director of the MET Fund. "In that spirit of social entrepreneurship, the Challenge is open to anyone -- students, faculty, entrepreneurs -- with a great idea to improve graduate management education."
GMAC is uniquely positioned to sponsor the I2I Challenge. As owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), the Council has spent nearly 60 years helping business schools around the world identify the strongest applicants to their MBA and other graduate management education programs. GMAC works closely with business school faculty and staff to promote the benefits of management education and supports industry-leading research aimed at helping schools identify ways to tailor their programs to the needs of students and employers.
"With the GMAT exam, GMAC helps identify talent for graduate management education, wherever in the world it may be," said GMAC President and CEO Dave Wilson. "The I2I Challenge recognizes that, like talent, true innovation may be found anywhere."
For the Challenge, GMAC defines innovation as the implementation of an idea that improves management education in a meaningful way -- for students, for schools, for societies.
The I2I Challenge is designed to make it as easy as possible for people to bring their ideas to the attention of GMAC. The Council is looking for ideas that are achievable, easily understood and able to demonstrate measureable results within a one- to three-year timeframe. GMAC is particularly interested in proposals that show potential to broadly impact management education in either a specific part of the world or globally. Complete details about the GMAC MET Fund Ideas to Innovation Challenge are at www.gmacmetfund.org. You may also follow the MET Fund on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GMACMETFund.
To view this press release and an accompanying video on the GMAC News Center, go to gmac.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=114. The video is also available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQoLt8L8BTc.
About GMAC
The Graduate Management Admission Council (www.gmac.com) is a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools worldwide dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education. GMAC is based in Reston, Virginia, and has a European office in London. The GMAT® exam was created in 1954 and is used by nearly 5,000 graduate management programs at approximately 1,900 business schools around the world to assess applicants. The GMAT -- the only standardized test designed expressly for graduate business and management programs worldwide -- is continuously available at more than 530 test centers in over 111 countries. More information about the GMAT exam is available at www.mba.com.