The Integrated Curriculum: Bridging Rigor and Relevance

Abstract

Higher education institutions, especially business schools, face the challenge of integrating academic rigor and managerial relevance into their curriculums. These are being criticized for being too static; failing to provide marketing students essential professional competencies (such as leadership and teamwork skills) and the contemporary industry knowledge needed to navigate their future professional life. We propose a novel approach to overcome the dichotomy of such rigor and relevance with an ‘integrated curriculum’ approach; where current industry topics and challenges are presented alongside subject content, and teaching is delivered together by academics and industry representatives...