The Business School: Lightening a Burdensome Load

No one has to tell students at the Harvard Business School they work hard Nights of solid study until midnight or 1 a.m. are commonplace for these aspiring executives. The work is hard and never lets up.

But this year, the B-School faculty decided that the unusually hard workload was becoming counterproductive and that the ever-increasing assignments were getting out of hand. Over the past 20 years, a faculty study found, there had been an 82 percent increase in the amount of reading required of first year students.

On March 25, the faculty unanimously approved the recommendations of two subcommittees to restructure both the first-year and the second-year programs. Changes in the first-year curriculum, effective this fall, are to include a reduction in the number of classes from 15 to 13 per week and a reduction in pages of reading. Alterations in the second year will include increased emphasis on individual research projects and a reduction from six to five requirements in the spring term. The second-year changes will take effect in the 1983-4 school year.

"We were concerned that over 20 years, without really recognizing it, we had shifted toward an emphasis more on set-up time than thinking time." Thomas R. Piper, professor of Business Administration and the chairman of the Required Course Subcommittee (RCS), which mades recommendations for the first year program, said. "We felt the balance was inefficient."

Though the changes entail reduction in class meetings and reading, officials were quick to point out that the Masters of Business Administration program would not be easier. "These changes have been misinterpreted," said Piper. "We're not reducing the workload."

Professor John Kotter, chairman of the committee that studied the second year programs agreed, saying the B-School's workload would remain for above that of most other MBA programs. "We haven't made it easy," he said early this spring. "We've changed it from impossible to hard."

The restructuring marks the biggest overhaul of the school's MBA program in more than 20 years, but officials agree the changes do not signal a substantial departure from the school's traditions or philosophy, but are in keeping with the school's beliefs and the asults of an ongoing review of the program.

The RCS report states that "A heavy work week... is consistent with the development of certain attitude and capacities that are useful in subsequent careers." But it goes on to say that "the present workload given its routinized and controlled nature is exhausting and encourages a survival mentality.

Piper says he hopes the proposal will create a balance between time students spend thinking about material and actually reading and completing assignments. "We think they'll have more time to think, and they'll be ahead for it," he says.

At least some B-School students agree that the workload changes will be beneficial and are much needed. "We had to go through a political minefield to get here," Vytas Kiselius, a second year student and member of the RCS said this spring. "Students now feel the workload and the pressure are counterproductive," he added.

But other students noted that they think the changes will hurt the MBA curriculum. "Some people think it will diminish the value of the program by making it easier," Roberta Sidney, a first year student says.

B-School officials note that the MBA program, even after the changes, will remain the most demanding in the nation. The RCS study states that the average work hours of students--about 55 hours per week--compares to an average of 48 at Stanford and 40 at the Wharton School of Business. Total class hours over the two year program will be 515 hours at the B-School, compared to an average of 400 hours at nine other schools surveyed.

The reduction in courseload in the second term of the second year is aimed at reducing conflicts and pressures during the spring recruiting period. "We found that the time consumed recruiting adds up to the equivalent of a course," Piper says.

Officials say they also hoped to make the second-year program more interesting for students, many of whom complain that the year is unproductive because the subject matter is often dull after the first year. The committee studying the second-year program stated that when second-year students were surveyed about the year, "the most commonly used adjective, by far, was 'boring.' Other often used words were 'routine' and 'repetitive'." Officials hope to diversify the program by increasing emphasis on independent study and "an explicit policy of facilitating experimentation, innovation and variety in the content and process of second year courses."

Though the proposals were passed unanimously by the B-School faculty and most students are supportive of the change, some maintain that the reforms represent only the start of a long process. "These are the first two steps of an ongoing process, Professor Richard Meyer, a member of the committee studying second year electives said this spring "The program is evolutionary is its nature," he added.

Kiselius, who formerly chaired the B-School's Student Education community agrees "If this is all, it's a waste," he says, "but the fact that they got up and did something about this curriculum is really good"