Dr. Nagraj 鈥淩aju鈥� Balakrishnan broke in his new office space and took a break with a latte from the nearby Starbucks to discuss how the experience he gained as dean of the University of Michigan - Dearborn College of Business can fuel change at UBalt.
Q: How do you hope to build upon the Merrick School of Business鈥� success to best serve today鈥檚 and future generations of students?
A: The Merrick School obviously has a strong record of success in the past, so there鈥檚 no need to really reinvent the wheel here. What we need to do is to continue focusing on a couple of things.
First, we need to ensure that our curriculum and what we are offering our students both inside and outside the classroom always stays current and relevant, because business is changing very rapidly. We need to ensure that our students are always being exposed to the latest technologies and getting cutting edge information that is going to be of service to them, not just now, but down the road.
The second thing we need to have is a razor-sharp focus on student success. That鈥檚 got to be our No. 1 priority in almost anything we do. And how do we define student success? Everybody has their own definitions; I look at it from three perspectives: Once we get the student in, what are we doing to make sure we are retaining them while giving them the best possible education? What are we doing to make sure that they are graduating in a timely manner? And what are we doing to ensure that they have that perfect job when they graduate, which is why they joined us in the first place?
Q: Business, as a whole, has long been seen as the best pathway toward a stable career. With opportunities here in information technology, data analysis, and STEM, our business school is well equipped to develop a well-rounded student. Based on your own experiences, what would you advise students to consider when they鈥檙e choosing their major? And how do you think they can make the most of their college experience here?
A: There are several things that go into play there. In today鈥檚 business environment, nothing is a silo. You can鈥檛 just say I know accounting and that鈥檚 all I know, or I know marketing and that鈥檚 all I know. Everything interacts with everything else. I would advise students, when they are pursuing any degree, particularly a business degree, to take a more holistic approach. You can鈥檛 be masters of everything, but also don鈥檛 ignore certain things because you don鈥檛 think it is going to be relevant. At the end of the day, no matter what job you take, you鈥檙e going to end up working with other people and eventually managing other people, and you need to understand how that fits in. You need to have that holistic attitude.
Second, today鈥檚 world is dominated by technology, and it is going to be increasingly dominated by technology. So embrace technology, learn how to use it, to make your work that much more efficient, that much more effective. Third, look at the amount of data that we are generating on a daily basis. Students need to learn how to collect and organize the data, how to analyze it, and how to make sense of the information they get from that analysis.
Those, I think, are the kinds of skills that are going to set business students apart. As we review and update our own curriculum, we need to ensure that students are exposed to these skill sets so that when they graduate from the Merrick School and University of 极乐禁地e, they can go out to a prospective employer and say, 鈥業 know how these things work in today鈥檚 environment and I鈥檓 ready to use it effectively in the workplace.鈥�
In conjunction with that, I also advise students very strongly to go just beyond the business discipline. What I mean by that is, you want critical thinking skills, you want problem solving skills. I encourage considering a minor in a non-business field. I鈥檓 a big advocate of people going beyond their major. Historically, schools have been very protective of turf and if you鈥檙e a business student, we have wanted you to do everything within the school. I think that鈥檚 a disservice. We don鈥檛 have the capability to develop every resource on our own and I鈥檇 like to leverage resources that are available in other places at UBalt.
Q: How do you think today鈥檚 students can use the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) to their advantage, so they thrive in a world where it dominates and aren鈥檛 sidelined by it?
A: AI is here to stay. And its role in society, its role in every aspect of all jobs, is going to increase. We talk here about ChatGPT all the time. I think the worst thing we can do as educators is to try and ban students from using AI. To say, oh, no, no, you鈥檙e going to cheat by using AI so we don鈥檛 want you to use AI. I think that鈥檚 a great disservice.
Now, it鈥檚 going to be challenging for us as educators because we鈥檙e going to have to change our own mindset, how we teach, how we assess, but if we can show students how AI can be a powerful tool to enhance their performance, then the student will really understand that AI is a complement to their work and not a replacement for their work. The student is going to bring things to the job that AI cannot.
