An egalitarian Business School?

The remarkable growth story of Maynooth University School of Business since its foundation in 2008 is firmly rooted in its values and a mindset which has seen it take a refreshing approach to business education.

Those values, centred around egalitarianism, inclusivity, a balance of research and practice informed education, and sustainability, have seen the school eschew the traditional points race measure of success and instead pursue excellence through diversity of people and thought.

That approach has seen Maynooth emerge as Ireland’s fastest growing business school by some distance over the past six years. The school has also established itself among the world’s top 20% of business schools when measured by academic journal publications and their impact.

“Our values drive everything we do,” says Head of School Professor Peter McNamara. “Our egalitarian value means that we want to have people from different backgrounds in the school. We are very conscious of the CAO points race in that regard. We actually want the points requirements for our programmes to remain constant or slightly down, not up. We have succeeded in that goal, through growth in places, and this has enabled students from a variety of different backgrounds to study with us. We also provide a number of different entry points to our programmes to increase opportunities for people.”

This reflects Maynooth University’s position as a national leader in attracting and retaining students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented populations.

“A musician may not want to be a businessperson but might want to understand business to help them have a sustainable career,” notes Prof McNamara. “It also allows business students work with the diversity of arts students and that exposes them to different viewpoints and thinking. For example, our students can take a degree in International Business and mix with it 22 other Arts subjects. That variety of choice is not available anywhere in Ireland.”

The school’s growth story has been little short of extraordinary. To put that in context, the school started out with 213 full time equivalent students in 2008. That number now stands at 2,370 and is still rising. The growth in faculty numbers has been equally if not more impressive, rising from just six at the outset to 64 today with 14 new academic staff hired during the pandemic. That rapid growth has enabled the school to attract some of the most talented, young, fresh-thinking business academics in their fields from around the world.

This is where the Maynooth School of Business Living Lab comes into play. This is where students can apply learning to practical industry problems. “The Living Lab incorporates features of experiential learning,” Cushen adds. “Students get to work on real industry cases. Sometimes this involves an industry partner coming into the classroom and explaining what they need. The problem solving process can be undecided and the route to the endpoint can be unclear. The students work on the problem, develop a way forward, bring it to the client, and get their feedback.”

The school’s research activity is also firmly rooted in practicality, says Andreeva. “Our researchers are looking at drivers of performance in organisations and what can make it better. But we are not just focusing on business organisation. This includes some very exciting research into how the healthcare system and public service organisations can be managed better.” The link with the real world of business has been copper-fastened by the establishment of the Industry Advisory Council chaired by Deloitte Consulting Partner and Maynooth University alumnus David Reynolds. “To amplify the industry connections of our lecturers and bring the voice of industry into the development of the school we set up an Industry Advisory Council,” McNamara explains. “We have a wonderful group of 28 people including senior executives from multinationals, the financial institutions, the third sector and business founders, on the council. It offers both practical advice and access to industry contacts, infusing our education with an industry perspective.”

The Council involves itself in mentoring students and in the work of the Living Lab as well as a range of other activities. “Members can do the mentoring themselves or reach out into their own network to find other people to do it. We are creating a structure for that. We are also helping with the design of the Living Lab and tapping directly into our networks to get companies to participate. We want to put the School of Business on the map and create more profile for it internationally. We want to leave something enduring behind for the school and I would encourage other alumni and businesses to get involved.”