A benchmarking study of the current practices with regard to the role of the quantitative curriculum in business schools

The combined effect of many factors is forcing business schools to rethink their entire education process. As a result, many schools, including the authors' school, are reviewing various facets of the curriculum with the competing objectives of improving the effectiveness of delivery while at the same time coping with budget cuts. Among other functional areas, the College of Business at Oregon State University has been, in the spirit of Total Quality and Continuous Improvement, looking at the quantitative core (Statistics and Management Science), to determine its impact on the business curriculum. The objective was to study how the teaching effectiveness in the quantitative areas could be increased either through revamping the curriculum or through the outsourcing of these courses to other departments who have the wherewithal to provide better service. In order to better understand these issues, a benchmarking study to understand the strategies adopted by other colleges and universities for the teaching of statistics and management science was conducted. This paper describes the results of that study. Some of the contemporary issues and challenges with respect to teaching of quantitative subjects in business schools are also discussed in this paper.