Last Saturday, January 28th, 2012, some MSB undergraduate students who are alumni of the French High Schools in Tunis participated at the Educational Forum held at Gustave Flaubert High School, La Marsa.

The event gathered many higher education institutions from Tunisia and France as well as representatives from the bureau of academic orientation at the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education. The main attendees were students of ‘Lycée Pierre Mendes France, Mutuelle ville’ and ‘Lycée Gustave Flaubert La Marsa’ both based in Tunis.

MSB was officially there to present its programs to the students looking for the best higher education fit. More importantly, many MSB students voluntarily came and shared their experience at the School with the prospective students at the forum making the event enriching both ways. .

Last Wednesday, January 11, a delegation from the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP), a student-run think-tank at the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, visited the new campus of MSB based at Lac II. In the past decade, this group has traveled to Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Kuwait, the UAE, Egypt, and Iraqi Kurdistan. And in its first trip to the post-revolution Tunisia, they have chosen to sit and talk with some of the staff and the students of MSB in order to learn more about the educational system and challenges in Tunisia.

They have also visited other institutions and would attend few events to research a variety of other topics including: The role of the U.S. Government's non-military aid, The role of the EU and other foreign actors in Tunisia’s economic recovery, The relationship between the police and civil society, the demise of Ben Ali's secret police and their relationship with Tunisian activists, The links between Primary Education and Democracy Building, the relationship between Tunisia's education system and economic development, The role of Secularist and Islamist politics in Tunisia, The process of drafting a new constitution, and finally a photo journalism project to document life in Tunisia. The exchange of experiences and ideas was very interesting for both sides and MSB looks forward to collaborating with the delegation on their ongoing research on Tunis.

The Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) of the South Mediterranean University (SMU), the first English-speaking university in Tunisia, celebrated the graduation of the January 2012 cohort 36 "Executive MBA" students last night at the “Palais des Congrès” in Tunis. To date, over 450 business leaders have enrolled in this program that has attracted around 20 nationalities from four continents. The event brought together employers who have sponsored the graduates, the graduates' families and alumni of MSB.

Mr. Said Aidi, Former Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, was the guest of honor at the ceremony. In his speech, Mr. Aidi emphasized the importance of quality education oriented towards the needs of businesses. While congratulating the graduates, he called on them to contribute with what they have learned during the program to meet the challenges of unemployment and help the country overcome the difficulties it faces today.

Mr. Mahmoud Triki, President of the University, said the creation of SMU reflects the commitment of its founders (Enterprises, Business Leaders and Academics) to the strategic role of knowledge in the development process of countries. He recalled that the objective of SMU is to make Tunisia an educational destination with a scientific platform and an international outreach.

In addition to the Executive MBA, MSB has opened full-time undergraduate and Master’s Programs in management studies. Next year, SMU will launch its school of engineering (The Mediterranean Institute of Technology - MEDTECH) which will specialize in two strategic areas for Tunisia, namely, "Computer Engineering" and "Renewable Energy".

"The revolution has inspired us to push the potential of Tunisia to the extreme. In line with our vision of Tunisia as a country with an international scientific influence, our vision of a new campus with state-of-the-art research centers is to develop the "Stanford of the Mediterranean". We will make the Tunis-Bizerte intersection the "Silicon Valley" of the Mediterranean and it will surely be one of the most ambitious academic projects in the Maghreb" said Mr. Triki.

In six years, MSB has gained accreditation for its MBA by the London-based body AMBA (Association of MBAs) making Tunisia the third African country to earn this recognition (South Africa, and Morocco whose program is in fact offered by the French “Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris” led by Tunisian Professor Tawfik Jelassi, founding member of MSB).

In conclusion, Mr. Triki has set a ten-year goal to make SMU on of the top 500 universities in the world. As he said with conviction “Together we will succeed”.

MSB is now receiving applications for professorship at different levels (Assistant, Associate, Professor ) in various fields of Management; for more information: http://www.msb.tn/Career.

If you are a university graduate with more than 3 years of professional experience, this is the best time for you to invest in your career and take a giant leap forward.
The Mediterranean School of Business is now accepting applications to join its prestigious Executive MBA program, cohort January 2012.
The executive MBA at MSB is a challenging, two-year program. The courses take place in a modular style over one long weekend (Thursday to Sunday) per month. The MSB Executive MBA is the first and only accredited MBA program in Tunisia – one of only three countries in Africa which have accredited MBA programs.
The professors for the Executive MBA are internationally renowned experts of their respective fields coming from the most prestigious universities in the world (University of Chicago, MIT, London Business School, INSEAD, etc.).
The program covers all the disciplines of management with an emphasis on developing leadership, teamwork and social responsibility.

Are you ready for challenge? Please call us at (+216) 71 19 44 44 or (+216) 20 428 665 for more information, or apply online at the following address: http://www.msb.tn/academics/mbaApplication

Welcome to our new full time Master program students ! They are now on-going their intensive English training before the official start of their academic program beginning of November.

MSB’s new Undergraduate students have successful finished their first phase of their MSB Undergraduate Program which is the intensive English and teambuilding activities; they are now fully equipped to work efficiently in teams and follow their management classes taught in English;

MSB obtained the authorization from the Ministry of higher Education to organize Master Degree Programs that will be launched in 2011

In the framework of its Study Abroad Programs, MSB will be hosting from October 10th to October 16th 2010 a group of 8 MBA American professionals enrolled in the PMBA program at the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina.

The Moore School of Business group elected Tunisia and MSB as a site of their traditional international one week residency course which purports to deepen student first-hand understanding of foreign cultures and business. Students will spend an academic week amidst us to gain cultural immersion in to Tunisian culture and its Mediterranean influences and follow an EMBA Module with MSB’s participants.

The Mediterranean School of Business was present yesterday at the 19th edition of Atuge Forum that was held at the Sheraton Hotel. The theme of the Forum was “Education and Employability, how to be prepared for tomorrow’s challenges”.

Several General Managers, Human Resources Managers, and representative of the public and private higher education sectors debated on best means of collaboration to respond to companies training needs. The Dean of MSB gave a speech on the importance to link education with the business world and how its direct impacts on the employability of graduates.


To know more on the Forum’s debates, please follow the link: http://www.atuge.org/forum/

Welcome to our New Manager’s MBA April 2010 Cohort!!

41 Participants representing 8 different nationalities (American, Beninese, French, German, Libyan, Sudanese, Tunisian and Ugandan) from public, private sectors, and international organizations: This is the latest blend of MSB’s EMBA cohort!

After postponing the launch of our EMBA cohort due to the Volcano Ash, MSB’s new cohort finally got to embark in their EMBA adventure with their first module of Teambuilding. Pr. Bob Marx and his team made sure that these 41 participants stand from now on as one strong team for the upcoming modules.

Stay tuned for other MSB news!

MSB celebrates its new partnership with Moore School of Business

The Mediterranean School of Business is proud to announce the signing of an agreement with Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina (USC) on May 03, 2010. The school is ranked number 1 in the undergraduate international business specialty in the survey of ‘America’s Best Colleges’” (US News & World Report).

Our Dean Mahmoud Triki and Dr. Harris Pastides, USC President agreed on a collaborative program between their respective institutions that offers MSB undergraduate students the possibility to transfer to USC at the end of their second year at MSB provided they meet USC admission requirements.

With the launch of MSB’s undergraduate programs scheduled in September 2010, the agreement represents an important step into globalizing the undergraduate curriculum providing an opportunity for MSB students to get an international academic experience and credentials.

Congratulations to our Newly Graduates EMBA April 2008!

MSB commemorates its second graduation ceremony of the year and congratulates the April 2008 cohort of the Manager’s MBA for their success in the Executive MBA program. The graduation ceremony took place on Monday April 19, 2010 at Karthago Le Palace, Gammarth. The ceremony was inaugurated by our Dean Dr. Mahmoud Triki and was followed by a reception where graduates, their families and their sponsoring companies along with MSB alumni, guest speakers, and partner companies gathered.

Due to the volcano eruptions in Iceland, some of our guest speakers, Dr. Dennis Hanno, Dean of Babson College, an MSB partner and the number one college in entrepreneurship and Dr. Tawfik Jelassi, Visiting professor at MSB and Dean of ENPC International School of Management, Paris were not able to travel to Tunis and participate in the graduation ceremony.

MSB was nonetheless able to project a video of Dr. Dennis Hanno’s speech on entrepreneurship and the power and control that education gives you. It is also the first time since the inception of the Manager’s MBA at MSB that Dr. Tawfik Jelassi was unable to attend the ceremony. Dr. Jelassi expressed his pride of the graduates’ achievement. He asserted further to the significance of Innovation and Technology in today’s business and entrepreneurship at a time where Tunisia has been ranked 1st in Africa by the Davos World Economic Forum in this field: “This shows that our country is not anymore just a touristic destination but has also become a technology destination”

This sixth graduation ceremony comes also at a special time where MSB celebrates the international accreditation of its Manager’s MBA by the London-based Association of MBA (AMBA). The AMBA accreditation asserts the outstanding quality of our program making it comparable to the most prestigious EMBA programs in the world. MSB’s EMBA is the fifth MBA in Africa to receive international accreditation. This is a great achievement and yet still is to be done to continuously reach higher levels of excellence. Together with its newly graduates and future participants, MSB is looking forward to building up the reputation of its Manager’s MBA and to further enhance its quality.

The Manager’s MBA is now internationally accredited by the Association of MBAs

MSB is proud to annnounce a very important achievement for the school: the Manager’s MBA is now officially accredited by the International Accreditation Body Associations of MBAs.

MSB thanks and congratulations go to all of those who made this possible. In fact, this accreditation is the result of a team effort involving the participants of the various cohorts, the faculty and the MSB support staff.

All of us should be proud that as for today, the Mediterranean School of Business is the Fifth School in Africa to have an AMBA Accredited MBA Program and is part of 169 AMBA Accredited programs worldwide.

To know more about the Association of MBAs you may visit their website www.mbaworld.com.

MSB has signed a Memorandum of Collaboration with HDSC (Horizons Development and Studies Consultancy) for the joint organization of executive development programs in Libya.

SMU has designated Sally Debbagh as Director of Development for the promotion of SMU’s activities in Libya. Besides her corporate activities at SMU, the real Sally Debbagh will devote special efforts to develop SMU’s activities in Libya. For enquiries, Sally can be contacted at her email address as follows: sally.debbagh@msb-online.org

MSB announces the launching of a new EMBA 2010 program with 50 participants, executives with various educational backgrounds ranging from engineering, management, and medicine, and working in different sectors but mainly IT, pharmaceutical industry, banking, energy, and health care. Our participants attended yesterday an orientation session which outlined the program content and facilities and joined us to the welcome reception. Early morning today, they headed to Jerba for their first offsite module: Team building with Professor Bob Marx and his team. Our EMBA January 2010 cohort will also have the chance to meet and interact with their EMBA predecessors during the graduation ceremony of EMBA 2008 cohort to be held on Monday January 18th at l'Acropolium de Carthage - Tunis. Again MSB welcomes our new MBA participants and wishes them best of luck in this life-changing learning experience! click here for google

Twelve undergraduate engineering and business administration students from University of Maryland (UMD) participated in a one week Study Abroad Program (SAP) on doing business in the MENA region. This fourth SAP edition took place from January 3rd till January 10 2010 at the Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) at South Mediterranean University (SMU) and attests to the growing credibility of our SAP program and school abroad. The program offered a large blend of courses, site visits, and cultural activities. The six day intensive program was an opportunity for UMD students to build up their business knowledge of the MENA region in general and of Tunisia in particular. From exploring the MENA FDI Trends and metrics for quality management in Tunisia to the comparison of the different MENA economies and the examination of business opportunities in the region, the program touched upon key components of the MENA business, unveiled the business cultures in the region, and discussed challenges, opportunities, and prospects of conducting business in MENA. Diverse and interactive learning approaches (lectures, case studies, group study, and round tables) have been adopted throughout the program giving participants the opportunity to approach the subject matter in a variety of ways. Onsite company visits to Eurocast, Tunis Sport City, and Van Laak illustrated the multifaceted business experiences in Tunisia and allowed participants to immerse into business in Tunisia. Our highly knowledgeable faculty and guest speakers from an array of academic, professional, and national backgrounds imparted their expertise drawn from a variety of experiences as well as their professional standpoints on the reality and prospects of business practices in the MENA region paving the way for our SAP participants to develop a critical appraisal of the business situation in the MENA region. SAP participants also had a thrilling cultural immersion with organized visits of historical sights and museums, the experience of Tunisian culinary tastes, and a tea sipping moment in the laid back ambiance of Sidi Bou Said. Our SAP students mastered the art of bargaining and made great deals during a unique shopping experience in the Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of old city Tunis. We wish to thank all faculty members, guest speakers, and companies who kindly and promptly responded to our invitation to participate in our program. UMD students and faculty displayed intellectual curiosity and an open mind in dealing with novel educational and cultural approaches are already looking forward to coming back to SMU and Tunis.

New PRIME Program to begin in November 2009

Dr. Nickolaos G. Travlos, Dean of Alba Graduate Business School, visited MSB to explore possibilities of collaboration between the two schools. Alba was created in 1992 and shares the same mission as MSB which is to educate visionary leaders capable of anticipating change and be among the first movers in the market. Alba is a private institution offering graduate programs in management. It has been agreed that the two institutions will organize jointly short term executive programs both in the Maghreb countries and in Greece.
http://www.alba.edu.gr

MSB had the pleasure to host thirteen Members of the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) during their Overseas Study Tour.
These tours provide their members (senior and influential group from a wide variety of nations and cultures) an opportunity to examine contemporary international issues.
During their MSB visit, they had a brief presentation of the school, a guided tour of the facilities and enjoyed interesting discussions on how higher education can promote economic development and prosperity.

An agreement between MSB and ATB had been established to provide low-rate loans available for those who look for other sources to finance their MBA program.
Applicants need to provide a recommendation letter from MSB to be eligible for this loan.
This will also overcome the obstacles generated by new restrictive measures in the access to TFP.
For details, please visit http://www.msb-online.org/Funding .

Babson College was founded in 1919 by financier and entrepreneur Roger W. Babson. It is located in Wellseley, Massachussetts. It is ranked #1 for Entrepreneurship by U.S. News & World Report's 2008 "Best Colleges in America" and a leader in management education and entrepreneurial leadership. Dean Hanno has strong expertise in teaching, research, and outreach in the accounting discipline. He is an award winning teacher who is known for his innovative curriculum as well as his in-depth work on the assessment of student learning.

MSB Team welcomes all new participants of the EMBA April 09 program to the Mediterranean School of Business. An Orientation Session will take place on Wednesday April 22nd, 2009 at 18:30 at MSB during which participants will get information and documents about the program as well as the materials of their first course “Team Building” which will take place in Mahdia from Thursday April 23rd to Sunday April 26th, 2009 with Professor Robert Marx:   
  http://www.isenberg.umass.edu/management/Faculty/Profiles/Robert_Marx/  
The Orientation session will be followed by a reception. We, MSB team will do our best to make this experience a memorable one for all of new participants.

MSB is very proud to announce the recent nomination of Kamel Jedidi (Professor and chair of the Marketing division at Columbia University, and among MSB is founding and visiting faculty) the inaugural John A. Howard Professor of Business. 

Hubbard, R. Glenn, the Dean of Columbia University, states:
"The John A. Howard Professorship of Business was established by Columbia Business School this year. John A. Howard taught at Columbia Business School from 1963 to 1985, during which time he effectively transformed the School into a global center for marketing research. He conducted some of the foundational research in his field, found in his classic textbook, Marketing Management (1957), and developed a widely used model for buyer behavior. A highly regarded teacher and scholar, Professor Howard passed away in 1999.

Kamel Jedidi joined Columbia Business School as an assistant professor in the Marketing division in 1987. After a brief stint as an assistant professor at the University of Tunis in Tunisia from 1990 to 1991, he returned to the School in 1992, and was promoted to associate professor in 1993. In 1999, he was again promoted to the rank of professor, and was elected by his colleagues to chair the Marketing division in 2006, a position he maintains. Kamel has also been a visiting professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University from 2005 to 2006, and a visiting associate professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the spring of 2007. He earned a PhD in marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, as well as an MA in statistics (1987) and an MA in marketing (1986) from the same institution, where he was an American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium Fellow in 1987. He earned a BSc in business economics from the Faculté des Sciences Economiques de Tunis in Tunisia in 1982, and was the valedictorian of his class, winning an award from the Tunisian president for outstanding scholastic achievement.

Kamel's research interests lie in the areas of market segmentation, customer-based product design and positioning, and product management. He has co-authored a number of papers in these areas that have appeared in leading journals. Currently, his focus is turning toward branding and internet marketing, two timely and important topics. With regard to branding, he aims to develop reliable and valid measures of brand equity both at the consumer and firm levels. Kamel's research on internet marketing aims to study the marketing effectiveness of the paid search by building an empirical model to answer several managerial questions, such as how much a marketer should bid for a keyword and whether different keywords affect different aspects of consumer behavior.

Kamel's exceptional accomplishments in research and teaching, as well as his relationships with external constituencies and leadership within his field, are a credit to the School and the University, befitting his appointment to the John A. Howard Professorship of Business."

 

MSB participated in the 2nd International Fair for the development of Human Resources held at Palais des Expositions du Kram from Thursday, November 13, 2008 to Saturday, November 15, 2008.

MSB participated for the second time at the Access MBA Tour, Meet up of the World's Top Business Schools Tour, held in Paris on September 27th 2008; for more details on the event.
Please visit the website:
http://www.accessmba.com/mba-events/access-mba-tour/paris-september-27/index.html

The Mediterranean School of Business is proud to host Professor Catherine Cramton, Associate Professor of Management at Georges Mason University for the fall 2008 academic semester. Professor Cramton has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and do research at the MSB during the semester. For more information please visit http://som.gmu.edu/announcement.asp?announceid=142

5pm on Thursday October 9, 2008 held at MSB,
The orientation session is followed by a reception. The reception is open to current PRIME students, their parents and any potential candidate interested in the next PRIME cohort scheduled to begin in April.

Globalisation de l'éducation et promotion de la Tunisie

« Contribuer à la promotion de la Tunisie à l'étranger et faire de notre pays une destination éducationnelle. »

Une importante délégation d'étudiants de la George Mason University (Etats-Unis) a séjourné récemment en Tunisie où elle a suivi à la Mediterranean School of Business (South Mediterranean University) une formation en Technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC). Ce programme d'études a permis à ces étudiants d'avoir une idée sur les spécificités économiques et socioculturelles de la Tunisie et sur le potentiel des TIC en tant que secteur d'investissement pour les entreprises étrangères. Pour en savoir plus sur cette expérience et son intérêt pour la promotion de la Tunisie aux Etats-Unis, nous avons rencontré Madame Rym Kaki, directeur des Programmes internationaux à la Mediterranean School of Business (MSB). Entretien.

L'Economiste Maghrébin : Un groupe d'étudiants américains vient d'effectuer un séjour d'une semaine en Tunisie. Quelles sont les raisons de cette visite ? Et pourquoi le choix de la Tunisie?

Dr. Rym Kaki : Il s'agit d'un groupe d'étudiants d' Executive MBA de la George Mason University, la plus grande université publique de l'Etat de Virginie (Etats-Unis). Il est important de rappeler que la majorité des universités américaines prévoient dans leurs programmes qu'une partie des études (un cours ou une partie d'un cours) soit effectuée dans un pays étranger. L'objectif visé par ces universités est d'assurer l'internationalisation de leurs programmes et de permettre à leurs étudiants une expérience d'immersion académique et socioculturelle à l'échelle internationale. C'est dans ce cadre que s'inscrit le programme de formation des étudiants de la George Mason University qui a été organisé par la Mediterranean School of Business (MSB).

- Qu'est-ce qui a motivé la Mediterranean School of Business (MSB) à organiser ce programme?

- Trois facteurs importants ont amené la MSB à développer l'activité de recevoir des étudiants nord-américains :

- D'abord, il y a l'importance du marché. En effet, plus de 220 000 étudiants américains quittent annuellement leur pays pour effectuer une partie de leur formation universitaire à l'étranger. Ce programme est communément appelé « Study Abroad Program ».

- Ensuite, il s'agit de contribuer à la promotion de la Tunisie à l'étranger et de faire de notre pays une destination éducationnelle. En effet, la Tunisie jouit de plusieurs atouts lui permettant d'attirer une partie de ce marché et d'être une destination éducative de référence pour les étudiants américains désireux de mieux connaître les pays du Maghreb et du Moyen Orient (MENA). Parmi ces atouts, il y a lieu de citer la position stratégique de la Tunisie.