Marquis Argues for Business School Reinvention Over Abolition, Citing Curriculum and Incentive Failures
Christopher Marquis, a Cambridge Judge Business School professor, clarifies that his recent New York Times essay calling to 'abolish' business schools was intended to provoke reinvention rather than closure. He argues that current MBA programs fail to sustain student altruism, often abandoning initial goals within 14 weeks due to cultural pressures and high costs. Marquis proposes a new model based on the University of Vermont’s Sustainable Innovation MBA, which integrates social impact into all courses. He also advocates for changing faculty incentives to prioritize real-world impact over academic publishing, similar to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework. While acknowledging that business schools will not disappear, he emphasizes the need for systemic changes in curriculum design and hiring practices to address long-term existential crises like climate change and inequality.