The Internationalization of the Business Administration Curricula in Arab Universities

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The Internationalization ofthe Business AdministrationCurricula in Arab UniversitiesAhmed Abdel-Rahman Ahmed Wharton PhD aa Department of Management and Marketing,College of Business Administration , KuwaitUniversityPublished online: 25 Sep 2008.

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The Internationalizationof the Business Administration Curricula

in Arab Universities

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Ahmed

ABSTRACT. This is a study of the extent of the internationalization ofthe business administration curricula in Arab universities. It is based ona survey of 110 Arab colleges of business that comprise more than halfof the overall population, 35% of whom responded. The study found thatArab colleges of business appear to be only moderately international-ized in their curricula, that they do have future plans incorporatinginternationalization, and that offering specialized IB courses is thenorm. As to impediments, the lack of adequate staff is the most fre-quently mentioned obstacle. The study points to its own limitations.doi:10.1300/J066v18n01_06 [Article copies available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address:<[email protected]> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>© 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Arab universities, colleges, internationalization, curric-ula, business administration

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Ahmed is a Wharton PhD, currently Professor, Departmentof Management and Marketing, College of Business Administration, Kuwait University.

The author wishes to acknowledge the full financial support of Kuwait UniversityOffice of the V/President for Research (Project # IM01/04) and the Arab Org. for Adm.Dev. for availing the author of their deans mailing list. The author is also grateful toProfessor C.P. Rao who read an earlier version of the manuscript and to Dr. LarryPleshko for helping with statistical analysis, both of Kuwait U. Bus. School.

Journal of Teaching in International Business, Vol. 18(1) 2006Available online at http://jtib.haworthpress.com

© 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1300/J066v18n01_06 89

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INTRODUCTION

The rapid globalization of the world economies needs no prove. Totalworld exports have grown more than a hundredfold in the second halfof the twentieth century, from 50 billions dollars worth in 1950 to 6trillions in 2000 (UNCTAD 1992, 2002). Likewise, the flow of worldtotal foreign direct investment (FDI) grew from 82 billions dollarsworth in 1982 to around 1100 billions in 2000 (UNCTC, 2004). Portfo-lio investment, franchising and licensing show similar trends. The pro-cess shows no signs of abating in the twenty-first century. This is sobecause the forces that started the process in the first place, removal ofbarriers to trade and FDI, technology and economic liberalization, arestill strong. Countries are, therefore, more sensitive to their interna-tional competitiveness and are aligning their economic and social poli-cies accordingly. In the field of education that translates into, amongother things, the internationalization of the business administrationcurricula in universities.

The emphasis of this paper, therefore, is on this curricula internation-alization as many believe it to be detrimental to the competitiveness ofany country. Actually a number of studies have argued the importanceof the internationalization of the business administration curricula.Beamish and Jonathan (1989) did so in the case of Canadian companies’managers. Serey et al. (1989) believe the lack of attention to interna-tional studies was detrimental to the US competitiveness in the 1980s.Hoffman et al. (1994) on the other hand, believe it is in the forefront ofAmerican business executives’ minds. Cavusgil (1993) argues for moreinternationalization in the US business schools. Voris (1997) believesit is the wave of the future. Keida et al. (2001) argue that businessschools have a special role in inculcating the global mindset, skills, andknowledge base in the minds of the future business leaders. And theAmerican Assembly of Collegiate Business Schools has made interna-tionalization of the business curricula a condition for its accreditationsince 1974 (see Kwok et al., 1994).

We are especially interested in the situation in Arab universities andhow they generally fare in this regard by comparison with other regionsof the world. The specific questions we address are:

1. What is the extent of the internationalization of the businessadministration curricula in the various world regions?

2. How are Arab economies faring in the globalization processtaking place?

90 JOURNAL OF TEACHING IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

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3. What is the level of internationalization of the business adminis-tration curricula in Arab universities?

4. Among Arab universities what are the characteristics of the col-leges that are more internationalized in their business curricula?

5. Do Arab universities have plans for more internationalization?

METHODOLOGY

To answer the first question we will depend on library sources togauge the extent from survey studies conducted on the issue. The pur-pose is to get a bird’s eye-view of the situation so that we can view theArab universities situation against that light. For the second question wewill examine some macro-variables to ascertain the extent of the Arabcountries dependence on their foreign sectors and the countries’ degreeof international competitiveness. We will also look at some other vari-ables that call for curricula internationalization in Arab universities.

For the remaining questions we will rely on the statistical analysis ofdata from a survey conducted for this study.

INTERNATIONALIZATION IN VARIOUS REGIONS

In this section we try to get a bird’s eye-view of the extent of interna-tionalization of the business administration curricula in various regionsof the world.

Many studies have been conducted on various regions of the world toassess the extent of internationalization of the business curricula inregions’ schools. The Academy of International Business conducts onesuch study every few years the latest of which was done in 2000 cover-ing mostly American and European colleges (Kwok & Arpan, 2002). Anumber of other studies on US universities were done too, (Efendioglu,1989), Fleming et al. (1993), Manuel et al. (2001), and Adams et al.(2003). Guthery et al. (1993) studied the situation in Latin America.Finally, Sui and Chan (1991), and Zimmerman and Fey (2001) lookedat the situation in China.

The findings of these studies reflect the extent of the internationaliza-tion of the business curricula in those regions. Four levels of interna-tionalization have been identified. These are: (1) “infusion” where thereare no special courses in international business (IB), but the regularcourses are “infused” with a small dose of the international dimension

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Ahmed 91

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like the mentioning of risk in dealing with foreign exchange or culturalanecdotes in talking about foreign consumers, (2) offering a general IBsurvey course that may be optional or obligatory to all business students,(3) offering one or more specialized courses, for example, internationalmarketing or international finance, and (4) offering a major in IB alongwith other majors offered. Of course these different levels serve differentpurposes from the mere awareness of the existence of differences in theconduct of business from country to country, to understanding the causesof the differences, all the way to learning how to deal with those differ-ences. In addition, students may be required to learn a foreign languageor take a study trip abroad. Given this understanding we can now look atwhat the different surveys found.

The Academy of International Business (AIB) survey is the mostcomprehensive and is done every ten years. The fifth survey, donein 1993, (Kwok et al., 1994) covered 1233 universities that includedAmerican, (almost two-thirds of the sample), European, Latin American,and Asian ones, including three Arab universities. Forty-five percent ofthem responded. The study found that 57% of the universities hadwritten objectives in which internationalization was included. They alsofound “infusion” to be adopted by 74% and that 84% offer specializedcourses at the undergraduate level, 24% of them offer an IB majorand that 13% offer a double major with IB as one of its two compo-nents. At the graduate level, they found similar percentages. In its latestand sixth survey, the AIB study found an increase in the extent ofinternationalization in almost every aspect including arrangements withoutside organizations, the teachers interests and a higher degree ofsatisfaction among academic staff as to the degree of internationaliza-tion achieved. (Kwok & Arpan, 2002).

In comparing between American and European universities, Kwokand Arpan (1994) found European universities to have achieved a higherlevel than American universities in that they offered more options andmajors and that the European universities staff were more internation-ally oriented. This is usually attributed to the colonial experience of Eu-ropean countries and their greater dependence on foreign trade than theUS. Efendioglu in a 1988 study of American universities, found two-thirds of the 105 universities he studied had IB programs at the under-graduate level and 29 of them offered an undergraduate IB major. Flem-ing and others (1993) also studied American universities and found that25% of them had established IB programs while another 45% had IB pro-grams under preparation in 1992. The same group of scholars (Manuel,


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2001) updated their study at the close of the century and found the inter-nationalization trend to be strengthening in American colleges.

In Europe there is Paul et al. study of 1989 that found ratios of bet-ween 33% and 44% in the Benelux countries and Britain, respectively,offering an IB undergraduate major. In Latin America, Guthery and oth-ers surveyed thirty one institutions in twelve countries and found 25 ofthem that is, 89%, had IB programs at the undergraduate or the masterslevel in the early 1990s (Guthery et al., 1993). They feel that LatinAmerican IB programs are not any less than North American programs,noting that many of them were actually started by US universities. Theauthors also feel that internationalization started in Latin Americaduring the seventies and eighties.

A 1991 study found internationalization prevalent in China thentoo, only that it was viewed as rudimentary and more vocational thanprofessional (Sui & Chan, 1991). A more recent study, though, doneabout Shanghai University found a much more sophisticated approach(Zimmerman & Fey, 2001). The City University of Hong Kong hasgone beyond internationalizing the curricula and is now on an activecampaign to diversity its student body according to its News Bulletin(2006). A study of Saudi Arabia by Alali and Ahmed(1999), found fourof its seven universities at the time had some level of internationaliza-tion. One, (King Saud University) offered an IB major, another (KingFahd U) offered specialized courses in IB. Two more offered a surveycourse . No other study on Arab universities was available to this author.

As the various surveys showed, the internationalization of the busi-ness curricula is taking hold in many nations of the world just aseconomic globalization is engulfing the world. The Americas andEurope in particular have already achieved substantial progress in thisregard. Asia is catching up and China is getting more sophisticated inits approach.

As far as Arab universities are concerned, not much is known. Butbefore looking at that, we need to look at some of the macro-variables atwork in Arab countries calling for internationalization

THE ARAB COUNTRIES AND GLOBALIZATION

Extent of Dependence on Foreign Markets. Arab countries are particu-larly dependent on foreign markets for their livelihood. While for manyadvanced countries, like the US and Japan, their export sector contributes10-20% of their GDP, for Arab countries the ratio is particularly high,


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reaching 80% in some cases. Table 1 below bears this out. Such highdependence on the foreign sector necessitates the creation of cadres ofexecutives with the international mindset and the training of graduatesin business in general and international business in particular so as toimprove the performance of the foreign trade sector.

Competitiveness of Arab Countries. In a conference on Globalizationand Arab Management, Nabli calculated the per capita exports of anumber of Arab countries and compared it with that of countries havingsimilar populations like Portugal. He hence concluded that per capitaArab exports were far weaker by comparison (Nabli, 1997). Nowadays,countries are ranked in terms of their competitiveness calculated withreference to their respective economic policies, resources and the effi-ciency of their usage. The Arab Planning Institute recently calculatedsuch an index for each Arab country. This is shown in Table 2.


TABLE 1. Arab Exports as a Percentage of GDP

Country 1996 2000 2003

All Arab Countries 30 35 46

Jordan 26 22 34

UAE 78 69 80

Bahrain 77 78 69

Tunisia 28 30 34

Algeria 28 40 38

Djibouti 8 14 38

Saudi Arabia 38 41 50

Sudan 9 16 17

Syria 24 27 22

Iraq 1 17 44

Oman 48 57 54

Qatar 42 70 63

Kuwait 48 54 52

Lebanon 8 4 9

Lybia 29 35 75

Egypt 7 7 16

Morocco 19 23 19

Mauritania 45 35 30

Yemen 39 40 36

Source: Percentages calculated by the author from figures provided in The Consolidated Arab EconomicReport, 2005 put by The Arab Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi, 2005.

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It is clear from the table that almost all Arab countries have a lowcompetitiveness index. Only three had an overall index value greaterthan 50% and all are far behind emerging and newly industrializedcountries like Korea and Malaysia (shown in Table).

Thus we have heavy dependence on foreign markets on one hand anda weak export sector performance on the other hand. This is all the morereason for Arab universities to infuse their business administrationcurricula with a large dose of internationalization to make the countriesmore competitive.

Arab Money Abroad. Arab countries depend heavily on foreignmarkets in another way. They have substantial amounts of money in-vested abroad in both direct and portfolio investment. Recently theArab Labor Organization estimated the figure at 1.2 trillions dollarsworth (Asharq Alawsat 12/10/2003). For individual countries we have a


TABLE 2. Arab Countries International Competitiveness

Country OverallCompetitiveness

Index

PotentialCompetitiveness

Index

CurrentCompetitiveness

Index

Algeria 0.37 0.30 0.43

Jordan 0.43 0.33 0.53

UAE 0.53 0.47 0.59

Bahrain 0.55 0.52 0.58

Saudi Arabia 0.42 0.34 0.49

Sudan 0.23 0.15 0.31

Kuwait 0.50 0.53 0.47

Morocco 0.37 0.25 0.48

Yemen 0.28 0.11 0.46

Tunisia 0.42 0.34 0.49

Syria 0.34 0.24 0.43

Oman 0.40 0.27 0.53

Qatar 0.48 0.47 0.48

Lebanon 0.41 0.41 0.41

Egypt 0.34 0.23 0.46

Mauritania 0.26 0.15 0.36

Turkey 0.44 0.38 0.50

Korea 0.70 0.72 0.68

Malaysia 0.60 0.53 0.67

Source: Adapted from The Arab Planning Institute (2003). Arab Competitiveness Report, Kuwait.

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couple of estimates: Kuwait private sector at 70 billion dollars (AlraiAlam 18/2/2002) and 400 billion dollars for Saudi Arabia private sectorabroad (Asharq Alawsat 22/2/1999.) Even non-oil countries or small oil-countries like Egypt and Sudan private sectors have substantial moniesabroad.

These investments are currently managed by non-Arab managers atthe most. But certainly there is a pressing need to train Arab nationalsin the management of FDI and Portfolio investment and hence morecurriculum internationalization is called for.

Increasing Foreign Competition. We are here talking about twokinds of foreign competition. First is the increasing competition fromforeign companies exporting to or investing in Arab countries as a re-sult of the WTO mandated opening of markets. Already 13 Arab coun-tries are WTO members and four more have pending applications.The other kind of competition is coming from foreign universities whoare opening shop in many Arab countries and are competing with do-mestic Arab universities for students. BusinessWeek recently de-scribed this phenomena as “The New American Export” (9/2/2004).Both these are challenges that Arab universities have to meet and thatmeans, among other things, examining their business administrationcurricula, to see if it is internationalized enough. This is needed tosupply domestic business with cadres who can ward-off foreign inva-sion and for Arab universities not to lose too many students to foreignuniversities at home.

Now having seen the importance of international business to Arabcountries and the imperative incumbent upon Arab universities to meetthe challenge by producing the necessary cadres, let us look at howthese universities are faring in terms of internationalizing their curric-ula. In the following sections we try to answer the last three questions ofthe study.

BUSINESS CURRICULA INTERNATIONALIZATIONIN ARAB UNIVERSITIES

In this section we try to assess the extent of internationalization inArab universities business schools, the demographic characteristics ofthe different schools and the schools’ future plans. Our vehicle here isdata collected from a survey and then analyzed.


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Data, Method, and Demographics

Data. The instrument used to collect the data is a two-page surveyquestionnaire. It covers the demographic characteristics of the collegethat is, age, size (number of students, staff with a PhD); organizationalstructure (whether the unit is an independent business school in itsrespective university or part of another school); whether private, public ormixed; number of degrees offered (graduate and undergraduate); majorlanguage of instruction . . . etc . . . The second section of the questionnairedeals with the existence of a specified mission for the entity and whetherthat mission encompasses internationalization or not. Then there is a listof questions on their offerings in IB, (none, mere infusion, a surveycourse (compulsory or not), specialized courses, any area majors (if so dothey have an IB major), or just a general degree. Then there is a list ofquestions on whether business students have to have a foreign languageand if the college has an exchange program. There is also a question onwhether the college has future plans and do these plans incorporate IB.Then their preference for the approach to IB incorporation in the sylla-bus: by infusion, a survey course, specialized courses only or a major; isinquired about.

Sample. The population is the Arab universities with business admin-istration programs. An Arab educator recently estimated the numberof Arab universities to be 200 (Mahmound, 2004). The Association ofArab Universities, an agency of the Arab League, claims to have 166members, 161 of them have schools of administration. We obtained inSeptember 2003, from the Arab Organization for Administrative Devel-opment, its mailing list of the Deans of Arab Commerce and Adminis-trative Sciences Schools, which had some 120 names. This is anotherofficial organ of the Arab League. An authority there (Dr. M Taman)estimates that their list makes up 70% of the population. Thirty nameswere dropped from that list either because of duplication or becausethey were not really business schools. That list was augmented bynames taken from a Gulf Countries Cooperation Council Universitieslist and another one of Lebanese Universities provided by the HolySpirit University in Lebanon. Overall a sample of 110 schools was se-lected, registered letters to their deans were mailed, self-addressedenvelopes included in the package and the researcher’s fax number andthe web-site address of the questionnaire along with the researcher’se-mail address. This was done in mid-June 2004. By mid-August veryfew responses arrived. Hence reminders were sent to some forty-fivedeans by fax or e-mail. Five deans (or vice-deans) were visited in Kuwait


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and Egypt. The remaining ones could not be reached fast enough eitherbecause they did not have a fax or an e-mail listed or that we had thewrong fax or e-mail for them. Overall thirty eight useable responseswere obtained that is, a response of about 35% of a sample that is defi-nitely more than half the population. Thus the number of respondents,amounting to 21% of the population, is substantial.

Data Analysis. Simple frequency distributions were estimated alongwith averages, simple associations and correlation analysis. Most of thestudies in the area rely on percentages and averages to gauge centraltendencies. These will answer the last three questions. SPSS packagewas employed to perform the statistical calculations. To begin withthe value of Cronbach’s Alpha was found to be 0.676 which gives ussome confidence in the findings. Below we discuss the sample demo-graphic characteristics before we give and discuss the statistics on inter-nationalization.

Age. Out of 36 respondents the mean age of the universities wasthirty-five years and the median age was 28.5 years. Eleven universitiesor 31% were less than twenty years old, 10 were between twenty andthirty years old for 28%, and five were between thirty and forty yearsold. There were extreme values but rare. The business colleges showeda similar but younger age, with a mean of 27.3 years and a median valueof 24.5 years. Hence most of the respondents appear to be mature col-leges and universities.

Size. Three universities (8%), were rather small having fewer than500 students. Another 8% had between 500 and 1000 students. Thelargest group (24%) had more than 10 000 students each. Six universi-ties (16%) had between five and ten thousands and another 24% had astudent population between two and five thousands. Hence these aremostly relatively large universities with a mean and a median value ofabout 4000 students.

Ownership. Out of a total of 36 universities eight were private uni-versities, 29 public universities and one mixed. It is natural in less de-veloped countries that universities are mostly government owned, andhence we find 76% government-owned, but the private sector is wellrepresented with about 20%.

Organization Status. Only two universities teach business in theirarts or social sciences colleges but in the large majority business educa-tion is conducted in an autonomous business school. That shows thatbusiness education receives sufficient recognition.

Staff Credentials. The number of staff with PhDs was almost nor-mally distributed with the largest group (12 universities or 32%) having


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between 20 and 50 PhDs, 31 % having less than twenty and 37% havingmore than fifty PhDs, with seven (or half of the latter group) havingeven more than a hundred PhD’s in their respective colleges. Thesecolleges can, therefore, be said to be reasonably well staffed, thoughthese numbers have to be viewed against the number of students. Any-way, we notice that while the number of staff seems to be evenly distrib-uted, the size in terms of the number of students, seems to be skewedtowards larger size.

Degree Offerings. Just seven universities or about 18%, offer only anundergraduate degree. With respect to graduate (research) degrees, onlyone university offers an MSc in business and the PhD is offered by onlyfour. By contrast 26, or 68% said they offer an MBA degree. It thus ap-pears that Arab business schools are professionally (as opposed toresearch) oriented. As to the number of graduate students 14, or 37% ofthe colleges, claim that they have more than 100 MBA students. Thenext largest group or 12 colleges, had between 50-100 students and fivecolleges (13%) had less than 50 students. It does, therefore, appear thattheir MBA programs are by no means small. Doctoral programs are bycontrast, rare.

Language of Instruction. As expected the majority (almost two-thirds)uses Arabic as the major medium of instruction and a little more than athird uses English.

Overall we can say that these are mostly mature universities and col-leges, autonomous entities within their universities and are mostly gov-ernmental institutions. As far as size, they are average and appear rea-sonably well staffed. They offer a variety of degrees and have substantialprofessional orientation with the professional MBA degree well repre-sented as opposed to graduate research degrees.

The Extent of Internationalization

To begin with 36 or 95% of the colleges said their universities hada written mission and a slightly less (92%) said their colleges had awritten mission. The purpose of this question was to ascertain that theseentities behavior is purposeful and not random. A lesser percent, 68%,said the mission included internationalization specifically. Only aboutthirty percent do not. This suggests some awareness of the trends inthe teaching of business.

Do they infuse regular courses with the international dimension?Thirty-six or 95%, said yes which is a large majority. International busi-ness scholars, though, are usually skeptical of this approach to the inter-


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nationalization of the curriculum To them it is tantamount to paying lipservices to the cause (Fleming et al., 1993). So we will not take this toindicate a significant level of internationalization.

As far as the existence of a survey course, 24 entities answered yes(63%), eight did not (21%) and six cases did not answer this question.A similar answer was given as to whether that course is obligatory ofstudents: 23 said yes, 8 no, and 7 missing. Again a similar answer wasgiven to the question about the existence of specialized courses that is,international marketing or international finance. Thirty cases or 79% ofthe respondents said they do have such courses, six said they do notand two were missing observations. As far as the number of these spe-cialized courses, 4 schools had none, 3 schools had only one, six hadtwo only, and another seven had 3 courses for a cumulative percentageof 61% having 3 courses or less. Six more had between four and five.The majority of the colleges thus had a limited number of specializedinternational functional courses, given that there are at least six func-tional areas and each area can have a number of courses.

With respect to whether the college offers functional area specializa-tion (e.g., marketing, management, finance) or not, 28 or 74% said yesand only nine said they offer a general bachelor degree instead. Onwhether they offer an IB major 14 said yes and 21 said no.

Finally, with respect to foreign languages requirement, twenty saidthey do have it and thirteen said they do not with five missing cases.Exchange programs are just as popular with 21 having an exchangeprogram and 13 not having and four missing.

COMPARISON AND DISCUSSION

The 1993 AIB survey (with a larger response rate though, 45%against 35% for Arab Universities), found 57% of the sample universi-ties had a written objective with internationalization included, 74%adopt infusion, 81% offer specialized courses, and 24% offer an IB un-dergraduate major (Kwok et al., 1994). For Arab colleges the corre-sponding numbers were 95% (against 57% in the AIB sample) forincluding globalization in a written mission or objective, 95% (against74%) for infusion, 78% vis-a-vis 84% with specialized courses, and36% against 24% for having an IB major (Table 3).

The AIB latest survey (2000) had a lower response rate, but thepercentage of those with IB included in their mission was larger thanin both the AIB 1993 survey and our survey. Those with “infusion” in


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their curricula also increased. Other than that the figures are not strictlycomparable.

It is not easy to compare our findings with those studies of US col-leges (Fleming et al., 1993; Manuel, 2001), or with the Latin Americanstudy of Guthery et al. (1993), as these talk of IB programs which is abroader term, while the AIB study and ours talk of courses and majors.

In judging the extent we notice that the large majority claims topractice infusion, but to say that the mere infusion or the existence offoreign language requirements, reflects a high degree of international-ization is not necessarily so. First, infusion follows the whims of thecourse instructor and could mean mere anecdotes and lip services asnoted earlier. Second, foreign languages are required in most develop-ing countries’ universities and exchange programs are there too. Butthese are usually tied to development programs. It is usually programswith or the language of the “mother country.” They may not even be tiedto the internationalization of the business curricula as such.

Infusion, foreign languages and exchange programs aside, let us lookat the other indicators of internationalization to see what they suggest.Of the routes to curricula internationalization we have discounted theinfusion method and the mere existence of a survey course. The twoothers: having numerous specialized courses or an IB major are alterna-tives (and sometimes complimentary) and indicate a substantial degreeof internationalization. In this sample we found a large percentage of-fering specialized courses (79%), almost as much as was found in theAIB survey.


TABLE 3. A Comparison Between the AIB and This Study Survey

Particulars AIB Survey Arab Universities Survey

Year of survey 1993 2000 2004

Sample size 1233 1139 110

Response rate(%) 45 13 35

Percentage with mission(%) 81 95 95

IB in mission(%) 57 88 68

IB in Curricula

Infusion(%) 74 88 95

Survey Course(%) 22 –* 63

Specialized IB Course(%) 81 39 79

IB Major(%) 24 –* 36

*Not included in the later survey.

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Does this mean that Arab universities have their business curriculawell internationalized? Before answering we have to look closely andnot just at the existence but also at the number of such offerings. Herewe find thirteen colleges (40%) had two or less such courses, and an-other seven had three courses. Therefore, 60% had three specializedcourses or less. Given that there are six functional areas of business (ifnot more), this suggests that the business administration curricula inArab Universities is far less internationalized than the previous figure(79%) suggests. We thus conclude that the business administrationcurricula in Arab Universities is only moderately internationalized.

FUTURE PLANS AND PREFERRED APPROACH

Almost all administrators (95%) believe internationalization of thecurriculum is a must. Moreover, seventy nine percent of the sample saidthat it was included in their future plans.

As to the chosen route to internationalization, the most popular routeamong academic planners here, was having specialized courses where26 or 68% of the respondent colleges adopted it with 23% missing orabstaining. Only 16% opted for a survey course and 26% for an IBmajor. (It should be mentioned that some checked more than one routethere).

That was the actual plan, as far as the preference among the fourmethods, 13 (34%) abstained, 13 or (34%) prefer having an IB major,10 or (26%) are for specialized courses, 2 or 5% for infusion, and nonefor the survey course. This is in harmony with the above mentioned IBmajor findings.

On the whole the large majority has future plans that call for moreinternationalization and specialized courses seem to be the choice of mostplanners while having an IB major ranks first with the sample deans.

With regards to the impediments to internationalization, the lack ofqualified staff was the most cited reason; by 82% of the respondents,followed by the scarcity of textbooks in Arabic (50%). The scarcity ofinternationally oriented material and the lack of commitment from theuniversity were cited by 81 and 50 percent of the sample, respectively.So as always, it is the shortage of staff and Arabic texts. Additionalreasons mentioned in the open-ended part of the questionnaire were thelack of interest among staff, ignorance of labor market needs, domesticpolitical considerations, lack of students interest, and the foreign lan-guage constraints.


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DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICSAND THE EXTENT OF INTERNATIONALIZATION

Having identified the level of internationalization, we sought toidentify the kind of school that is more likely to have its programs inter-nationalized by calculating the correlations between the international-ization indexes (the existence of specialized courses and their number)with the various demographic characteristics . The two indicators them-selves are significantly correlated with each other (0.39 at 2 percent).Table 4 below gives the significant correlations.

University ownership (private vs. public) turned out to be highlysignificant in its relationship with the number of courses. Private col-leges are more internationalized than public ones. This stands to reasonas private sector entities are usually more responsive to the customerneeds and are ahead of government entities in anticipating newer needs.The number of PhD holders in the staff is another important factor. Themore PhDs in the staff, the more abreast is the school in its programs,especially since most of the staff must have been trained abroad. Col-lege age is another important factor. The older the school, the morediversified is its program likely to be and hence the more international-ized. Number of college students is another important factor, thoughsomewhat weak: It would mean a larger opportunity to make more andvarious offerings. It could also result in the students being more de-manding and vocal. Hence more internationalized curricula. Having anexchange program naturally internationalizes the perspective of thestaff and hence the statistical association. The strong association be-tween specialized courses and having a foreign language requirement isanother reflection of the association.

The association of internationalization with having majors within busi-ness is interesting. Until recently, many Arab schools did not offer ma-jors, like marketing and finance within business. Many still do not (24%of our sample.) Thus having more specialized majors takes place as theprogram develops. So does the internationalization of the program.

Other interesting statistics were like finding that, in breaking age intotwo groups, slightly younger universities are more apt to offer special-ized courses. Moreover in breaking colleges into two groups based onthe number of specialized courses, taking six courses to be the cut-offpoint, we found public universities to be more likely to have a smallernumber of specialized offerings. The same was true with regard tocollege age, exchange programs and having many majors. These con-firm our earliest finding.


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Limitations of the Study

Our results show that a very large proportion of the sample universi-ties offer specialized courses, but it should be noted that while the initialsample was not biased towards any region, the respondents came basi-cally from Jordan/Lebanon, Egypt and the Gulf countries:11:11:8, withthe remaining few from Sudan, Syria, Algeria, Lybia, Iraq and Yemen.The first two countries may thus be said to be over-represented and theMaghreb countries are scarcely represented. This biases the results asuniversities in Jordan and Lebanon are usually private and more modernbeing young in Jordan and more open as in Lebanon.

Another source of bias may come from a “halo” effect where admin-istrators image of their new programs may be inflated or simply theirnationalistic feeling and wanting to look good, could have influencedtheir answers. Actually nationalistic bias creeps-in in another way. In-ternationalization of the academic program has to do with more than justcourse offerings. It also means a diversified faculty, a diversified studentbody, study tours abroad, area studies, etc . . . With the exception of theGulf countries, the faculties in most Arab institutions are predominantlylocals. With regards to student bodies, they are predominantly made oflocals too, if not completely so. Most Arab universities are very protec-tive of their staff positions and students enrollment. That nationalisticattitude colors the outlook of educators and must be reflected in their ac-ademic programs.

These considerations make us take the findings with a grain of salt.Internationalization of the curricula is probably even less than the sam-ple shows.


TABLE 4. Spearman’s Significant Correlations of Characteristics with Special-ized Courses

Characteristic Existence of Courses Number of Courses

Correlation Sig. Level Correlation Sig. Level

University ownership(Private vs. Public)

– – �0.392 0.024

College age 0.316 0.068 – –Number of college students 0.274 0.106 – –Number of teachers with a PhD 0.327 0.052 – –Other language required 0.520 0.002 0.456 �0.010Having exchange programs 0.289 0.108 – –Having majors within business – – 0.314 0.081

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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This study started by surveying the literature about the international-ization of business programs in various regions of the world and con-cluded that it has spread especially in the Americas, Europe, and parts ofAsia. Noting that little is known about its extent in Arab countries, thestudy sought to fill the gap. The study discussed the macro-variables atwork in Arab countries and the implications for curricula international-ization. Thereafter, and through a survey questionnaire that covered alarge sample of Arab universities’ schools of business, the study foundthat programs in those schools were only moderately internationalized.The study recognized its limitations in the sense of the possible biases.On the bright side the study revealed that colleges mention internation-alization of the business curricula as part of their missions and thatmany administrators feel it is imperative and are actually incorporatingthis as an objective in their future plans. The study summarized the ob-stacles to internationalization as administrators see them. Lack of ade-quate staff and material and the lack of commitment by the universitywere among the most mentioned impediments.

More studies are needed to affirm these findings and to look at the pro-grams more closely. Studies of school catalogues would be more helpfulin this connection.

In the meantime, what is needed is greater commitment from Arabeducational leaders that will translate into allocating more resources forprojects to develop the academic staff in both number and orientation.The internationalization of the curricula is no longer an academic ques-tion, but a must if Arab countries are to enjoy the fruits of globalizationand not suffer its draw- backs.

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4. The Arab Labor Organization: The Return of Arab Money Abroad; The FirstStep to End Youth Unemployment, (2003, October 12 th, Asharq Alawsat).


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Submitted: May 2005First Revision: November 2005

Second Revision: February 2006Accepted: May 2006

doi:10.1300/J066v18n01_06


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Documents

The Internationalization of the Business Administration Curricula in Arab Universities