FT Found Dubious IE Alumni Responses In Data Checks

IE Business School in Spain

CLASS OF 2011 URGE IE BUSINESS SCHOOL TO CREATE A NEW ALUMNI ADVISORY BOARD & HIRE A DATA COMPLIANCE OFFICER

Among other things, the alums urged IE to The letter to IE leadership from alums to make a well-publicized new hire to support alumni programs and data compliance and to create a new alumni advisory board to ensure IE’s ongoing compliance.

The full letter, obtained by Poets&Quants, follows:

From: IMBA Class2011 <ie.imba.class2011@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, Feb 11, 2018 at 7:57 PM

Subject: Concerning Financial Times 2017 Global MBA ranking

To: Santiago.Iniguez@ie.edu, erik.Schlie@ie.edu, Martin.Boehm@ie.edu

To: Santiago Iniguez – Executive President of IE University

Martin Boehm – Dean IE Business School

Erik Schlie – Vice Dean International MBA Program

We the undersigned members of IE’s class of 2011 write concerned by actions taken by the school in the run-up and aftermath of the Financial Times 2017 Global MBA ranking. We intend to lay out both our preoccupations and those steps we believe must be taken to perpetuate the credibility of IE Business School and live up to the schools ethical and corporate responsibility to both current and former students. Our aim is that this letter may serve as both a statement of fact as well as a means of fostering improved communications between both alumni and the administration. Further, we do request that IE Business School provides a formal response to this communication.

Key Concerns

The underlying cause of this letter is IE Business School and IE University’s failure to secure a ranking in the Financial Times, 2017 Global MBA Ranking. However, this is aggravated by the Financial Times comments indicating that the school will continue to be left off the rankings until a demonstration of procedural change regarding data collection and verification occurs. This presents several significant challenges for both the administration and alumnus:

1) The negative press and potential indication of ethical violations from the Financial Times leads to significant credibility issues and undermines what we as former students know to be the ethos of the school.

2) IE Business School will preclude itself from inclusion in critical programs such as those offered by McKinsey and other major consulting firms which have historically provided the school access to top candidates from major firms.

3) International demand for IE Business School programs might drop, and admissions will be adversely affected. To keep admissions numbers at even current levels without being ranked, a significant increase in marketing expenditure will be required to offset the ranking dismissal.

4) INSEAD and IESE, both of whom already have extensive global brands will become unchallenged regarding ranked programs on the continent, further reducing IE’s market share.

In addition to IE University’s challenges as an institution, former students are faced with similar issues and concerns:

1) Program value drops significantly and in direct correlation to hindrances to the schools brand. This has both immediate impacts on alumnus and on the school, as former students begin, by necessity reducing their exposure by removing references to IE Business in their biographies, profiles, and CVs.

2) The nature of the Financial Times concerns relates to the school’s ability to provide accurate information about graduate financial and career data. These dispersions effect not only the school itself but cast doubt on the backgrounds of every student who publicly lists IE Business School as a place of study.

Solutions and Recommendations

Regardless of these problems, IE Business School has both the resources and alumni base to fix these issues. We, the students of this class do recommend the following:

1) IE University and IE Business School must make a well-publicized new hire to support alumni programs and data compliance. This new hire must immediately prepare a plan in consultation with the undersigned and other alumni classes to address future concerns and ranking issues.

2) IE Business School must immediately request face to face meetings with the Financial Times and bring delegates from the alumni network, as selected by the undersigned to ensure transparency across the global alumni network and reinstate trust between administration officials and former students.

3) IE Business School must form an active alumni advisory board selected from those former students who have demonstrated an ability to manage enterprises and organizations that show the values and ethics required to ensure IE’s ongoing compliance. We request formal communication from Julia Sanchez, Head of Global Alumni Relations.

4) We also request that IE Business School provides a closed information session or document in which a timeline of events leading up to and after our exclusion from the ranking is provided.

5) We also request full transparency in regarding the dismissals and resignations recently announced in a letter from Santiago Iniguez, President of IE University.

We, the undersigned intend to ensure that IE Business School takes this letter into serious consideration and that a response is forthcoming. It is in the interest of all faculty, administration officials, and alumni to find a joint solution to the schools current lack of good standing with the Financial Times and it is equally important that this issue is taken seriously by all affected parties.

From IE IMBA Class of 2011

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