6 B-School Deans On How MBA Students Should Spend Their Summers

Ask a business school dean how students should spend their summer, and the reflex answer might be “internship.” Six of Europe’s top MBA leaders complicate that picture. From Estonia to Portugal, deans tell Poets&Quants that the real value of summer lies less in what goes on a résumé and more in what happens when students finally stop optimizing.

The consensus that emerges is less about idleness versus hustle than about intention. Marion Debruyne, dean of Vlerick Business School, says the most common mistake is treating summer as “either total shutdown or nonstop hustle, with nothing in between,” arguing that both failure modes leave no room for reflection. José Esteves, dean of Porto Business School, puts it even more directly: “The academic year is already a race so summer does not need to be one too.”

That doesn’t mean deans are dismissing ambition. Joachim Lutz, dean and president of Mannheim Business School, tells returning students to combine reflection with practical experience – internships, entrepreneurial projects, volunteering – while warning against a subtler trap: chasing a summer that “looks impressive on a résumé” rather than one that fits a student’s actual goals. Federico Frattini, dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management, pushes furthest in the other direction, urging students to “step outside the business school mindset for a few weeks” and read philosophy, history, or psychology instead.

What ties the six together: a shared skepticism of summer as a checkbox exercise, and a surprising amount of agreement on how to actually unwind: water, walking, and books … particularly those that have nothing to do with strategy decks.

Marion Debruyne, Dean of Vlerick Business School

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break? Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students? If so, why?

For incoming students, my advice is: make sure you arrive well-rested and have all logistical matters about your move sorted so you can concentrate on the learning journey you are embarking on. A one-year MBA (like at Vlerick) compresses a big transformation into a short window, and the students who arrive already depleted spend the first weeks catching up on rather than learning. Use the summer also to close loops in your old professional life properly. Don’t just disappear.

For students heading into internships or a second year, the summer is about testing the waters for your future.

What are the biggest mistakes you see students make during the summer months, and how can they avoid them?

The most common one is treating the summer as either total shutdown or nonstop hustle, with nothing in between. Both fail for the same reason: neither leaves room for reflection. I find summer the best season for reflection and introspection. While new year’s resolutions are focused on the short term, during summer I take stock and reflect on longer term goals and plans. So, I’d tell students to protect a little unstructured time deliberately, and think about how they will use the year ahead as a stepping stone for what comes next.

Where near campus can your students escape the summer heat?

Vlerick students can escape to the botanical park just next to campus, or one of the many other parks in Brussels. Personally, I like to escape in art. Belgium has amazing private art collectors, some of whom make their collection available to the public. The site of the Vanhaerents Collection in Brussels is amazing.

How do you unwind over summer?

Unwinding is a real challenge! But I discovered that playing golf with my husband and sons is a great way to redirect my mind from work to the all-important matter of hitting the next shot.

What are you reading over the summer? Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

It’s an annual tradition for me to share my summer reading recommendations with students and alumni. You can find them here. I include some books that help with personal reflection such as The Happiness Files by Arthur Brooks.

Federico Frattini, Dean of POLIMI Graduate School of Management

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break? Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students?

Step outside the business school mindset for a few weeks. Read philosophy, history, literature, or psychology. Volunteer in your community. Explore a different culture. The academic year is already full of finance, strategy, and analytics. Summer is an opportunity to understand people, society, and the forces that shape human behavior. Return in the fall not just with new skills and a broader perspective.

For incoming students, I would recommend learning about the country, culture, and community they are about to join. Arriving with curiosity and cultural awareness can make the experience far more meaningful.

For returning students, summer is a chance to broaden horizons through experiences that may have little connection to their career plans. Sometimes the most formative experiences come from pursuing personal interests, engaging with communities, or stepping into unfamiliar environments. Both groups benefit from intellectual openness and curiosity.

What are the biggest mistakes students make during the summer months?

The biggest mistake is treating summer as an extension of the academic semester. Many students feel pressure to optimize every moment and focus exclusively on career outcomes. Ambition is valuable, but growth is not measured only by internships or credentials. Another common mistake is remaining inside one’s comfort zone and consuming only business-related content.

Students also often underestimate the importance of rest. Reflection, recovery, and exposure to new ideas are just as important as professional experience. Summer should help students become more thoughtful and well-rounded individuals, not simply more employable candidates.

Where near campus can students escape the summer heat?

I would strongly recommend the lakes – such as Como, Garda or Maggiore. The Dolomites are another extraordinary option. Beyond cooler temperatures, they provide the opportunity to spend time in nature, reflect, and regain perspective. In a world that constantly encourages us to do more, these environments remind us of the value of slowing down. Sometimes the best way to prepare for future challenges is simply to create space to think and reconnect with yourself.

How do you unwind over summer?

I genuinely enjoy my work, so I rarely disconnect completely. What helps me recharge is spending time with my family, especially my children. Summer offers moments that are difficult to find during the year: traveling together, discovering new places, and enjoying time without rigid schedules. I also value reading, walking, and spending time outdoors. For me, unwinding is less about being inactive and more about creating space for relationships, reflection, and curiosity. Interestingly, some of my best ideas often emerge when I step away from my daily routine and focus on the people and experiences that matter most.

What are you reading over the summer?

During the year, most of my reading is related to management and leadership. In the summer, I intentionally move in a different direction. This year I am reading Emmanuel Carrère. What I admire about his work is the way he explores the complexity of human motivations, emotions, and contradictions. Books such as The Adversary, Limonov, and V13 offer powerful insights into human behavior. That may seem far removed from leadership, but in reality, leadership is fundamentally about understanding people. Literature often helps us develop empathy, perspective, and a deeper appreciation of what drives individual choices.

Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

I would encourage students to use the summer to read beyond management. Future leaders need exposure to philosophy, history, and the humanities because these disciplines help us understand society and our role within it. One book I would recommend is Critique and Utopia: From Kant to the Frankfurt School by Roberto Mordacci, a philosopher who teaches also in the courses of our Business School. It stimulates critical thinking and raises important questions about responsibility, purpose, and the kind of impact leaders should aspire to create. More broadly, students should choose books that challenge their assumptions and expose them to different perspectives. The goal is not to find easy answers, but to learn how to ask better questions.

Meelis Kitsing, Rector of Estonian Business School

There are endless ways students can spend their summer break: part-time jobs, volunteering, or simple rest and relaxation. But how should they actually spend it?

I see significant cultural differences based on my own experience. In the United States, students are expected to have an internship, ideally in the area they specialise in. As a student, I worked at various think-tanks in Washington DC and took part in summer study programmes in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. In Estonia and the rest of Northern Europe, by contrast, it is difficult to find a meaningful internship, as most people take long holidays and business slows down considerably. July especially is treated almost as a sacred holiday month, when little work is expected.

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break?

Despite these cultural differences, my universal suggestion is to pursue activities relevant to a student’s future career. That could be an internship in the desired career area, an engaging project, a summer programme, or a combination of these. Summer is a great time to focus on what really matters, especially when many people slow down and go on holiday.

Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students? If so, why?

Yes. Returning students should already have a sense of their plans after graduation, so their summer activities should be more focused and directly support those post-graduation goals such as an internship or project tied closely to their area of specialisation. For incoming students, broader, more general experience is usually sufficient at this stage.

What are the biggest mistakes you see students make during the summer months, and how can they avoid them?

Treating the summer as pure holiday. Even without formal work, summer is an excellent time for intellectual pursuits connected to your goals: reading a challenging book, taking on demanding travel, learning a language, or engaging in any activity that relates to what you’re working towards.

Where near their campus can students escape the summer heat?

They can come to Northern Europe. We’ve had heatwave-free weather in Estonia this summer, and we’re also running several summer programmes, including one on digitalisation and sustainability for graduate students and another for young entrepreneurs.

How do you unwind over summer? Be as specific as you like.

Fewer inputs, a slower pace, and just enough novelty to keep things challenging. I cycle, run, and take long walks, preferably near water, where there’s enough space to think without forcing it. My reading shifts from dense material to things that feel more expansive, or slightly off my usual track. I also value unstructured time: days without a tight plan, where ideas, or even boredom, can stretch out a bit.

What are you reading over the summer?

At the moment, I’m reading Gai-Jin by James Clavell and Serendipity by David Cleevely. I like to combine books from different areas and styles, reading them depending on the time of day. More demanding material in the morning, easier reading in the afternoon.

Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by the British psychiatrist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist. It raises a number of issues relevant to understanding how the human brain has evolved, and how our thinking about it has evolved in turn. Particularly relevant in an age of superficial assumptions about AI.

Hannah Holmes, Dean of Manchester Metropolitan University Business School

There are endless choices for how students can spend their summer break: part-time job, volunteering, rest and relaxation. But how should they be spending their summer?

There’s no single right answer, and that’s rather the point. Summer is a gift, a chance to do the things term time rarely allows. The students who get the most from it are deliberate but not over-programmed. Whether it’s paid work, a placement, volunteering, or genuinely resting, what matters is that it’s a choice rather than months that simply disappear.

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break?

Use part of the break to gain experience that tests what you’re learning, whether that’s an internship, a placement, a volunteering role, or extending the part-time work many of our students already do. That experience counts, and the skills you build holding down a job alongside your studies matter to employers more than people often realise. The value comes from making the connection between the work and where you want to go. But build in a reset too. Read beyond your reading list, reconnect with the hobbies term time crowds out, and stay close to the people around you, because your fellow students are your network for life.

Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students? If so, why?

A little, though the core is the same for both. For students about to start, summer is mostly about arriving rested and open, rather than trying to get ahead. Read a little around your subject if you can, but come ready to throw yourself in. For returning students it’s a chance to be a bit more intentional, because they know the rhythm now. That doesn’t have to mean a formal placement, which isn’t realistic for everyone. Many of our students are working over the summer, caring for family, or holding several commitments together, and that experience counts just as much. It’s less about what you do and more about noticing what you’re learning from it and how it connects to where you want to go.

What are the biggest mistakes you see students make during the summer months, and how can they avoid them?

Two, and they’re opposites. The first is letting the whole break dissolve into decompression, so September arrives with nothing reset and nothing gained. The second is over-loading it and coming back more tired than they left. The fix for both is a little structure and some honesty about what you actually need, whether that’s rest, experience or income.

Where near their campus can students escape the summer heat?

Manchester is wonderful for this because so much is on the doorstep. The Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery are both cool, calm and free, and easy places to lose an hour or two out of the sun. Whitworth Park gives you green space and shade right by campus when you want to be outside without the heat of the city. And the Northern Quarter is worth wandering for its independent cafés, record shops and street art, with plenty of tucked-away spots to sit with an iced coffee when the temperature climbs.

How do you unwind over summer?

Time with my 8-year-old daughter, mostly, and a proper switch-off on a beach somewhere, phone down, catching up on the reading that stacks up during term, and of course eating ice cream! I love the longer evenings too, when the sun sets late enough to walk the dog after work and actually feel like the day was your own for a while.

What are you reading over summer?

Two very different books at once. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, which is a demanding but brilliant novel about a woman trying to hold the different parts of her life together, and The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, on how longer, healthier lifespans are reshaping the way we work, learn and structure a career. That second one has really made me think about what it means for us as educators. If people are going to live and work across several stages, moving in and out of learning throughout their lives, then the old model of front-loading all your education in your twenties no longer holds. Universities have to adapt to that, offering learning people can return to again and again, and equipping students not just for a first job but with the adaptability to keep reinventing themselves. That’s a real challenge for business schools, and an exciting one.

Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

I’d gently suggest putting the textbook down at least for some periods of time. Summer reading should stretch how you think, not feel like more term. The 100-Year Life by Gratton and Scott is a great one for anyone heading into work and wondering how to plan a career that might run sixty years. I’d also recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, which makes you wonderfully suspicious of your own decision-making, and Range by David Epstein, a reassuring case that trying lots of things before you specialise is a strength, not a weakness. Honestly though, my best advice is to read something with nothing to do with your degree at all. A novel, a memoir, something completely off-topic. It does you more good than you’d think.

Joachim Lutz, Dean and President of Mannheim Business School (picture credits: Sarah Haehnle)

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break? Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students? If so, why?

For incoming students, my advice is simple: first, understand the change in your life and your responsibility to get along; second, arrive – and stay – curious. Read quality newspapers regularly and you get involved in the changing world as it really is: understanding global politics and business trends, corporate actions, markets and management.

Mix your portfolio with cultural events because even your best friends sometime want to change the topic.

Unavoidable is exploring how technologies such as artificial intelligence are transforming learning, working and management. In essence, sharpen critical thinking and engagement with reliable journalism and diverse perspectives. These habits will serve students throughout their studies and careers.

Returning students should combine reflection with practical experience. Internships, entrepreneurial team projects, interdisciplinary research, volunteering, or international experiences allow students to apply classroom knowledge in real-world settings while developing leadership and teamwork skills. Just as importantly, make time to recharge. Rest is an investment in future performance.

What are the biggest mistakes you see students make during the summer months, and how can they avoid them?

The biggest mistake is to stop thinking and being curious, next to believing that every summer must look impressive on a résumé. Students often compare themselves to others instead of choosing experiences that genuinely match their interests and goals. A meaningful internship, volunteer project, research experience, or independent learning can all be equally valuable.

Finally, don’t forget to enjoy being a student. You have the privilege to discover new ideas, broaden your horizons, and build friendships and networks that often last a lifetime. Your career will benefit not only from what you achieve, but also from the person you become during these years.

Where near campus can your students escape the summer heat?

We have excellent gelaterias close by – in Mannheim, the Spaghetti Ice Cream was invented! Behind the Palace there pleasantly flows the river Rhine with beautiful banks and trees. And for a real cooldown, you should consider visiting one of the many recreational lakes in the area, like Mannheim’s iconic Stollenwörth Weiher, just a 15-min bike-ride from our Campus.

How do you unwind over summer?

Apart from traveling to new places and getting to know new people and cultures, I have a long list of maintenance tasks to carry out on a 52-year-old car. Dealing with complex 20th-century technology not only leaves my fingers dirty, but also requires careful research in specialist literature. And, as always, I’ll be taking paper, brushes and watercolours with me.

What are you reading over the summer?

To be honest, my wife and I have a habit of traveling to areas that are unfamiliar to us, where there are as few tourists as possible. Having finalised our itinerary well before setting off, we read – once we’re there – what we need to know about the place. This time, however, I’ll pack Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island and will read every evening one chapter. It’s like enjoying your favourite dessert after a long, sunny day.

Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

If you dare to immerse yourself in the turbulent world of mid-20th-century Malaya, I recommend The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Set in the 1950s during the Malayan Emergency, with the trauma of the Japanese occupation still raw in memory, the novel follows Yun Ling Teoh, a former judge and sole survivor of a brutal Japanese labour camp, as she apprentices with Aritomo, once gardener to the Emperor of Japan, to create a memorial garden for the sister she lost. Tan Twan Eng is a master of narrative art that is at once precise and rich, colourful and empathetic. Set against the backdrop of war and its long aftermath, the novel moves between unsettling and comforting moments, placing the reader right at the heart of the action, memory, and loss.

José Esteves, Dean of Porto Business School

What advice would you give business school students for how to spend their summer break? Does this advice differ between new incoming students and returning students? If so, why?

Summer is not the empty space between teaching periods. It is one of the few moments in the year when you can slow down, recover your energy and decide — without pressure — how you want to move forward. At Porto Business School we say: Explore Forward. Lead the Change. Summer is the season to practise both.

Incoming students should arrive rested and curious, not over-prepared. Sleep well. Protect your wellbeing. Then widen your world: travel differently, volunteer, spend time with the arts, meet people outside your usual circles, read far beyond business. Do not try to get ahead of the syllabus — expand the mind you will bring to it.

Returning students should treat summer as a laboratory. Test a direction through an internship, a project or an experiment of your own. Take real responsibility, notice what gives you energy, and decide honestly what you want to do differently in the next stage.

For both, the best summer combines rest with discovery.

What are the biggest mistakes you see students make during the summer months, and how can they avoid them?

The biggest mistake is turning summer into another competition for the most impressive internship, the longest list of courses, the most polished CV. The academic year is already a race so summer does not need to be one too.

A second mistake is believing you must choose between wellbeing and ambition. Some students stay permanently busy and come back exhausted. Others switch off so completely that they return without a single new thought.

My advice is simple: recover first. Sleep, move, see the people you love, and disconnect without guilt. Then choose one experience that stretches you, take charge of something real, and afterwards write down what surprised you and what you learned about yourself.

Where near campus can your students escape the summer heat?

Porto has one great summer advantage: the Atlantic. The School sits in Matosinhos, minutes from the sea, where you can swim, walk the coast or take a surf lesson. A little further along, the tidal pools at Leça da Palmeira, carved into the rocks by Álvaro Siza, are a beautiful place to cool off.

Make time, too, for the Serralves Foundation. Beyond its contemporary art museum, its gardens, sculpture and shaded paths make it one of the best places in Porto to wander, think and slow right down.

How do you unwind over summer?

For me, unwinding is less about stopping and more about changing rhythm.

Summer gives me more time by the Atlantic — to walk, read and think, with fewer reasons to rush from one decision to the next. That slower pace makes it easier to separate what is urgent from what actually matters. Sometimes I just want to disappear into a crowd: to be one more anonymous person, recognised by no one and responsible for nothing. After a year of being visible, that ordinariness is real rest.

I paint, which makes me look carefully, accept imperfection and stay patient before I know where a work is going. I visit museums to meet ideas that are not my own. And I finally watch the films and series I never found time for during the year, without pretending each one has to teach me something.

I guard unstructured time too — no agenda, no notifications — and I write less to reach a conclusion than to discover what I actually think.

What are you reading over the summer?

My summer reading has one rule: it should pull me out of my comfort zone. I move between novels, philosophy and — without apology — science fiction and fantasy, some of the most serious ways we rehearse futures that have not yet arrived.

Three books are on my list this year:

• Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow, a quietly devastating novel about a northern Indigenous community that loses power and rediscovers older ways of surviving together.
• Martha Wells’s Platform Decay, the latest of her Murderbot stories — sharp, funny science fiction narrated by a security android with more humanity than most of the humans around it.
• And Karen Hao’s Empire of AI, a critical, deeply reported account of OpenAI and the race to build artificial intelligence — the book an optimist about my field most needs to read.

I listen to podcasts too, for ideas that arrive in conversation rather than on the page.

And, as ever, I will finish the novel first. I take that as a sign of good priorities, not poor discipline.

Do you have any summer reading you’d recommend to students?

Three books that help students grow both the explorer and the leader in them:

• Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus is the provocation to start with. It argues that more information has never meant more truth or more wisdom, and that AI is the first technology able to generate ideas and make decisions on its own. Read it to feel unsettled about the systems you are about to work inside.
• Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence is the practical answer. A Wharton professor, he refuses both the hype and the panic, and shows how to think, write and lead with AI as a partner rather than a threat. Probably the most useful book a manager can read right now.
• And José Saramago’s Blindness: a demanding novel about how people behave under pressure and how fragile our judgment really is — exactly the human capacity that grows scarcer, and more valuable, as intelligence becomes abundant.

And if you read nothing at all; walk more, talk to people unlike you, and stay curious.

DON’T MISS PORTO BUSINESS SCHOOL DEAN JOSÉ ESTEVES ON AI & THE FUTURE OF MBAs and WHAT EUROPEAN B-SCHOOL DEANS THINK OF TRUMP’S ATTACKS ON ESG & DEI

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