Columbia Announces New Scholarship Fund

Columbia Business School is launching a groundbreaking fund that will provide full tuition to underrepresented B-school students.

The Perelman Scholarship Fund was made possible by Ronald O. Perelman, Chairman and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, will be a permanently endowed source of financial aid at Columbia. The goal of the fund is to offer full tuition to underrepresented racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups in order to build a more diverse generation of business leaders.

“The responsibility of charting Columbia Business School’s future in Manhattanville requires us to think deeply about the future of graduate business education in a rapidly changing world,” Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger says in the press release. “No consideration is more important than creating a school dedicated to training leaders from the broadest possible range of backgrounds, to take on the many challenges we face as a global community. Ronald Perelman has done Columbia and the business community a great service by addressing this critical need.”

LACK OF DIVERSITY AT B-SCHOOLS

The lack of diversity at MBA programs isn’t anything new. At Harvard, Black MBA students make up roughly 5% of the class. And that number has been relatively stagnant for three decades, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Some say the issue largely stems from the MBA admissions process. Metrics such as undergraduate GPA and standardized test scores have been proven to be biased towards wealthier applicants and students.

“I think some of the things that universities need to be thinking about when they’re doing their admissions process is the value that candidates bring beyond just those traditional metrics,” Stella Ashaolu, founder and CEO of WeSolv, a company that connects talent with firms in need of diversification, tells P&Q. “People talk about grit. What in the students’ lives or experience have they had to overcome that has gotten them to where they are? Schools need to go to those channels where more underrepresented candidates are, and provide a lot more education and awareness around the MBA process and the value of their program. They need to source candidates from more non-traditional pools and pipelines.”

Perelman, the man behind the new scholarship at Columbia, hopes that the fund helps take a step in the right direction by opening up more opportunities for underrepresented applicants.

“I have spent a lifetime building business and I recognize that the success of those businesses is inextricably linked to their people,” Perelman adds in the press release. “In order for businesses and industries to thrive, it is imperative that we address and encourage diversity and inclusion. The Perelman Scholarship Fund is a purposeful contribution to that end. By helping Columbia’s Business School to attract the most talented students, the school, as well as the larger business community, will benefit. I am grateful and excited to be partnering with the School as we invest in the next generation of business leaders.”

Sources: Columbia Business School,  The Wall Street Journal, P&Q, National Education Association