I was recently informed by one of my former professors that the John Molson School of Business's curriculum committee has considered merging three highly influential and integral courses within the marketing curriculum into one course. These courses are Direct Response Marketing, Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications. For anyone whose taken even one of these, you understanding the detriment and negative consequences of merging 28 weeks of in-depth learning and development of hard and soft coveted skills into 9 weeks of force-fed theory.
What is the curriculum committee thinking???
This is a major step down for the school as a whole and the students who will have to suffer because of it. As a recent graduate, I feel that I have a duty to voice my opinion and represent the students who will follow me. I urge any JMSB graduates who have been fortunate enough to benefit from either of these three courses to SPEAK UP! Let the curriculum committee know how incredibly dense they are being.
Here was what I wrote to my professor when he asked for former students' opinions on the matter:
What are your thoughts on the proposed discontinuation of Marketing 460 (IMC)?
As a recent graduate from JMSB in Marketing, I can say with confidence that IMC was the only class which truly prepared me for a career in marketing. The IMC course gives the students a realistic view of what completing a real marketing project entails. Furthermore, I am shocked that this course’s validity and importance are being questioned since the trends in marketing point entirely toward integration of communications. This is the only class that allows students to grasp this trend and its implications.
Another trend that this course allows students to become knowledgeable about is that of experiential marketing. In order for companies to stay at the forefront of marketing, they must move towards experiential. How can JMSB boast “real education for the real world” if they do not offer students a course which teaches them about the aspects which are most important when moving into a career in marketing?
Employers are looking for recruits that are aware of the changes in the industry and who will bring a forward-looking and innovation-focused mindset to the company. JMSB allows graduates to have that advantage over other recruits by offering IMC. Discontinuing the IMC course would hinder the students’ development, their future success and the school’s reputation as “a business school focused on the real world and the students’ success”. In fact, discontinuing IMC would completely negate JMSB’s interest in their students’ success and their focus on the “real world”.
What are your opinions about combining advertising, direct marketing and IMC into one course?
Merging these three courses would remove the opportunities that students studying marketing at JMSB have to gain coveted knowledge and skills for their future career. These courses and their material test and educate the students in ways that other marketing courses do not.
Merging these courses would overwhelm the students with information. All of the highly important details would get lost. Further, these courses allow students to learn of different specializations within marketing; a merge of the three courses would be completely un-real world. The students are not paying thousands of dollars for their education to have this information shoved into their brains in 9 weeks. The students want to benefit from the courses and want to learn everything that they can. They do not want “speed-learning” they want a “real education for the real world”!
Advertising and IMC allowed me to gain a realistic perspective on what creating a campaign actually entails. Because of these two courses, I gained insight into the marketing world that I would have otherwise no been privileged to. I have entered into the work force a more knowledgeable, prepared, aware, confident and skilled individual because of the advertising and IMC courses.
If the curriculum committee does decide to go ahead with this merge, they are outwardly stating that they care more about budget, more about bureaucratic disagreements and more about their own agenda than the STUDENTS’ WELL-BEING and EDUCATION. The curriculum committee should be ashamed of their ignorance. I worry about the future of the students’ that have yet to pass through JMSB since this curriculum review makes it apparent that their best interest is not being taken into consideration.
What do you believe will be lost or gained by these proposed changes?
If these changes are in fact instated, JMSB as a whole and the graduates will be less coveted and less reputable. The skills developed because of these 3 courses are without comparison. This curriculum change will nullify the entirety of the committee’s interest in the students’ futures.
Therefore, what will be lost:
- JMSB’s reputation as an institution that cares about their graduates’ success.
- JMSB’s reputation as an institution that offers “real education for the real world”.
- The students will loose the opportunity to study at an institution that is at the forefront of business education.
- The students will loose the opportunity to learn of specialization within marketing.
- The students will loose the opportunity to develop coveted soft skills such as: communication skills, self-confidence, ease in group settings, listening skills, learning how to be effective and valuable team members.
- The students will loose the opportunity to develop coveted hard skills such as: developing presentations, developing campaigns, developing their cv and cover letter.
- All around, the students’ diplomas will be less valuable.
What will be gained:
- JMSB will be seen as an institution that cares less about their students and more about their budget.
- JMSB will be seen as an institution that offers speed-learning rather than in depth education.
- JMSB will be seen as an institution that is not interested in the forward-looking trends within the marketing industry but as an institution that is comfortable offering an outdated education.
- JMSB will be seen as an institution that offers a “one size fits all” education, with no real specialization and no real-life experience.
- The students will learn that cramming for exams is better than taking the time to learn.
- The students will learn that an outdated, theory-focused education at JMSB is as costly as an education at other business schools that actually offer courses on specialization, real-world knowledge and a focus on the actual trends within the industry.
Is JMSB not supposed to be focused on a real education for the real world? Is JMSB not supposed to be focused on their students’ education and their graduates’ success? Does JMSB not want to be at the forefront of business educations? Does JMSB not care what their students think or want? Why, after all the up-roar from the professors and the students involved in these courses, would the curriculum committee even consider implementing this change?
I am extremely disappointed and hope that future JMSB students can benefit from the institution that I benefited from; an institution focused on the future and focused on what was best for me.
Erin Willett
B.Comm, Marketing
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