Multicultural Learning in Management – International Semester 2019

Relations internationales

Play is not a luxury but rather a crucial dynamic of healthy physical,

intellectual, and social-emotional development at all age levels.

– David Elkind

At the IAE Savoie Mont Blanc, we are pleased to welcome a cohort of students from 11 countries—including Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Morocco, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Russia, and the United States—for the 2019 edition of the International Semester in Management. Two-thirds of the students join the program by way of academic exchange programs, and the others are enrolled in one of the IAE’s Masters programs and have opted to begin their degree with the international semester. This multicultural and multilingual group works together in English-taught courses from September through December.

The International Semester aims to provide a high quality academic and cultural experience that is both international and strongly rooted in the French Alpine context in which it takes place. To this end, courses are taught by associate and full professors from the IAE Savoie Mont Blanc and partner institutions in France and abroad, most of them also active researchers in various areas of management and economics and well-connected to professional business environments.

Interactive and learner-centered pedagogy is a cornerstone of the program, which includes many business games and innovative project assignments. Among these are a video-based study on migration for the economics course, a business game in marketing, and a Dragon’s Den event in collaboration with the IUT Savoie Mont Blanc semester on International Industrial and Business Management. As seen in the photos, students learn international project management through a timed brick construction challenge as well as through the Creative Problem-Solving seminar developed by Promising IDEFI at the Université Grenoble Alpes. This experiential learning is connected to theory by way of concepts central to leadership, intercultural and multilingual management, and agile collaboration.

To fully benefit from their time in France, students are encouraged to take classes at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc’s ACCENTS Center for French as a Foreign Language and to discover the region around Annecy. The course schedule for the semester is arranged into alternating weeks. Each week of class is followed by a week dedicated to independent project work, allowing plenty of time for exploration and travel.

For more information about the International Semester, see the program description online.

1 Intl sem - group photo1.JPG