THE FINANCIAL — One of the leading business universities in Georgia – European School of Management (ESM) is starting the new academic year on 22 September. This year the university has increased the usual number of BBA students by 5 and received 85 students in total.
From 1997 ESM had 519 BBA graduates with a graduation rate of 67% and employment rate of 96%. 37% of students were hired at top managerial positions. 15% of graduates became entrepreneurs.
The average salaries that ESM BBA graduates have when they start work is from USD 711 to 853.
For Bachelors: Employment breakdown by industries is: 39% – Service companies, 30% – Financial Institutions, 14% – Factories, 9% – retailing and 8% – other.
Employment breakdown by organization types is: 83% – the Business Sector, 9% – Governmental Organizations and 8% – Non-profit Organizations.
Employment breakdown by functions is: 28% – management, 14% – marketing, 19% – banking, 12% – finance, 12% – audit, 5% – sales, 5% – logistics and 5% – other.
Employment breakdown by company sizes is: 34% – large size companies, 47% – medium size and 19% – small size companies.
Starting from the year 2000 ESM had 119 MBA graduates with 68% graduation rate and 98% employment rate.
For Masters, employment breakdown by industries is: 31% – financial institutions, 38% – service, 14% – factories, 9% – retailing and 8% – other.
Employment breakdown by organization types is: 95% – business sector, 3% – government organizations and 2% – non-profit organizations.
Employment breakdown by functions is: 44% – management, 27% – banking, 10% – finance, 7% – marketing, 3% – sales, 1% – logistics, 2% – audit and 6% – other.
Employment breakdown by company sizes is: 45% – large size companies, 42% – medium size companies and 13% – small size companies.
“This year we increased this number; previously ESM was receiving 80 students. The reason for this was that in previous years there weren’t enough qualified lecturers. Plus, there were more students this year who were ready for the German faculty,” Simon Kadagidze, Principal & Managing Director of ESM, told The FINANCIAL.
For the Master’s degree programme there are 25 new students this year.
In 2007 business school ESM became a part of the Free University of Tbilisi. ESM’s 100% shareholders are the Knowledge Fund. Currently Free University is searching for land for building a new university town. It will be a hundred million dollar project and ESM will be in it.
“We are the number one business school in Georgia,” said Kadagidze.
ESM received the institutional accreditation by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and Central and Western European Management Development Association (CEEMAN) IQA Accreditation.
Those students who will be the first two in the rating will have tuition fees totally covered by the fund. The next ten students with the highest points will receive special student loans. This loan has an annual interest rate of 11%, while the banks offer from 14% to 15%. This loan doesn’t require any additional payments which bank loans do. The students will have to start paying only after four and half years.
Every year the price is rising for BBA programs. In compliance with the articles of Association of ESM Business School, the tuition fee is fixed by the Board of Partners.
For the 2007-2008 academic year the tuition fee is USD 4,906, then the cost will rise by 10-20% per year. Last year’s price was USD 4,266.
“ESM increased tuition fees first of all because of the growth in the economic well being of Georgia. Secondly, in order to be able to provide the best lecturers for our students we must give them high salaries,” said Mr. Kadagidze.
There are discounts for advanced students. Advanced students entering their second and third years are given the following discount:
A student who gains first place in the course rating, will pay only 20% of the new tuition fee for the next year, the winner of the second place – 30% of the new tuition fee, third place – 40%, fourth place – 50% and fifth place – 60%.
“We are not an unprofitable institute. Every year we have considerable profit, though it’s not our mission. We could increase the BBA program price up to USD 10,000 and we would still have a lot of students,” noted the Principal & Managing Director of ESM. “However we are trying to let the talented people from ordinary and poor families receive high quality education. This is all I have to say about the fees.”
It’s already 4 years that ESM has had a special program for talented young people from poor families. They can transfer from other institutes to ESM from the second academic year onwards. Every year 5 students take part in this program.
“Unfortunately the law doesn’t enable us to transfer students from the first academic year,” Kadagidze stated.
Since 1993 ESM-Tbilisi has cooperated with Berufsakademie, Mosbach (FRG). The cooperation has resulted in the decision of the German Government to recognize ESM-Tbilisi diplomas in Germany and allow ESM-Tbilisi students to further their education in Germany at the Magistrates, without any preliminary conditions.
Last year two students were sent to Germany with this program. Georgian banks are paying the studying fees for these students. Among these banks are: Bank of Georgia, TBC Bank, Bank Republic, Kor Standard Bank, VTB Bank, People’s Bank, Basis Bank and now First British Bank. The students have to pay just for their pocket money and travelling expenses. This amount comes to approximately EUR 2,000 plus the ticket price. These students don’t have to pay for the visas because ESM has an agreement with the German Government.
Those students that take part in this program, financed by the banks, are obliged to start working in these banks for one or two years.
“At this moment we are working with our Spanish partners. In the future, students able to study in Spanish will have the opportunity to be sent to Spain, to Basque State University, from ESM,” said Kadagidze.
The bologna declaration enables Georgian students to transfer to any of the European Universities. The problem is that Georgian students don’t have the right to stay to work in these countries.
According to the Principal & Managing Director of ESM the visas weren’t a problem for their students, especially for Germany. If the new trade pact allows Georgian students to work in European countries after studying there, this will make a huge difference.
At this moment the trade pact entails only the simplification of the visa procedures.
The mission of the European School of Management is to build up new Georgian management elite – managers, professionally thinking and professionally acting under the market economy – providing high quality management education, using modern and innovative teaching technologies, highly qualified faculty, and exposing students to practical experience.
The graduates of ESM have founded an independent association which helps other ESM students in finding jobs, covering tuition fees and studying abroad.
“Our objective now is to give higher salaries to our lecturers, especially now when the prices in Georgia are rising, “said Kadagizde.
Last year the BBA lecturer was getting USD 30 an hour at ESM, from which part of the amount was deducted. MBA lecturers earned EUR 45 in an hour. This year the salaries for our BBA and MBA lecturers are going to increase by a minimum of 15%.
Every year ESM sends several of its lecturers abroad for training courses.
ESM also has courses for teaching lecturers business management. ESM is going to add more tourism courses to its programs.
“There is a great need of qualified people in this sector in Georgia and we are going to prepare these people,” noted the Principal & Managing Director of ESM.
The biggest competition among the top business universities seems to be who gets the best lecturers first. According to the President of the Georgian American University (GAU), R. Michael Cowgill, the main reason for the increase in the tuition fees in Georgian business universities is that better lecturers need higher salaries. Every university is trying to have the best faculty members.
In next week’s edition of The FINANCIAL you will find more on GAU and its perspectives.
By Levan Lomtadze
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