With three new campuses within 5 years, the launch of 8 programmes in 3 years, an innovative international approach and the creation of 360° centres of expertise, NEOMA Business School unveils its strategic plan for 2022 with a clear ambition: to grow in strength and become the innovative challenger to the major international business schools.

The strong ambition to be a leading challenger

Having entered a post-merger phase, NEOMA Business School has built its new strategic plan around a clear ambition: to further develop and challenge the established practices in the sector. “Today, students are searching for meaning and expect companies to take on a new role, more oriented towards social commitment. Schools are certainly not immune to this concern,” points out Michel Edouard Leclerc, President. “NEOMA Business School is certainly taking this reality into full account, whilst continuing to draw on its history, regional roots and identity.” In addition to this context, changes to the environment need to be considered. “Our mission has changed, we now have to train our students in emerging skills and for the professions that do not yet exist,” explains Delphine MANCEAU, Dean. “In addition, we are facing a new generation of students with their curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, openness to the world and new learning codes.”

The challenge: to transform this reality into opportunities and build the School of tomorrow. To do so, by taking an agile approach characterized by the "test and learn" method, NEOMA Business School is asking questions of itself and adopting a challenger mindset. “What would we like to challenge? Ourselves, first of all!” explains the Dean. “But also, our international approach, our teaching methods, our digital vision and the structure of our campuses. Our objective is not simply to follow innovations, but to create them.” To respond to this new ambition in detail, NEOMA Business School presents its strategic plan for 2022 based on 3 areas.

Focus on educational innovation

Strengthened by its pioneering position with the use of Immersive Virtual Reality in the classroom, the School is now rethinking its educational approach in depth. “Teaching methods must incorporate new relationships with information and knowledge, capture the attention, create experiential learning based on fast-evolving technologies. But also, to meet the challenges of a new era, that of digital technology, entrepreneurship and the agility of ever-changing organizations.” To do this, NEOMA Business School is redesigning its campuses and expanding its range of courses.

•    Transforming the campuses to promote educational innovation

NEOMA Business School campuses are instrumental in its pedagogical and digital transformation. In Paris, the move to a new 6500+m2 intramural campus with a capacity to host 1500 students has been announced for 2021. In Reims, by 2022, a move to a single campus capable of accommodating an additional 1000 students for a total of 5000 is planned. In Rouen, two options are under consideration to accommodate 5000 students under ideal conditions: a move to a new site or a complete renovation of the existing campus.

From this year the School will also be challenging the class room set-up by creating new learning spaces:
•    “Augmented Learning rooms”, for an augmented teaching approach using a diverse range of resources for the same teaching period,
•    “Creativity rooms”, educational playgrounds for imagining, creating, innovating,
•    “Resources rooms”, equipped with innovative, state-of-the-art equipment (latest generation smartphones and tablets, video production equipment, modelling instruments, 3D printers, etc.) for all students, regardless of the level of their personal equipment.

“With an investment budget of €300 million, these new campuses will be open and modular, promoting learning, creativity and networking,” Delphine MANCEAU points out.

•     Rethinking the range of courses with new programme options

From the start of the 2019 academic year, the TEMA and Global BBA post-baccalaureate programmes will be available in Paris, in addition to the current programme in Reims and in Rouen. In 2020, the CESEM programme will also be available on the Paris campus. “This opening in Paris will contribute to the development of the programmes in Reims and Rouen, whilst responding to the desire of many Parisian high school students to start their higher education closer to home, before going on to study abroad and on our more established sites.”

The Postgraduate offer is also to be strengthened by several new programmes on the three campuses:
•   MSc in Risk Analytics & Fintech - Paris
•   MSc in Value Creation & Luxury – Paris
•   MSc in Digital & Innovative Supply Chain – Rouen
•   MS part-time in Finance & Big Data – Paris
•   MS part-time in Business Development & Key Client Accounts – Reims

Reinventing international immersion

International immersion is at the very heart of the NEOMA Business School DNA, and this approach will be extended by launching a variety of new programmes through our global network of more than 300 quality universities. “We are challenging the traditional academic exchange format to offer a wide range of enhanced international experiences”.

•    “Entrepreneurs without borders” exchange programme

This new set-up offers students incubated at NEOMA Business School the opportunity to carry out their exchange with a partner university's incubator. “They will be able to work with international business partners, meet local start-ups, set up joint projects and even identify potential growth markets for their activity,” explains the Dean.
The first agreements have been signed with the Antai College of Economics & Management at Shanghai Jiaotong University, one of China's most prestigious universities, and also with the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil.

•    “Student Societies without borders” track

Students who are strongly committed to the NEOMA Business School Student Society network will be able to continue their involvement abroad with a partner university. This unique track blends Society experience and course work in line with the Society's activity. “Through immersion in the student societies abroad, students will be able to develop projects with their local counterparts and according to local practices,” Delphine Manceau adds. A first partnership has been signed with Dublin City University (DCU).

•    "Learning without borders" initiative

Since last September, Global BBA students have been able to complete their 4th year apprenticeship contract abroad while following an online academic programme. “This borderless learning system allows companies to recruit apprentices for export missions or international subsidiaries.”

“We are proud to be the first Business School to offer these 3 new international immersion models, which significantly reinvent and enhance the students' international experience, while respecting our conviction that an exchange is more rewarding when students are immersed in the best-performing universities abroad,” insists the Dean.

Applying 360° expertise

By creating 360° expertise centres, the School is able to generate synergies between its various activities based on 4 dimensions: the programmes, research, Executive Education and companies. “We are able to benefit from the synergies generated by our activities through the cutting-edge expertise of our teacher-researchers,” explains Delphine Manceau.

Five centres of expertise, closely related to business transformation issues, have been set up:
•     “Fintech & Cryptofinance” Centre,
•     “Mobility” Centre,
•    “Entrepreneurship” Centre,
•     “Europe-Asia” Centre,
•    “Audit & Consulting” Centre.

To achieve these ambitions, the School faculty has been strengthened in 2018 with the recruitment of 17 international professors representing 12 different nationalities. This annual recruitment rate will be maintained up to 2022.