Tim Wray took over as director of UCD Smurfit Executive Development last summer having spent the previous 25 years working in executive education in Britain and Ireland following a successful career in the telecoms sector. He has seen some quite profound changes in executive education during that time and believes more are on the way.
“It’s a very competitive landscape,” he says. “Very few business schools are offering executive education purely with their own faculty. Partnerships are critically important. We are leveraging partnerships with business schools around the world to add to our own capability and bring a broader perspective. We are involved in a lot of global alliances and are actively forging new partnerships to further enhance the experience of our students.”
The way courses are delivered is also changing. Increasingly, programmes are blended with a mix of classroom and remote delivery, he notes. “We still see the value of the in-person experience. It is very difficult to replicate that learning experience. It facilitates collaboration and mentoring, for example.”
There is a significant amount of online delivery as well and this has its uses, according to Wray. “If we are dealing with a dispersed workforce on one of our customised programmes a lot of the learning will be online. We enhance the experience through gamification and other methods. We bring the participants on site as well, of course.”
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Technology will play an increasingly important role, he believes. “I’m not saying they are here but in future we will see technologies like virtual reality being used to study business cases. Instead of reading something, you will put on a set of goggles to engage in case work. That will impact how we design programmes and the infrastructure we need to support them.”
He emphasises the practical nature of executive education, using the word “pracademic” to describe the mix between academic learning and practical application. Before returning to Ireland to take up his role at UCD Smurfit Executive Development, he was a professor of practice and director of executive education at Warwick University Business School. Professors of practice ensure students are equipped to use academic learning in real-world settings.
“It is the number two ranked business school in Britain and was the first university in the UK to appoint professors of practice,” he says. “During my time there it achieved its highest-ever ranking in the Financial Times top 100 executive education providers.”
He describes the opportunity to take up the director role at Smurfit as hugely attractive. “I was coming back to work in the country’s top-ranked executive education provider. It has an excellent reputation and a great track record, and I could see great potential here. It is another university-based business school. That’s a real differentiator when dealing with corporate clients for customised courses. The ability to deliver solutions for companies to drive improvement while leveraging the full resources of the university is very interesting.”
Smurfit Executive Development offers both open and customised courses. “The spine of our open programmes is our suite of professional diploma programmes,” Wray points out. “We also work with corporate clients to develop customised solutions to their talent development, capability building and strategy execution needs. We work with corporate clients to understand their strategy and what they are trying to achieve. We shine a light on capability and skills gaps and help them confidently execute their strategies.”
The masters pathway, which allows open programme students take three diplomas to gain an MSc in Business (Leadership & Management Practice) is unique, he says. “A lot of people take on one diploma and then follow through with another two to get the masters. Each diploma involves a deep dive into a particular subject area like digital transformation, leadership, organisational change, finance or sustainable supply chain management. An MBA is more general, and we have people who did an executive MBA in the past coming back to do diplomas.”
Diploma students often come with the intention of doing one course, but the learning experience changes their perspective. “In many cases, they come out of it wanting to do more and look at what they can do next.”
He reiterates the importance of the practical focus. “Students might have to write an essay on leadership, but the primary focus is on becoming a better leader in practice when they leave. We want to enhance the skills and capability and value they create for their organisations. That’s the beauty of post-experience learning. Participants can apply the learning in real time. They can extract value from the programme immediately in their workplace. Our faculty is a critical part of this. It is a very international faculty with diverse experience. They ensure the learning at UCD Smurfit Executive Development is cutting edge and up to date.”
