On May 2, 2023, a delegation from the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) took part in the first Central Asian Forum for managers and employees of business schools. Anna Kuchina, Director, MBA and Executive Education Programs Office, Elena Skalon, Deputy Director, MBA and Executive Education Programs Office, and Yulia Timofeeva, Director of the Center for Executive Education Online Programs visited Almaty to exchange best practices in the field of business education and its internationalization with colleagues.

The forum was organized by the International Association AMBA&BGA, which specializes in the accreditation of MBA programs, and Almaty Management University (AlmaU).

BGA's Accreditation Director, Mr. Victor Hedenberg, shared with participants how BGA's Continuous Impact Model (CIM) and accreditation can be used to improve a business school's value proposition for its stakeholders. The association's experts also noted that the demand for EMBA / MBA programs is not decreasing, but remains stable around the world, and spoke about the key global trends in business education.

“The MBA degree is still the most recognized qualification in the world. Another trend is that after the pandemic, the share of the online component in programs continues to increase, and even full-time MBAs are now increasingly using a hybrid format. Representatives of the AMBA association recommend business schools to actively use artificial intelligence: not to fight new technologies, but to take advantage of them. We are convinced that GSOM SPbU is on the right track by developing hybrid learning, its own OWL LMS platform, and introducing courses and lectures on digitalization into the program,” Anna Kuchina, Director, MBA and Executive Education Programs Office, shared her impression of participating in the forum.

Gulnara Kurenkeeva, Rector of AlmaU, and Zhanpolat Kudaibergenov, Rector of Tashkent Kimyo International University, spoke on the topic of the future of business education in the Central Asian region, formulated the current challenges for business schools and identified ways to overcome them.