Heather McGregor(Dean, Edinburgh Business School) – “BREXIT IS MODERN WAR”

The dean of Edinburgh Business School was in Mauritius recently to visit their local partner Glamis Business School. She comments on the country’s ambition to become a knowledge hub and gives insights on the world economic situation.

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BUSINESS MAGAZINE. The partnership between Edinburgh Business School and Glamis Business School goes way back to 1999. What is your assessment of its evolution? 

We gauge this partnership by the quality of the students here. We formally revaluate all of our partnerships every three years owing to university requirements. There are other factors coming into play such as regulatory approval in Scotland. Anyone who teaches at Glamis Business School has to be an approved tutor of my university and every programme on offer by our partner has to be approved by the University of Mauritius as well. 

We are looking for quality in the teachers, the students and in terms of how well they are taken care of. I especially appreciate the fact that several of the teachers have another job as well. Students love them because they can then get real exposure to the business world. Our students in Mauritius get astonishingly higher marks in the area of fi nance than in other parts of the world where we offer our MBA programme. Finance is an especially challenging part of this degree. We are talking about a general pass rate of around 65% but with 80% in Mauritius. The marks here are outstanding and people have an affi nity for numbers. It is a very general comment but I think it is because people are brought up here to talk about numbers. There is a really good business ethos here in Mauritius, even down to the person running a snack shop. There is a real sense here of entrepreneurism and business even among the youth. 

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BUSINESS MAGAZINE. One of the country’s coveted ambitions is to position itself as a knowledge hub aiming for 100,000 foreign students setting foot on the island. Right now, we are far from this countdown with only about 1,700 foreign students. How do you view this aim? 

Australia has done a really good job in developing its education export business. The country has a population of around 22 million people, roughly 20 times the size of Mauritius’ population but it has half a million foreign students. This is roughly one twentieth of its total population. So, if Mauritius reaches 25,000 students, it would be the same proportionately. For 100,000 students, it is more a question of whether you have the structure in place for this. People are investing in students’ accommodation in the UK because it brings a very good return. Is there this kind of infrastructure here? Are the visas friendly enough? This is a real issue the UK will be facing post-Brexit, not only with visas for students but also for the teachers since a lot of them are not UK nationals. If Mauritius really wants to reach such a student population, it will have to implement a lot of changes especially in the infrastructure and regulatory environment. A lot of marketing is needed as well. 

There are currently more than 65 million undergraduate students in China; more than the UK’s population. Imagine if you could just get a small proportion of them to come to Mauritius for their degree? I think there is a real opportunity in the business fi eld of learning since the Mauritian economy is composed of various sectors with a lot of fi nancial companies setting up over here. You have got a fantastic tax regime which is very supportive. Mauritius is a good place to come and to look into African opportunities as well, especially if you are interested at looking into the emerging economies of the continent for your students.  

BUSINESS MAGAZINE. Finland recently scrapped all subjects in school and replaced them with topics in a bid to reform its education system. What are your views on this method? 

My view is more as a parent than as an educator on this move. It is true that the absolute pinnacle is about fi nding a way to make all the subjects come together. The problem with ambitioning to educate in this manner is that you might lose the foundation of everything.

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BUSINESS MAGAZINE. The MBA has become the most popular master’s degree. What are the prospects for professionals embarking on this fi eld of study? 

The MBA gives you an overview of everything, since the running of any organisation comprises several aspects such as product management, budgeting and marketing. I think rumours of the MBA’s death are much exaggerated. Statistics show that demand for studying an MBA is decreasing in the developed world but there is no shortage of people applying to business schools. Those having the ambition to manage human resources will want to go for an MBA. One third of our students are in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a big demand in these fast-growing economies. 

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BUSINESS MAGAZINE. Brain drain is a burning issue for Mauritius. Should we be concerned? 

It is very good that people go overseas. I know people that moved here to work in fi nancial services. What is important is whether the economy can grow or not. If it continues to do so, then it will provide opportunities for people to come back. Government would be mad not to encourage people to grow. There is a lot of talent here along with extraordinary bilingual ability and multiculturalism. This puts you straight ahead of the Bahamas and other islands that have made a big market out of this advantage. There is an opportunity to manage African operations from here. My question is for foreign students: do we have the infrastructure here?

Internet is going to be critical as well. Is the regulation going to keep up? I went by the Cyber City during my visit and I know there are a lot of fi rms set up there. They are going to need that infrastructure. Mauritius has political stability, the rule of law prevails and people understand how to do business here. Indeed, the country comes very high on the Ease of doing business ranking.

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BUSINESS MAGAZINE. You mentioned the Brexit earlier. How are the parties involved coping with the idea that the UK will no longer be part of the European Union in the near future?

Different people come to face with this very differently. I think it is more fundamental than that. This has been the most decisive situation since the Second World War. 

BUSINESS MAGAZINE. Can we talk about a modern war? 

Yes, it is. People feel so passionately about it. It is the single most decisive thing and it all stems from the view of what will happen to the economy afterwards. The truth is we don’t know. Economics is not an exact science. We cannot run a control test from a laboratory in some sealed petri dish. I don’t believe that anybody, even a Nobel Prize for Economics, know what is going to happen next. 

Businesses do not like uncertainty. My anxiety for the economy is that people wouldn’t make decisions to invest or to hire people. If businesses are nervous about the future and are worried about things like exchange rates and ability to fi nd staff and tariffs, then on the whole they will not make a decision to invest. 

Having said that, we have seen recently that a big French car company has decided to invest some 100 million pounds to build vans in the UK. If they are to stick around, it means they must have a good trade deal. Now that we are coming out of the EU, we are going to make the best of it. Britain will fi nd a way to build a very strong economy on the back of an independent nation. This has divided people very widely. 

BUSINESS MAGAZINE. Through the Brexit, it seems the UK is trying to retreat from globalisation while other emerging nations such as China and India have never had a more global footprint. What can we expect from this new global economic landscape? 

There is absolutely no doubt that China is now a much more important player than the United States. I travel all the time and go mainly to developing countries because that’s where the big demand for MBAs comes from. When you go to places like Myanmar, everything over there in terms of investment is Chinese. It is the same for various African countries. The world will have to consider doing business with China as a number one priority. We have a very big exchange programme with China, with 300 to 400 Chinese students on our campus at any one time. They are all studying the same thing: how to link business terms and China to the rest of the world? 

BUSINESS MAGAZINE. How have international markets reacted to the regulatory changes that came into play, aiming for more transparency and integrity such as the Base Erosion and Profi t Shifting of the OECD and FATCA? 

It is about competition. Business leaders now think about who they are competing with. Formerly, if you were a retail company you were competing with other retail companies for shareholders but that is not true anymore since people can now invest on a global basis. They can invest in every kind of instrument, geography and currency. Now, we have cryptocurrencies as well. It is mind-blowing how before the arrival of the Internet, people were limited in their choices. Now with more options available, they are exercising it on things like sustainability. 

That is why Marks & Spencer, for example, has published a list of its entire supply chain on its website, even the name and address of every factory it uses around the world, including Mauritius. This is why it attracts so many shareholders.

BUSINESS MAGAZINE. Speaking about cryptocurrencies, many economists predict this phenomenon is likely to give birth to a new fi nancial bubble while the lack of regulation for this type of money has sparked concerns as well. What are your thoughts?

If I could predict that there will be another fi nancial bubble, then I would already be retired. Going back to the dot.com bubble of 1999 when all of the Internet companies started, I remember the day when Amazon became bigger that British Airways. People thought it was a bubble. It eventually collapsed but it is back up again. 

There is defi nitely a need to regulate cryptocurrencies like Blockchain. That kind of currency is needed. There are many cryptocurrencies but which one is going to survive is another question. It is about trust. You need a cryptocurrency that people can put their faith in and they are more likely to do this if it is regulated. Who is going to regulate? It is another question because there is no national regulator.

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