Speak up and be heard at Prasetiya Mulya institute

Speak up and be heard at Prasetiya Mulya institute

Money, or its pursuit, talks at most business schools. At Prasetiya Mulya Business School, however, it is the students who are encouraged -- even demanded -- to speak up and say what they have in mind.

No more tongue-tied eggheads sitting passively as the faculty member prattles away with his/her one-sided assessment of concepts and paradigms. Search in vain for nervous nellies taking root in dark corners of the room.

Befitting its prominence as the country's first business school to offer an MBA degree, Prasetiya Mulya Business School aims to graduate students who can think and express themselves in the competitive business world.

At Prasetiya Mulya Business School, students have the freedom to ask questions of their faculty members at any time. But the requirement for such active class participation means that the students must keep up with the reading assignments in order to contribute.

Prasetiya Mulya Business School's 35-strong faculty, 90 percent of whom are graduated from foreign universities, stress to the students the importance of participating in class discussions.

Faculty members are not upset or feel offended when the students ask a lot of questions, or even probing questions.

Freedom to participate, and doing away with the tradition of intellectual kowtowing to authority, lends itself to a more relaxed relationship between faculty members and students at Prasetiya Mulya Business School.

Students and faculty members mingle on campus, even going out together as a group for lunch or dinner. "It's a more democratic climate than other universities," says one faculty member. "Students can come to us at any time. They can even tell us whether they like or dislike our teaching style. Like if we are too slow or too fast. But the freedom to speak up takes some getting used to for many Indonesian students."

There are some difficulties at first because the learning paradigm in Indonesia is to listen and learn. But students at Prasetiya Mulya know that they will not get many benefits from their lesson if they do not participate.

An assessment of an applicant's ability to participate in class discussions is included in the admissions process. In classes, students are required to present their group assignments, conduct business simulations and case discussions. At the end of the program, the students are assigned into groups and each group must prepare a business plan and pass the final comprehensive exam before they are granted the MM degree.

The school is oriented to the practical application of business concepts to situations in the workplace to help students understand how to use their learning in the workplace.

Alumni vouch that it stands them in good stead for the business world. They say that after starting a job, they realize they obtained so much from the school, and they are not taken by surprised by the demands of the work environment.

Prasetiya Mulya Business School, Jl. R.A. Kartini, Cilandak Barat, Jakarta, 12430, Tel: 7500463/7657257, Fax: 7500460/7511125.