When the AACSB, the US accreditation body, recently visited the Kellogg School at Northwestern University, one of the accreditation panel was moved by the number of student activities at the business school to ask what a student would do if he or she were a loner.

Key Kellogg School statistics

Swiftly came the reply from a current MBA: "They would probably be part of the loner's club."

Joking aside, the Kellogg school has built itself a reputation as having one of the most collegiate and student-orientated MBA programmes.

To begin with, the student life is impressive: there is a student president and five vice-presidents who organise conferences and overseas trips - and the 86 student clubs.

More importantly, the whole ethos of the teaching at Kellogg is student-centric, with teamwork at the heart of the learning process. Students are consulted at all levels of decision-making with regards to the curriculum.

So, in early December, when the faculty decided to launch a curriculum review, all full-time MBA students received an electronic questionnaire, asking them for their input.

The task force of 11 set up to carry out the review includes one student as well as seven faculty and three administrators.

The aim is to discuss changes in the structure of what is taught on the MBA programme, rather than the content, which is updated on an ongoing basis, says David Besanko, associate dean for academic affairs.

The sort of topics under discussion will be whether the Kellogg structure of three quarters (or terms) should be replaced by a two-semester system, such as that operated at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and how the core courses should be sequenced.

Another question is whether the courses should be changed in length to give more variety early in the first year and so help students during their internships, says Prof Besanko.

The new curriculum structure should be implemented for the incoming class of 2003, with some of the ideas piloted this year.

Prof Besanko is one of two associate deans to be appointed by the school's dean, Dipak Jain. Prof Jain took over the mantle of running the school last year from Donald Jacobs, who earned the title "dean of deans" for his lengthy tenure at Kellogg.

The second associate dean is Robert Magee, who has been charged by Prof Jain to develop the school's research capabilities. "We need to place as much visible impact on research as we do on teaching," says Prof Magee.

One response has been to publicise internally what sort of research is being conducted and set up faculty research presentations, where faculty present their latest research to students.

The school will also launch a research award - there are already teaching awards - for the faculty member who publishes the best paper in any given year.

For Prof Jain, research is only one priority: building up the brand of the school and investing in the student and alumni body are also at the top of the list. "We need to effect the personality of every individual," he says. "Everyone has the capability to do more than we are delivering."

Teamwork, for which Kellogg is so widely recognised, should be turned around and looked at from the point of view of team leadership, he says. And leaders should have interests outside management - in art, music, "something special".

Such focus on the individual at Kellogg has always meant that students are interviewed before being accepted on the programme, either at the business school, by the school's alumni internationally and around the US or, if these two are not feasible, over the telephone. Every student file is read three times.

Only by conducting interviews can the school be sure that the student fits the programme, says Michele Rogers, director of admissions.

"These days, students are writing to get into business schools rather than getting the school that fits," she argues.

For the class of 620 there are about 6,000 applicants and successful candidates will have an average GMAT score of 700. No mean feat.

Its situation in the upmarket Chicago satellite of Evanston, Illinois, on the shores of Lake Michigan, together with its congenial atmosphere, are two of the reasons why outsiders often refer to Kellogg as the country club of US business schools. A further reason is its huge executive education centre, the Allen centre, with executive dining, fabulous views and even a swimming pool.

It hosts participants on both Kellogg's short executive programmes and its executive MBA programmes. So popular are these programmes that, at weekends, all 150 rooms are fully booked - and some participants have occasionally to stay in local hotels.

From this month, the school will be expanding its list of schools with which it offers a joint executive MBA degree when the Schulich school at York University, in Toronto, enters the Kellogg fold to join schools in Germany, Israel and Hong Kong.

There had been plans to launch similar partnerships with a clutch of schools in South America: plans which have now been shelved.

Only with an upturn in the economy will it enable Kellogg to expand its family still further.

0Northwestern University: Kellogg

Programme length (months)	23	Number of students	531
Percentage of international students	29	Percentage of women students	27
Percentage of graduates employed after three months	90	Audit date: MBA2002
‘The learning environment at Kellogg is truly co-operative, with a very specific learning style that may not work for everyone. I believe that the admissions department does an outstanding job of selecting those candidates that do succeed and that is what makes it such a special place. For those who thrive in such an environment I cannot recommend it highly enough.’

French alumnus

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