To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

The School of Business and Management of Technology at Belarusian State University

  

OK.  Now that I have provided a brief overview of the Fulbright program and the country, I thought I would just provide a little background info on Belarusian State University and the School of Business and Management of Technology, where I will be teaching over the summer.  

Belarusian State University was founded in Minsk on October 30, 1921, and is the top university in the higher education system in Belarus and is located in the heart of downtown Minsk.  There are nearly 7500 employees (2500 of which are teaching/research faculty).  Enrollment is around 5,000 students (with students from more than 102 countries represented on campus) each year, including undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. students. 

The School of Business and Management of Technology was established in 1996, with the MBA program coming online in 1999.  There are currently 13 different programs/majors offered in the business school.  

I will be teaching a human resource management course in the MBA program, in addition to helping out with curriculum and faculty development initiatives as the need arises.  The nice thing for me is that all MBA courses are taught in English, so I don't need to worry too much about the language issue (I have been repeatedly reassured that the currently 17 MBA students enrolled in my class have excellent English...  we shall see!).  I was told the same thing before my trip to China, only to find that there actually was quite a wide range in the language ability of the students (surprise, surprise...!).  I have my course all prepared and ready to go, but I am also ready to be flexible and change things last minute if that is what they need (and I suspect there is a pretty good chance that things will change).  And I am very excited to interact with the students, which was one of my favorite parts of my China trip last fall.  I also plan to conduct interviews with business faculty and local business leaders regarding the unique nature of doing business in Belarus (particularly pertaining to HR/employee-related issues). 

And though unrelated to BSU and the business school, here is another nice time lapse video clip of Belarus (so pretty I just couldn't resist!).