Alternative Management Schools in Switzerland
The number of Swiss institutions granting management degrees seems set to proliferate as the management schools of the HES-SO (Haute Ecole Specialisé de Suisse Occidentale) begins offering curricula
The Swiss Federal government gave the go-ahead in 2007. Contrary to what one might think from the name, this master’s degree is not a postgraduate diploma like an MBA. It is rather a masters degree which follows on a bachelor degree, in the Bologna system. Studies last 2 years, adding to the 3 initial years of the bachelors studies in management.
If the degree title is unique for the HES-SO, five different orientations are proposed by the management schools in the French speaking part of Switzerland. The degree is supposed to be a more in-depth study, after general studies in the field of management. Management and services management are offered in Geneva, while Entrepreneurial studies are offered by Fribourg, as well as integrated 
management of information systems, communication systems, and in Sierre public management and hotel and tourism studies (in collaboration with the Hotel School in Lausanne).
Each specialization corresponds to strengths developed by each of the Swiss schools over the preceding years.
Currently economy and services represent the largest part of the HES-SO, which has roughly 3300 students, which exceeds the number of students in the sectors of science and engineering (3100).
The Haite Ecole de Gestion de Genève (HEG) is planning to offer a new program of MBA or management specialization. According to a professor at the HEG, the school is seeking to develop a new discipline: the science of services. Around this theme the School plans to marshall tools, theories, and a critical knowledge base in the management of services, notably in the conception of a service, its valuation, and the attribution of pricing to services, as well as quality measurement, and client satisfaction.
The school also offers more entrenched subjects such as information systems engineering and MIS security, which is a subject of study highly in demand in the USA. Many business schools have developed specialized curricula around Securing information systems and infrastructures.
Because somewhere between 70% - 85% of western economies are now based on services – finance and banking, insurance, I.T., security, communications, training and education, trading, tourism, etc. – a business school curriculum around ‘services management’ seems a potentially innovative product.
The Haute Ecole de Gestion de Fribourg, which specializes in entrepreneurial studies, has implemented a curricula which goes beyond building a successfully company, to consider managing growth and innovation in an existing company.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the university is now set to offer an American-style English language MBA, beginning in September 2008. The English branches will offer International Commodities Trading, international organization, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Telecommunications and Media.
There will remain as well a dozen branches that can be studied in French.
