E-business MBA on hold due to lack of
high-speed Net connection
by David Kelleher
Plans to introduce a specialised Masters degree in electronic business failed to materialise because Malta does not have high speed Internet connections.
A Masters in Business Administration, specialising in e-business, was supposed to commence in September, soon after Melita Cable announced that it was launching Internet via Cable. It was being jointly organised by the Business School in Grenoble, France and EAN (Malta), the local office of the European Article Numbering organisation.
Local students reading for the MBA would have been able to attend lectures via a videoconferencing link to the school. However, the course has to be postponed because of the dispute that arose between Maltacom and Melita on the provision of Internet via cable.
Speaking to The Malta Business Weekly, Raymond Vassallo, EAN's chief executive, said the demand for the MBA programme was huge but since a fast Internet connection was required for the link, everything had to be put on hold.
"When people heard that we would be offering, in collaboration with the Business School in Grenoble, an MBA specialising in e-business, we were inundated with calls. However, the only way that we could have provided a quality link with Grenoble would have been through a high-speed connection, that is using either cable or ISDN. Unfortunately, both services are not available in Malta, for one reason or another," Mr Vassallo said.
The MBA in e-business is designed to help future managers understand how Internet technologies can contribute to business competitiveness. Grenoble is among the top four business schools in France and its main partner is IBM. In fact, local students would have been able to avail themselves of both the school's and IBM's resources.
As the degree is based on course work and a final case study, students may also be appointed as interns at one of a number of participating IT companies in Europe.
Mr Vassallo said that EAN and Grenoble were still discussing the possibility of commencing the course next September and hopefully by then high-speed connections via ISDN or ADSL will be available. "We are confident that the MBA will be launched next September, but it all depends on how fast developments in the local telecoms sector come about," Mr Vassallo told The Malta Business Weekly.
Maltacom were supposed to have launched ISDN this month, but the telecommunications regulator has not, as yet, approved the pricing structure for the service. ADSL is expected to be soft-launched in March or April of next year.
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