Murdoch University is aiming to bolster its business credentials after recruiting small business expert, Michael Schaper, to the newly created role of business school dean.
Perth-born Professor Schaper has returned to Western Australia to take up the position. He will be aiming to employ more people to senior positions in the coming months to help develop the school into a well-respected niche player in business education.
Professor Schaper said there was significant scope to provide an offering different to that being delivered by the state’s biggest business schools, at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University.
“I think their focus is on large corporations rather than medium size and smaller firms,” Professor Schaper told WA Business News.
“They have a very high profile but I think there is room in the marketplace for really effective, well run smaller business schools.”
Professor Schaper was most recently head of Bond University’s business school, a position he said he held for a short while because he wanted to return home to WA.
Prior to working for Bond University, he spent about two years in a role akin to a small business ombudsman as the ACT’s Small Business Commissioner.
He is a member of the International Council for Small Business board and worked for several years as a small business adviser.
Professor Schaper said that, while he had a strong small business background, the school’s focus would be across the entire business spectrum.
“We need to ensure that the education provided by university business schools can provide students with both the skills for today and for the future,” he said.
“We also need to ensure that the needs of all businesses – small ones, large corporations, and not-for-profit organisations – are met.”
Professor Schaper said he would evaluate Murdoch’s business courses and talk with business leaders and owners about what they were seeking from graduates.
“We need to look at what we are offering and what the business sector wants,” he said.
Murdoch vice-chancellor, John Yovich, said he was confident Professor Schaper would raise the profile of the business school and attract more students to its programs.
