The School of Business received top marks from its graduates – five ways in which the school ensures the quality of its teaching

Of the latest alumni of Aalto University School of Business, 95 percent would recommend the degree, according to the results of the most recent placement survey. In addition, 93 percent of graduates feel that employers value the degree. The survey focused on those who completed a master’s degree a year ago. Annual surveys also track the situation of those who graduated five years ago, and the results of these career monitoring surveys are similar.

In this article the School of Business Associate Dean Tomas Falk, the long‑time Associate Director for the Bachelor’s programme in business Johanna Bragge, and the advocacy officer of Aalto University Business Students (KY) Atte Moisio describe the ways in which the quality of teaching is maintained at the School of Business.

1. Quality is monitored systematically and in collaboration with students

   At the School of Business, Associate Dean responsible for teaching and learning, Tomas Falk, says that the quality of teaching is monitored systematically. Programme committees, which include student and alumni members, regularly review course feedback and needs for teaching development. In addition, the School of Business management meets regularly with student representatives of Aalto University Business Students, that is KY, and discusses current issues related to teaching and education with them. Students’ views and feedback are therefore explicitly taken into account when considering the direction in which teaching should be developed.

   Atte Moisio recognises the openness highlighted by Falk and describes the relationship between the School of Business faculty and KY as close. The threshold for making contact is low and dedicated time is reserved for KY’s current issues in various School of Business management teams and committees.

   Johanna Bragge also notes that the general learning objectives of the School of Business programmes were updated in spring 2026. For example, the five intended learning outcomes of the bachelor’s programme in business, such as the ability to analyse the operations and problems of companies and other organisations and identify creative solutions that take responsibility and sustainability challenges into account, were tailored to suit each major subject specifically from their own perspectives.

2. Top-level partners: School of Business students benefit from high-quality corporate collaboration and a world-class exchange network

   Bragge highlights the School of Business’ diverse forms of collaboration with companies and other organisations. Guests from the business world, from CEOs to other leaders and experts, visit lectures continuously. We also make use of case collaborations in our teaching, where genuine problems experienced by companies and other organisations are solved either through concise case descriptions or directly in cooperation with company representatives. Students can tackle these latter challenges, among other things, in customised student business projects or in the Information Technology Program (ITP) organised in the summer. ITP is a 30‑credit summer programme in which students work in teams of 4–6 people on digital business challenges provided by companies. The programme has been part of the School of Business’ offering for over 30 years. Increasingly, students also complete their theses directly for companies and thus get to apply what they have learnt in real life.

   The School of Business collaborates with the world’s most respected universities and business schools, for example through student exchange agreements. The School’s international network includes about 140 partner universities in 42 countries. Around 94 percent of our partner universities have been awarded an international accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS or AMBA).

3. Teaching evolves with the times and offers students both the latest research results and critical practical skills

   Teaching in business is both research‑based and relevant to the business world, Bragge says. The balance between these leads to the best outcomes. 

   Lecturers continuously present fresh research results in courses and discuss them with students. This works best when presenting research in which the lecturer has personally been involved. At the School of Business, research is part of the duties of almost everyone involved in teaching, with the exception of hourly teachers. Alongside theory, students learn practical data-analytical and software skills through applied examples, for instance by familiarising themselves with business analytics and enterprise resource planning systems commonly used in companies. 

   In developing teaching, the business world is also listened to closely and it is critically assessed to what extent the content of teaching should evolve in line with current demands. This assessment is closely linked to anticipating the future – short‑term trends are not chased. Particularly valuable insights are provided by alumni members of the programme committees and alumni ambassadors.

4. Different areas of business are brought together in a large project at the end of studies

   The cornerstone of teaching is to help students see the connections between different business areas. These include, among others, accounting, finance, marketing, and operations and service management.

   One way in which students get to practise the interplay between these areas is through business simulation games based on experiential learning. These are used especially in capstone courses at the end of the degree. In them, small student teams compete against other teams’ companies in the same markets for several sessions, that is numerous game months, and get to practise fast‑paced decision‑making without risk before moving into working life. 

   According to Bragge, the simulation game developed in Finland and used at the School of Business has received exceptionally positive feedback from students. Its real‑time nature, numerous key performance indicators (KPIs) and the ERP system providing analytics enable a very authentic experience for student teams as a basis for decision‑making in the simulation companies. Students have said that, in the game, they inevitably learn about teamwork, communication and goal‑oriented strategic planning in business. 

5. Teaching covers both effective collaboration between humans and AI and social interaction with other people

   In the coming years, AI will replace many work tasks entirely or significantly speed up the work of knowledge workers. On the other hand, it creates entirely new tasks or workflows. As a result, both collaboration between humans and AI and interaction between people will take on increasingly important roles in companies. In addition to aiming to teach relevant AI skills according to Bragge, key themes in many courses now include leading people, redesigning processes and change management. 

   Presentation skills, both in Finnish and foreign languages, are also particularly important for School of Business graduates, and therefore teaching in negotiation and other communication must be based on genuine interaction situations. The School of Business recently revamped its compulsory first‑year communication course so that positive communication and improvisational theatre methods were placed at the core of the course. The aim is to strengthen students’ interaction, teamwork, listening and negotiation skills so that they match employers’ needs even better.