SINGAPORE: As executives take time off from work to beef up their resumes with an MBA ahead of an expected economic recovery, educators say it is time for a review of the MBA curriculum.

The global slump should be an opportunity for schools offering MBA programmes to review their 'business model', said a prominent Singapore educator, after the ethics of Wall Street executives came under fire.

Professor Bernard Yeung, dean of the National University of Singapore Business School, said that apart from teaching managerial skills and the art of increasing profits, business schools must return to basics.

'Education has to become a total package. It's not just about money, but explaining the world to them, explaining the values to them, explaining the various choices, the actions and consequences,' said Prof Yeung.

Mr Bernard Ramanantsoa, dean of leading European business school HEC Paris, said he hoped lessons could be learnt from the crisis.

'Maybe in the previous years, we have not explained well enough to our students what the pure rules of the game of capitalism are,' he said.

'Unregulated capitalism can be dangerous, as we see today.

'Maybe we forgot to tell people that a free market does not mean total freedom.' - AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE