Spain’s ESADE Business School has formed a new international alliance with Finland’s Aalto University, a leader in the field of innovation, to expand its offerings for entrepreneurs, ESADE announced today. Aalto University President Tuula Teeri and ESADE Director General Eugenia Bieto signed an agreement outlining the new partnership this morning at ESADECREAPOLIS, the innovation center located on ESADE’s Barcelona campus.
One of Europe’s newest universities, Aalto was created in 2010 by the merger of Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Art and Design Helsinki and has received widespread attention for its innovative blend of management, technology and design.
ESADE, ranked 5th among business schools worldwide by the Financial Times, is already renowned for its excellence in entrepreneurship, innovation and social leadership, and this newest alliance adds to more than 150 agreements with other international schools, including Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Guanghua School of Management in Beijing and HEC Paris.
“ESADE remains committed to alliances with globally renowned partners as a means of enhancing our growth strategy,” Bieto said in a statement. “I think ESADE and Aalto are the best possible combination for entrepreneurs who are passionate about innovation as a means of generating new business opportunities.”
ESADE and Aalto are partnering on a range of joint programs and projects, including an Internship Innovation Programme (I2P), which brings together multidisciplinary teams of ESADE and Aalto students to work on real-life business challenges for Spanish and Finnish companies. Nearly 100 students from the two schools have already participated in the first editions of I2P for companies including HP, Repsol, BBVA, Planeta, Kekkilä and the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication.
As part of the new agreement signed today, the two schools will also launch a double master’s degree program in innovation and entrepreneurship, a two-year program held in Barcelona and Helsinki that will award students who complete it with degrees from both schools. ESADE and Aalto University Executive Education also will continue their successful Design Thinking for Business Innovation, a joint program for executives focused on a cutting-edge management method to drive innovation in the marketplace.
Learn more about this new partnership between ESADE and Finland’s Aalto University.
