Having escalated to a global pandemic, the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) is causing business, financial and personal fallout. In the MBA admissions space, it began with cancelling entrance exams, and extended to changing in-person interviews and campus events. To better understand the impact of COVID-19, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is launching a course, “Epidemics, Natural Disasters, and Geopolitics: Managing Global Business and Financial Uncertainty.”
Wharton Dean Geoff Garrett says,
“There are significant business lessons to be learned from the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, and Wharton is at the forefront of sharing valuable insights and creating a community to exchange ideas. This is a teachable moment for the global academic community, and this course is just one example of how Wharton is coming together to provide support during a time of heightened anxiety and ambiguity.”
The 6-week, half-credit course will be held remotely, beginning March 25th, and study the business and financial impact of the outbreak in real time. Over 450 students from Penn have already pre-registered for it.
More than a dozen Wharton faculty have signed on as lecturers, and they will be covering topics including leadership under uncertainty, disaster risk, U.S.-China relations and more. Currently, planned lesson titles include, “Leading amid Unpredictable Rapidly Changing Events with Contested Facts,” “Financial Market Reactions to the Coronavirus and Disaster Risk,” “Emotional Contagion and Epidemics,” and “U.S.-China Relations after the Trade Wars and the Coronavirus.”
For the full press release from Wharton, see here.
