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SKEMA students to attend Harvard Summer School
SKEMA Business School is continuing to develop a global business school model that directly integrates its students into the world’s leading academic ecosystems.
Some academic alliances genuinely redefine scale. This is the case with the unprecedented partnership signed between SKEMA Business School and Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE), which will enable all students enrolled in the MSc Strategic Management & Consulting programme to attend three weeks of courses each year at Harvard Summer School from September 2026 onwards. The courses will take place on the American university’s campus at no additional cost to students.
The agreement, officially launched on 18 May 2026 at SKEMA’s Grand Paris campus by Alice Guilhon , Dean and Executive President of SKEMA, and Nancy Coleman, Dean of Harvard Extension School and Continuing Studies, marks a major milestone for both institutions. “We are pleased to welcome SKEMA students to Harvard Summer School, providing them with the opportunity to learn alongside a diverse community of students from around the world,” said Harvard DCE Dean Nancy Coleman. "This partnership highlights our commitment to academic excellence and preparing students to navigate an increasingly changing and global future.”
Immersion at the heart of the world’s leading university
The initiative will involve the entire MSc Strategic Management & Consulting cohort, equipping future consultants for roles at leading strategy and consulting firms. Each year, nearly 40 SKEMA students will benefit from this academic immersion, making SKEMA one of the largest international student cohorts hosted within Harvard Summer School. A distinctive feature of the partnership is that SKEMA students will attend courses delivered by Harvard professors and distinguished guest faculty on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus.
The experience goes far beyond a traditional academic exchange. Students will live on the American campus and benefit from its facilities, including sports amenities and libraries, enjoying the same campus experience as international students studying at Harvard during the academic year.
As an additional advantage, SKEMA will fully cover tuition fees, on campus accommodation and meals. “This partnership with Harvard DCE perfectly illustrates the vision we are pursuing for SKEMA: enabling our students to gain direct access to the world’s leading academic and professional ecosystems while preparing them to become leaders capable of evolving in an environment profoundly transformed by artificial intelligence, geopolitical challenges, and economic change.
Giving an entire cohort the opportunity to live and study on the campus of the world’s leading represents not only an exceptional academic opportunity, but also a unique human and intercultural experience,” said Alice Guilhon, Dean and Executive President of SKEMA Business School.
Artificial intelligence, governance, and geopolitics at the core of the curriculum
Founded in 1871, Harvard Summer School is considered the oldest summer academic programme in the United States. Courses are taught by Harvard professors, visiting researchers and corporate experts. The curriculum is fully aligned with the current transformations shaping global management. Courses open to students include “Management consulting in the age of Artificial Intelligence”, “International corporate governance”, “Political speech and public influence”, as well as modules dedicated to “Machine learning applied to economics and finance”.
This orientation strongly resonates with SKEMA’s UNVEIL 2025-2030 strategic plan, which is centred on integrating artificial intelligence into teaching, research, and professional practices.
Internationalisation: a historic differentiator for SKEMA
Beyond its symbolic dimension, this alliance also reflects students’ evolving expectations and SKEMA’s response to them. Through both the academic exchanges available across its 9 international campuses and its network of nearly 200 leading academic partners, the business school aims to offer experiences comparable to those of the world’s top universities by combining mobility, international exposure, and technological specialisation.
Each year, nearly 3,000 SKEMA students undertake an international academic exchange semester, illustrating the central role that global exposure plays in the school’s educational model.
More specifically, the sessions attended by SKEMA students will take place over a three week period each year between June and July and will lead to the award of academic credits.
In a global management education market where competition is now driven as much by international ecosystems as by academic content, partnerships such as this are becoming a powerful lever for attracting students. For SKEMA, the objective is clear: to strengthen its positioning among the world’s stitutions that can offer students genuine immersion in the leading innovation ecosystems.
