Experiential learning as the future of management education

Graduate business education has long been associated with the use of case studies and simulations as effective learning methods to equip future leaders. Nonetheless, transformative learning occurs when students are directly immersed in real-world challenges. From January to May 2026, De La Salle University and the NYU Stern School of Business embarked on a collaborative student consulting engagement on behalf of the PHINMA Community Housing. The outstanding output of the MBA students from both universities clearly demonstrates why experiential learning should be a vital part of the graduate management curricula.

On its pilot run, the participating student consultants in this project experienced hands-on learning through direct interactions with the market they will serve through the PHINMA Community Housing in Davao. They visited and interviewed families in the area to get a clearer perspective on their ideas of homeownership, the usual concerns on colonial-era rent arrangements and their struggles with soaring utility bills. From the immersion experience emerged the most relevant questions that no textbook definition could answer: What defines a livable home? How do we measure social impact beyond financial returns? How can real-estate companies work together with families instead of just merely serving their basic housing needs? Using Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle and the Lasallian Reflection Framework, the MBA students were able to translate the insights they gathered from their fieldwork into scalable recommendations while preserving the social dimension. For master’s students in a developing country, it is crucial that their formation be grounded in the realities in the field, along with the need to alleviate poverty and uphold human dignity. This kind of experiential learning provided avenues for them to appreciate the theories that they are studying while simultaneously espousing analytical rigor and human empathy.

The 2026 Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) Year 3 report points out the critical fragmentation of Philippine higher education, government and industry, and communities, thus limiting the capacity for collaborative problem-oriented research. Experiential learning addresses this concern, as graduate students tackle real work challenges while naturally bridging divides. The DLSU-NYU Signature Partnership Project demonstrates the collaborative initiatives for innovation that involves government agencies (i.e., Pag-IBIG, DHSUD), industry practitioners, community members and local and international higher education institutions. By involving students in such cross-sector partnerships, universities revitalize ecosystem coordination as they develop graduate students who are capable of handling complexity. In this way, research is transformed from an academic exercise into a practical problem-solving endeavor with societal, environmental and economic applications.

Philippine higher education institutions usually struggle with navigating the path from research to innovation and enterprise. Technology transfer, startup formation, and industry-academe collaboration remain underdeveloped. Experiential learning helps close these gaps by incorporating innovation into the learning process. In the DLSU-NYU project, the students were able to work with practitioners and policymakers in generating immediately applicable research outputs, from social impact frameworks to market-ready solutions. The student team was able to produce innovation-ready output such as buyer-readiness tools, “Know Your Customer” frameworks and community resource maps.

The Philippines trails its ASEAN peers in terms of international research collaboration, cross-border partnerships and publication output. Higher education institutions have expressed the need for financial support for mobility, faculty development, stronger collaboration mechanisms and streamlined regulations.

With DLSU-NYU project’s dual-immersion structure, where fieldwork was done in the Philippines (Davao and Manila) and New York, experiential learning operationalizes internationalization. This structure is pedagogically significant and not just an add-on. The students were able to gain exposure to global best practices while learning remains rooted in Philippine contexts. This cross-border partnership was able to foster international research collaboration, strengthen faculty expertise through co-facilitation and form academic networks.

Malaysia and Singapore’s higher education institutions achieved regional leadership by investing in research capability and supporting global partnerships. Our country needs that same level of commitment. When universities scale their experiential learning models, they strengthen ecosystem coordination, bridge research-to-innovation gaps and eventually develop graduates with brilliant judgment and innovation capability. Experiential learning should be a core pillar of graduate management education — a strategic investment addressing the systemic challenges that the EDCOM II report considers as crucial to Philippine competitiveness.

Glorife Soberano-Samodio is an assistant professor and graduate school coordinator of the Department of Management and Organization managing the MBA and DBA programs. She also heads the Creative Industries Studies Network under De La Salle University’s Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business’ Center for Business Research and Development.

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