The UK’s top business schools bring back the oral exam
Key Points
- 10 top European business schools are shifting to oral defences and live assessment
- Deans say AI has made written work an unreliable test of understanding
- HEC Paris uses pen-and-paper tests, while INSEAD is building AI avatar case studies
- Schools are prioritising judgement, communication and collaboration over information delivery
- Findings come from GMAC's Future of Graduate Management Education Revisited 2026 report
Deans at 10 of Europe’s top business schools are replacing written work with oral defences because of AI.
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) revealed the shift in The Future of Graduate Management Education Revisited 2026, a follow-up to its 2022 study.
The deans said written submissions on their own can no longer show what students actually understand.
“We are not going to analyse what you submitted,” said Pedro Oliveira, Dean of Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE). “We are going to analyse your ability to argue the point you are making in the document and to defend the document. If the thesis was written by AI, it will be obvious in 30 seconds.”
GMAC interviewed deans from Esade Business School, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, HEC Paris, IMD, Imperial College Business School, INSEAD, London Business School, Nova SBE, the University of Glasgow and Vlerick Business School.
The report also drew on GMAC’s Prospective Students Survey 2026, Corporate Recruiters Survey 2026 and Application Trends Survey 2025.
The schools have introduced several changes to how they test students, including:
- Nova SBE has increased the time students spend defending their theses
- Frankfurt School is bringing back oral examinations and final presentations
- HEC Paris runs pen-and-paper tests of foundational knowledge alongside separate exercises that assess how well students use AI
- INSEAD is developing AI-powered case studies where students question an avatar of the case protagonist to uncover information
Peter Todd, Dean of Imperial College Business School, compared the move towards live assessment to the performing arts.
The report found that schools face two linked challenges in protecting independent thinking while teaching students to use AI effectively.
Marion Debruyne, Dean of Vlerick Business School, warned that students risk handing their learning and thinking over to AI and losing the ability to practise fundamental skills.
“Employers and candidates need to know that a qualification remains a reliable signal of capability,” said Nalisha Patel, Regional Director, Americas and Europe at GMAC. “The response to AI should strengthen that trust by making the standards behind assessment clearer and more meaningful.”
GMAC found that business education is moving away from delivering information and towards developing judgement, adaptability and human connection.
As generative AI takes on more routine analytical work, schools are putting greater emphasis on communication, empathy, collaboration, conflict resolution and complex problem framing.
The deans also said trade disputes, political fragmentation and restrictions on mobility are making security and resilience central to management education.
European schools are relying less on a single flagship MBA, with specialised master’s degrees, executive education and interdisciplinary programmes gaining strategic importance.
Several deans cautioned that stackable programmes and micro credentials remain difficult to run profitably.
In GMAC’s 2022 report, deans discussed technology mainly in terms of online and hybrid teaching.
Four years later, the focus has moved from where students learn to how schools can prove students are still doing the thinking.
GMAC has made the full report available to download from its website.
