It is only 115 years since Stanford University opened its doors to students. Today, the Financial Times is reporting that Stanford is going to start giving business students tutorials.

So while the talk in the UK is about ending tutorials for students, Stanford University, one of the educators of the elite out on the progressive American west coast is going to begin working with tutorials.

Those of us who have already benefitted from a tutorial-style education have no doubt that Stanford is doing the right thing.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business is to revamp its MBA programme completely to give a more personalised education to each of the 380 students who graduate from the school every year. The new style programme will include a series of tutorials and a menu of new programmes to ensure that the most accomplished students are stretched further than in the current “one size fits all” system.

Later in the article:

The personalised tutorial approach, he believes, means students “will develop habits of thinking and learning that they take to their jobs...The theory is, this programme will get them into a different way of thinking”, he says.

Although the article does not make clear whether it is just mentoring, or mentoring and teaching that will take place on a personalized basis, many of us from Oxford will agree that, as far as educational standards are concerned, Stanford is taking a big step in the right direction.

Hopefully, observers in Oxford will take note.