Effects of a holistic, experiential curriculum on business students' satisfaction and career confidence

• Holistic experiential curriculum (HEC) produces better student responses.
• HEC increased career self-efficacy.
• HEC increased satisfaction with education.
• HEC did not influence leadership self-efficacy.

Students' satisfaction with their major curriculum and their perceptions of career readiness are important drivers of recruitment, retention and rankings. As a result, universities, and business schools in particular, are redesigning curricula to be responsive to marketplace demands. Curricula are increasingly using holistic and experiential learning tools to foster student satisfaction and career confidence. To connect these practices to the outcomes of satisfaction and confidence, we examined student responses to a newly designed, experiential undergraduate business curriculum. The results indicated that, compared to students who graduated from a traditional, functionally structured curriculum, students graduating from the holistic, experiential curriculum were significantly higher in their satisfaction and career self-efficacy (but not leader self-efficacy). These findings provide evidence that holistic, experiential curricular redesign is related to improved student attitudes and confidence. We conclude by discussing the implications for education and future research.