Business schools are going to have to specialise to survive, according to the author of a new book on the sector.

Dr Bruce Macfarlane, of City University, author of the forthcoming book Effective Learning in Business and Management, argues that around the country schools are offering essentially the same product.

They all provide degrees at various levels targeted somewhere between business needs and academic study.

The reason is simple: to secure research funding and accreditation, they all have to meet the same set of standards. And, worse, most are not tuned into business needs because the people doing the teaching have come out of other academic disciplines, not the corporate world.

"There isn't a lot of incentive to be different, but they have been mirroring each other in terms of course design, even though some schools have been specialising more for particular customers, like postgraduate or business," Dr Macfarlane said. "But what needs to happen is for departments to forge ahead with different sectors and design."

However, the chair of the association of business schools, Professor Steven Watson, questioned Dr Macfarlane's argument, saying business schools already specialised.

Henley Management College and the London School of Economics, he said, only offer advanced and specially tailored courses.

"The real question is national policy on business training and whether chief executives in the UK are going to see increased training and life learning as something they want to invest in. Schools are already specialised," Professor Watson said.

• Effective Learning and Teaching in Business and Management, edited by Bruce Macfarlane and Roger Ottewill, £19.99 paperback, published by Kogan Page will be available from August 9.