Business schools in Asia have a hard time competing against their international counterparts. This according to the The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of recruiters.

Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of the Association of M.B.A.s, the London-based international membership and accreditation agency for MBAs, said, ‘It takes time to establish a school’s credentials, to attract quality students and academics.’

And academic officials said many employers and recruiters in Asia remain resistant to the benefits of a master’s of business administration.

This year, 4,430 recruiters participated in the survey, between mid-December and late March. The survey is in its seventh year.

In recent years, the international list has been dominated by European, Canadian, Mexican and U.S. schools. One of the Asian schools often cited as up-and-coming is China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
Source: Wall Street Journal

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It is a given that part-time jobs distract students from their research work. Now postgraduate students at Fudan University’s school of management will be banned from taking part-time jobs to earn extra money. To cover this they will have a subsidy of just over RMB1,000 ($132) a month.

Students will still be able to take internships or part-time jobs related to their academic research in management but must first register with school authorities and get permission.

At present, the Ministry of Education gives a monthly allowance of RMB200-300 to each postgraduate student — a drop in the ocean compared to Shanghai’s average living expenses of RMB800 to 1,000 a month.

Yin Zhiwen, the school’s vice dean who oversees education quality control said, ‘We understand students’ pressure to make a living, especially in a city with such high costs as Shanghai.’
Source: Beijing Review

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U.S. visa regulations make it more difficult — less enticing — for foreign students to enter colleges in the United States. As a direct result, Benedictine University near Chicago, has affiliated with universities in Shenyang, a city of 4.8 million people in northeast China.

Benedictine University is a private Catholic university located in Lisle, Illinois.
Originally named St. Procopius College and located in the Pilsen community of Chicago, the school was founded in 1887 by the Order of Saint Benedict.
The campus was moved to its current location in 1901. St. Procopius College changed its name to Illinois Benedictine College in 1971, which became Benedictine University in 1996.
Benedictine University has retained close relations with the Benedictine Order. Some monks from the nearby St. Procopius Abbey belong to the faculty, though the vast majority of professors at Benedictine are secular instructors.

In 2005 Benedictine received approval from the North Central Association to offer a master of business administration (MBA) at the Shenyang University of Technology and a master of science in management information systems (MSMIS) degree at Shenyang Jianzhu University.

The courses for each program are taught by both Benedictine and Chinese professors using Benedictine’s curriculum.

Benedictine was the first American university to receive approval from the Chinese Central Government to offer these programs in northeast China. Since the program’s inception in 2005 Benedictine has graduated hundreds of Chinese students with MBAs.

William Carroll, president of Benedictine, ‘An American MBA is still at the top of the list for many students in China. This really impacts these students.’ (Whether one would wish to attend an university where the president speaks like that is another matter. It would depend on how he impacts the students.

While it is training and educating Chinese students overseas, the university hopes to establish a business portal for local companies that want to expand their business to China.

William Carroll said, ‘I’ve heard horror stories from so many companies about trying to get on the ground in China. It’s not rocket science, but it does require some training and we have already worked through the problems.’

Benedictine has partnered with Nomadic Consulting in Chicago to offer training seminars and workshops on doing business in China.
Source: The Business Ledger

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Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the top universities in Shanghai, has warned that schools in neighboring Jiangsu Province and in Hunan and Sichuan provinces are recruiting students in the name of Jiao Tong’s admission office.

Recruiters claimed students, regardless of their college entrance exam scores, could be enrolled and get a Jiao Tong degree after paying an application fee of RMB1,500 ($197). They were told that those who failed the college entrance exam would be entered into a joint program run by Jiao Tong and a foreign university, which charges a tuition of RMB25,000 to 30,000 a year.

Ma Lei, Jiao Tong’s registrar said that students were told they would study for one year at Jiao Tong and another three years in the US or Britain before being awarded a dual degree.

The university said in an online statement: ‘Shanghai Jiao Tong here clarifies that all these recruiting institutes have nothing to do with Jiao Tong. Their behavior has fouled the university’s reputation and students should never believe that blindly.’

Nevertheless, some institutes still misrepresenting themselves as second-tier Jiao Tong colleges and using part-time agents to enroll students.

On the bulletin board of edu.qq.com, the ‘Nanyang Science and Technology College at Jiao Tong’ claimed it had set up seven college degree equivalence programs with an annual tuition fee of RMB6,500.

The notice said high school or polytechnic graduates will take classes at Nanhui University Town from this September and get a ‘recognized’ degree and qualifications after passing graduation exams.

Jiao Tong officials warned parents and students of the scams and said they may take legal action.
Source: China.org.cn

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A business school symposium held in Tokyo had much relevance to China. U.S. business school educators spoke during a symposium in Tokyo, organized by Keizai Koho Center under the theme ‘Perspectives on management in a global context.’

Some opinions that were voiced have application to China.

Amir Ziv, a professor and vice dean at the Columbia Business School, observed that while business education appears to be flourishing in Japan as more and more universities open MBA programs, many executives at Japanese companies say an MBA degree is not highly valued and does not guarantee promotion.

He said Japanese managers may have an old, traditional view of business education that focused on the teaching of technical skills — which can in fact be taught by the companies themselves. That, he added, is only a part of business education today.

He said business education should be ‘education for life’ to ‘provide future managers or current managers with the skill that will be used throughout their career,’ adding that the skills that needed to be instilled in managers consist of three layers.

The first level is technical skills, or the ability to solve a given problem, and these are necessary but are not enough, he said.

The second layer — decision-making skill — is important but still not sufficient ‘because even if you’re making the best decisions, you have to make sure that people around you are following your decisions and agreeing to your decisions.’

Amir Ziv said this is why leadership, the third layer, needs to be taught at the business schools. ‘We teach them the skills of communication and persuasion . . . and how to make sure that people will follow them.’
Source: Japan Times

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Jorge Dominguez, vice-provost of International Affairs of Harvard University, said during a visit to Beijing that Harvard University’s syllabus and the subjects its students choose for their dissertation and research reflect the level of its interest in China. He said fifty-four of Harvard’s professors teach or conduct research on China. He said, ‘The number almost equals the number of professors who work on West Europe.’

Jorge Dominguez’s mission to China includes meeting with alumni and academics, and visiting Harvard faculties’ projects in the country.

He visited a Harvard summer school that teaches Chinese language at the Beijing Language and Culture University. The program, which began three years ago, has taught 84 students from the US. Forty of those students are from Harvard.

Learning Chinese has become very popular among Harvard undergraduates and graduates, the vice-provost said. For instance, 150 Harvard undergraduates are either studying or conducting research or doing their internship in China at present.

Jorge Dominguez said Harvard expects Drew Faust — its first female president — to visit China in a year. He also said the number of Chinese students in Harvard has increased in the past few years, indicating its willingness to welcome students from the country. The number of Chinese students grew from 19 in 1992 to 312 in 2002, with their present number being 403.

Asked what should be the right number of Chinese students at Harvard, he said: ‘I don’t have the answer for numbers. I have an answer that is a word. The word is “more”. Tell them to apply.’
Source: People’s Daily Online

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A dual executive MBA — EMBA which is the degree you take while you are still working — has been launched by Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (part of it shown in our illustration) and Insead business school.

The modular (that is you take it in parts) 18-month program has been designed in response to the tremendous changes that are happening to China’s business and the way it relates to the world. A favorite phrase with academics is a ‘tectonic shift.’ It truth, this is a tectonic shift and the way in which business is taught must reflect this.

Chinese companies need to understand the marketplace beyond the country’s borders, while multinationals from outside the region need to understand practices specific to Chinese business.

The EMBA will take place on Tsinghua’s Beijing campus and Insead’s Singapore site. Participants will also travel to Insead’s Fontainebleau campus outside Paris for one module so it can properly be defined as being international. And, a bonus, at the end of the program participants will be awarded a dual degree and will be alumni of both schools.

Frank Brown, dean of Insead, said, ‘The new programme with Tsinghua exemplifies Insead’s mission to develop transcultural leaders, fluent in all aspects of the global market place. It provides executives from east and west with a unique opportunity to learn, to share best practices and hone their international leadership skills.’

One third of the first 45 group of students will come from Europe, a third from China and the rest from Asia and the Americas.
Source: Financial Times

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The University of Calgary vice-president, research and international, Dr. Dennis Salahub visited China with Canadian Advanced Education minister Doug Horner to develop exchange programs with selected Chinese institutions.

Dennis Salahub renewed an exchange agreement that allows MBA students from the China University of Petroleum to study at the Haskayne School of Business. A general student and faculty exchange agreement was also signed with Tsinghua University in Beijing. A research agreement with the Harbin Institute of Technology, where Alberta already has some laboratory presence, was also signed.

Students from the China University of Petroleum in the exchange program complete one year of studies in Beijing and then travel to Calgary to complete the two-year MBA program. The exchange agreement does not as yet permit University of Calgary students to study in China although this is planned for the future.

Haskayne School of Business interim dean Vern Jones said, ‘One of the ideal things about the program is that we connect our people with the energy industry in China. When we look to international partnerships, we are partially looking for universities that are connected to the energy industry.’
Source: Gauntlet

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The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has launched an executive MBA with Tongji University in Shanghai. The executive MBA will focus exclusively on retailing, consumer products and logistics. (Appropriate because the college came about through aid and sponsorship of Wal-Mart.)

Dean Dan Worrell, head of Walton College, said, ‘The vision of the executive MBA program is to help Fortune 500 companies remove their greatest barrier of growth in the world’s most important marketplace: development of leadership talent in China. We believe that our educational expertise combined with that of Tongji University creates a world-class program that will help students succeed in this global marketplace.’

Don Waller will lead the executive MBA program for the first three years. He said, ‘American companies are now flocking to China not to produce things; they are already doing that. They are now flocking there because there are 1.3 billion consumers.

‘One distinguishing feature of this MBA program is that U.S.-based consumer products companies, logistics service providers and several other companies doing business in China have agreed to place their associates in the program.’ Students will include expatriates and Chinese nationals working for U.S. companies.

The 16-month program will meet nine times in Shanghai and twice at the University of Arkansas, where students will visit Wal-Mart headquarters to meet with senior executives and tour the home office, stores and distribution centers.

The executive MBA program will have a capstone project that requires participants to identify $250,000 in cost reduction or profit increase for their company.

Source: Walton College of Business

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According to the information released at the 8th China MBA Development Forum in Beijing MBAs started in China in 1991 and more than 150,000 students have gone through the system.

Yang Zhoufu, assistant minister of Education Ministry, said that there are currently 96 state-run colleges and two private colleges offering MBA programs, with an annual intake of more than 20,000 students.

China’s MBA programs havedeveloped steadily in recent years, with an annual enrollment growth rate of between 5% and 6%. Yang said MBA programs are faced with a challenge. And that is to balance the interests of enterprises, social standards, family needs and the student’s own requirements.
Source: People’s Daily Online

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