Otras guias con enlaces a los programas de maestría son:
Going to School on China
Date November 10, 2007
When Paris-based HEC School of Management began offering an executive M.B.A. in Beijing last year, some managers from Chinese state-owned enterprises had a complaint: Classes were cutting into social time.
"One of the big surprises to us is that students on Chinese E.M.B.A.s party a lot. Executive education and training is seen as a reward, a perk" and a valuable networking opportunity, says Joshua Kobb, HEC's director of international programs. Participants "would say, 'Can we finish at 5:30? Then we're going to go have a banquet at a restaurant,' " he recalls.
This year, HEC sat its newest batch of students down at the start of the term and explained that acquiring the degree isn't a party-packed office break. "It's a learning process for us," says Mr. Kobb. "To be successful in China, you need to be flexible and adapt -- but at the same time, you have to ensure the academics behind it."
China's booming economy presents many opportunities to Western business schools, as well as some unique challenges. Demand for business education is enormous, and business schools from across the world are rushing to tap it. These schools are competing for joint-venture partners and staff, and grappling with a range of issues -- from how to price the degree in a country where incomes remain significantly lower than in many European nations, to how to succeed in getting students to buckle down.
China's government authorized local universities to grant M.B.A.'s in 1991. There are now 95 universities offering the degrees; at least two dozen of the programs are run by foreign business schools as joint ventures with Chinese universities, including an executive M.B.A. offered by Nanjing University with the U.S.'s Cornell University, and the China Europe International Business School, a joint venture in Shanghai between Shanghai Jiaotong University and the European Foundation for Management Development.
HEC, which is in its second year in China, set up its program in partnership with the Training Center of the State-owned Assets and Securities Administration Commission of the State Council. HEC delivers the program by itself. SASAC markets the degree to its members, which are state-owned enterprises. HEC will begin marketing its China-based M.B.A. to the private sector next year.
Most of its students are senior executives. During the program's first year, professors had another problem besides the demand for more parties: Some executives were sending secretaries or other staff to sit in for them in class. "They'd say, 'I'm very busy, I'm going to send someone to take notes today,' " Mr. Kobb says. "In their minds, training means passive learning. We have to remind them it's active learning: You have to be there -- there's a lot of group-discussion work."
"Very early on, we had to enforce the attendance policy and scare people: We had to say, 'Look, if you miss more than two days, you don't get the degree,' " he says.
There were other adjustments. The school had to hire graduate students to help translate the lessons, which are delivered in English. That was straightforward enough. But HEC's professors also found they had to work hard to get students involved in the classroom, leading to a change in the way professors ask many of their questions. For instance, instead of inquiring directly about marketing techniques, professors find they get better response by "going into a question from a personal standpoint," Mr. Kobb says. Professors ask, "How many of you have a car? When you were looking for a car, how important was an international brand to you?"
Pricing has been another tricky issue. HEC's degree in Paris costs €42,000, or nearly $61,500. The school initially aimed to charge €35,000 in China, but the country's lower incomes made that price out of reach for many. So they offer SASAC members a "scholarship" of sorts: Students who come from SASAC companies pay €29,000.
That price is expected to rise as the program becomes more established. "We're very conscious that this is new," Mr. Kobb says. "There will be evolution in the format, in the price, in the content."
Getting a foot in the door is key for many business schools. In 2005, Insead, which has campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, hired Boston Consulting Group to study the potential of China and India. The study concluded that the market for business education in China was valued at $500 million annually. India's M.B.A. market was worth about $150 million.
Insead last year set up a joint-venture E.M.B.A. program with Tsinghua University. Students do part of the program at Tsinghua, and part of it at the Singapore campus. "We feel there's dramatic growth potential in China," says Mark Norbury, director of Insead's executive M.B.A. programs.
One big driver of demand for M.B.A. programs offered by Western universities is the expansion of Chinese companies overseas. "A major trend emerging is the expatriation of Chinese managers overseas, and to be properly prepared for the global work place, Chinese M.B.A.s need to know how to integrate fast in foreign work places," says Jonathan Di Rollo, author of "China MBA Guide."
For some universities, rustling up staff to deliver a program in China is a challenge. While some joint ventures rely on the local partner to provide some teachers, some foreign schools teach the entire program themselves.
Canada-based Carleton University's Sprott School of Business set up a joint-venture E.M.B.A. program in 2004 with Shanghai's Donghua University. Sprott, which also offers an M.B.A. in Iran, sends its own staff to teach at both offshore programs to maintain quality. "We guard our brand very jealously and don't want it watered down," says Ian Lee, M.B.A. program director at the Sprott School of Business.
Maintaining the school's accreditation with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a U.S.-based accreditation body, also is an issue. "If you're delivering an offshore program, AACSB insists it's part of the equation, and if you're using offshore faculty, they look at the credentials of those faculty," Mr. Lee says.
The AACSB says it encourages innovative approaches to educational activities, and partnerships and strategic alliances can be part of that. "We don't require, in a partnership arrangement, that all the faculty come from the accredited school," but it is up to the accredited school to prove to the AACSB that any faculty from, say, a Chinese university, is qualified to teach their program, says Jerry E. Trapnell, AACSB executive vice president and chief accreditation officer.
So to staff its China program, the Sprott School of Business sent an assortment of full- and part-time staff, including some faculty on sabbaticals. "We also had to go out and recruit" from universities including Canada's University of Ottawa, Mr. Lee says.
Insead says the Beijing-based portion of its joint program is taught by Tsinghua faculty, most of whom have done their Ph.D.s at prestigious business schools in the U.S. and have taught outside China.
Competition for partners also is becoming an issue. Carleton began talks with Donghua five years ago, and it wasn't alone in seeking a pact: Donghua was talking with other partners, and it set up a joint-venture M.B.A. program with Philadelphia's St. Joseph's University in 2004.
"In the last three to five years, there was this gold rush of universities," says Mr. Lee. He adds: "First-mover advantage will be very important."
"One of the big surprises to us is that students on Chinese E.M.B.A.s party a lot. Executive education and training is seen as a reward, a perk" and a valuable networking opportunity, says Joshua Kobb, HEC's director of international programs. Participants "would say, 'Can we finish at 5:30? Then we're going to go have a banquet at a restaurant,' " he recalls.
This year, HEC sat its newest batch of students down at the start of the term and explained that acquiring the degree isn't a party-packed office break. "It's a learning process for us," says Mr. Kobb. "To be successful in China, you need to be flexible and adapt -- but at the same time, you have to ensure the academics behind it."
China's booming economy presents many opportunities to Western business schools, as well as some unique challenges. Demand for business education is enormous, and business schools from across the world are rushing to tap it. These schools are competing for joint-venture partners and staff, and grappling with a range of issues -- from how to price the degree in a country where incomes remain significantly lower than in many European nations, to how to succeed in getting students to buckle down.
China's government authorized local universities to grant M.B.A.'s in 1991. There are now 95 universities offering the degrees; at least two dozen of the programs are run by foreign business schools as joint ventures with Chinese universities, including an executive M.B.A. offered by Nanjing University with the U.S.'s Cornell University, and the China Europe International Business School, a joint venture in Shanghai between Shanghai Jiaotong University and the European Foundation for Management Development.
HEC, which is in its second year in China, set up its program in partnership with the Training Center of the State-owned Assets and Securities Administration Commission of the State Council. HEC delivers the program by itself. SASAC markets the degree to its members, which are state-owned enterprises. HEC will begin marketing its China-based M.B.A. to the private sector next year.
Most of its students are senior executives. During the program's first year, professors had another problem besides the demand for more parties: Some executives were sending secretaries or other staff to sit in for them in class. "They'd say, 'I'm very busy, I'm going to send someone to take notes today,' " Mr. Kobb says. "In their minds, training means passive learning. We have to remind them it's active learning: You have to be there -- there's a lot of group-discussion work."
"Very early on, we had to enforce the attendance policy and scare people: We had to say, 'Look, if you miss more than two days, you don't get the degree,' " he says.
There were other adjustments. The school had to hire graduate students to help translate the lessons, which are delivered in English. That was straightforward enough. But HEC's professors also found they had to work hard to get students involved in the classroom, leading to a change in the way professors ask many of their questions. For instance, instead of inquiring directly about marketing techniques, professors find they get better response by "going into a question from a personal standpoint," Mr. Kobb says. Professors ask, "How many of you have a car? When you were looking for a car, how important was an international brand to you?"
Pricing has been another tricky issue. HEC's degree in Paris costs €42,000, or nearly $61,500. The school initially aimed to charge €35,000 in China, but the country's lower incomes made that price out of reach for many. So they offer SASAC members a "scholarship" of sorts: Students who come from SASAC companies pay €29,000.
That price is expected to rise as the program becomes more established. "We're very conscious that this is new," Mr. Kobb says. "There will be evolution in the format, in the price, in the content."
Getting a foot in the door is key for many business schools. In 2005, Insead, which has campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, hired Boston Consulting Group to study the potential of China and India. The study concluded that the market for business education in China was valued at $500 million annually. India's M.B.A. market was worth about $150 million.
Insead last year set up a joint-venture E.M.B.A. program with Tsinghua University. Students do part of the program at Tsinghua, and part of it at the Singapore campus. "We feel there's dramatic growth potential in China," says Mark Norbury, director of Insead's executive M.B.A. programs.
One big driver of demand for M.B.A. programs offered by Western universities is the expansion of Chinese companies overseas. "A major trend emerging is the expatriation of Chinese managers overseas, and to be properly prepared for the global work place, Chinese M.B.A.s need to know how to integrate fast in foreign work places," says Jonathan Di Rollo, author of "China MBA Guide."
For some universities, rustling up staff to deliver a program in China is a challenge. While some joint ventures rely on the local partner to provide some teachers, some foreign schools teach the entire program themselves.
Canada-based Carleton University's Sprott School of Business set up a joint-venture E.M.B.A. program in 2004 with Shanghai's Donghua University. Sprott, which also offers an M.B.A. in Iran, sends its own staff to teach at both offshore programs to maintain quality. "We guard our brand very jealously and don't want it watered down," says Ian Lee, M.B.A. program director at the Sprott School of Business.
Maintaining the school's accreditation with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a U.S.-based accreditation body, also is an issue. "If you're delivering an offshore program, AACSB insists it's part of the equation, and if you're using offshore faculty, they look at the credentials of those faculty," Mr. Lee says.
The AACSB says it encourages innovative approaches to educational activities, and partnerships and strategic alliances can be part of that. "We don't require, in a partnership arrangement, that all the faculty come from the accredited school," but it is up to the accredited school to prove to the AACSB that any faculty from, say, a Chinese university, is qualified to teach their program, says Jerry E. Trapnell, AACSB executive vice president and chief accreditation officer.
So to staff its China program, the Sprott School of Business sent an assortment of full- and part-time staff, including some faculty on sabbaticals. "We also had to go out and recruit" from universities including Canada's University of Ottawa, Mr. Lee says.
Insead says the Beijing-based portion of its joint program is taught by Tsinghua faculty, most of whom have done their Ph.D.s at prestigious business schools in the U.S. and have taught outside China.
Competition for partners also is becoming an issue. Carleton began talks with Donghua five years ago, and it wasn't alone in seeking a pact: Donghua was talking with other partners, and it set up a joint-venture M.B.A. program with Philadelphia's St. Joseph's University in 2004.
"In the last three to five years, there was this gold rush of universities," says Mr. Lee. He adds: "First-mover advantage will be very important."
By CRIS PRYSTAY
Write to Cris Prystay at cris.prystay @wsj.com
Otros programas en inglés en Oriente:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario