Yan Zhen
2006-09-14
MEAGER global vision, limited practical business experience and a lack of high-quality faculty, among other shortcomings, have crippled the development of
"Although Chinese universities have offered the MBA since 1991, we had no real model of MBA education until the Management Education Program was launched in 1996," said Zhao chunjun, vice chairman of the country's National MBA Education Supervisory Committee.
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The Management Education Program the ex-dean of the prestigious Tsinghua
One of the highest priorities of the MIT-China Management Education Project is faculty development, program officials said.
Normally, US and European business schools establish academic affiliations with Chinese counterparts in which Western faculty, visiting or in residence, provide much of the instruction.
Rather than the traditional approach of sending Western professors to teach in China, the premise of the MIT Sloan program domestically is best served by developing the skills of Chinese faculty to teach local students in
"From the start, this program has been about building indigenous capacity," MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmanlensee said during a visit to the city in July to celebrate the program's 10th anniversary.
Each year, faculty from MIT's four Chinese partners - Tsinghua, Fudan, Sun
"Initially, for example, we worried that the Chinese universities would send more senior faculty members. But they have instead sent younger people who are going to be around for a number of years," said former MIT Sloan Dean Lester Thurow, during whose tenure the program began.
Zheng Zukang, dean of Fudan's
"I, like many of our professors, didn't know how to teach MBA before sitting the program," he said. "But after several years, we imported almost all the MIT courses to
But isn't MIT afraid of assisting
Alan White, Sloan's senior associate dean who oversees international activities, noted that Fudan and Tsinghua would be strong competitors. But the interchange will make both sides stronger.
"Chinese faculty who go to Cambridge are not the sole beneficiaries of the project. We benefit from the competition. It's better than sitting back waiting for it to come," White said.
