A Business Degree From China Is the Hottest New Commodity
Rolf Cremer , associate dean of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, spent an entire afternoon last month plowing through proposals from foreign business schools.
The stack was large: Representatives of more than 30 schools around the globe had been in touch during the prior six weeks alone. Some ideas were more concrete than others, and each of the proposals had the same goal: to break into the world's fastest-growing market for business education.
"There's a huge rush into China at the moment," says the German economist, who has spent more than 20 years in the Asian-Pacific realm.
Mr. Cremer welcomes the interest. Some foreign business schools' efforts to develop programs or alliances in the country "aren't as developed or well thought out as others," he says. "But given the tremendous demand for business education here, additional competition is good for the local development of the market."
The total number of students enrolled in master's in business administration degree programs in China exceeds 82,000, according to statistics from the Chinese government. That is even more significant considering the first business-degree programs were introduced to the country on a trial basis in 1991. There are 62 nationally accredited Chinese business schools today comprising Chinese universities that are either authorized to offer their own degree or to cooperate locally with the programs of foreign business schools.
Getting Ahead
These schools and the foreign programs they increasingly are working with are in a boom market because the country is changing rapidly from a supplier of inexpensive labor to an industrialized economy. Not only in centers such as Beijing and Shanghai, but also in the blossoming provincial cities with their three million to five million inhabitants, young Chinese seek ways to get ahead.
This is just the beginning. The country's economy grows an average of 8% annually, meaning it doubles in size and wealth every nine years.
"High-level business education is very important to both the personal development of young managers and potential businesspersons and the sustained growth of China's economy in an era of globalization," says Yang Dongning, assistant professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. He cites an emerging community of private enterprises and entrepreneurs; a lack of managerial capability at China's state-owned enterprises, and foreign companies that are eager to localize operations in the country as the three main forces driving interest in local business-degree programs.
Indeed, from 1976 to 2000, China's economy sustained an average annual-growth rate of more than 10%. With a population of 1.3 billion people, the number of business-school programs in China is expected to rise more in coming years in line with the still-growing economy.
That is why schools such as Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai and the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University are offering an increasing array of higher-level business-education programs.
Looking Ahead
In addition to its core master's degree program, Guanghua offers an international-business degree for foreign students in conjunction with the University of Singapore and a special business degree in Shenzhen. Concerned with the sustainability of China's rapid growth, the school has also introduced special courses on corporate-environmental management since 2000 with the assistance of World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
More recently, executive master's degrees in business are becoming prevalent in the country, with joint programs such as the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai. The first executive M.B.A. class of this program graduated this past September. The 70 Chinese students enrolled in the inaugural 18-month program represented such companies as consulting firm Accenture, photography firm Eastman Kodak Co., pharmaceuticals firm Roche Holdings AG and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
"Everything about China is just exploding," says Hellmut Schuette, dean of the French business school Insead's Asia campus in Singapore. "Many companies now conduct 50% of their Asian activities in China, for instance. The importance and impact of that dynamism [on business education] is clear." Insead already offers several executive education programs in Beijing. Mr. Schuette says the school also may develop a satellite location for China-based research in the near term.
Likewise, the London Business School is reviewing various options for expansion of its presence in China, though officials at the school say it is too early to say what shape such an expansion will take. The London school already has a loose exchange program with Ceibs in Shanghai.
As an increasing number of European and U.S. business schools consider the opportunities stemming from economic growth in China, business schools already operating in China aren't much worried about the competition. "China is a very large country, so it is important that new programs develop to meet the tremendous demand by potential students," says Mr. Cremer of Ceibs. "After all, what's the point of one or two schools with just 20 students in a country the size of China?"
Co-founded in 1994 by the Chinese government and the European Union as a sort of experiment in business education for the country, Ceibs was the first independent business school in the country. The school still aims to serve China's economic and business development by bringing in the latest knowledge in international management through faculty and facilities. It aims primarily to train young Chinese managers who have at least five to seven years of experience. A second goal is to help these same students build bridges to Europe that they may later be able to use in a business context.
中国商业学位成为最热门商品
上海中欧国际工商学院(China Europe International Business School)副教务长郭理默(Rolf Cremer)上个月用了一整个下午的时间研究各个国外商学院提出的方案。
对象的范围十分广泛。仅在过去6周，中欧国际工商学院就与全球30多个商学院的代表进行了联系。一些商学院的想法比较具体，且每一份方案都有著共同的目的，即进军全球发展最快的工商教育市场。
这位在亚太地区工作了20多年的德国经济学家表示，目前各工商学院都对中国跃跃欲试。
郭理默对这一趋势表示欢迎。他认为一些国外工商学院在中国开展项目或寻找合作伙伴的工作较为成熟和认真，但另一些则稍逊一筹。但考虑到中国对工商教育巨大的需求，竞争对手的不断增加将有利于这一市场的发展。
中国政府的统计数据显示，中国攻读工商管理硕士学位的学生总数超过了8万2千人。如果考虑到中国在1991年才设立了第一个试验性工商管理学位，上述数字更显重要。
由于中国正在从廉价劳动力的供应国迅速转变成为工业化的经济体，商学院及其与国外合作开展的课程正在飞快发展。中国的年轻一代正在努力寻找著自我发展的机会，这不仅仅是在北京和上海等中心城市，同时也包括了有著300万到500万居民的各省市。
这还仅仅是开始。中国经济正以每年8%的速度增长，这意味著中国的生产总值每9年就将翻一番。
北京大学(Peking University)光华管理学院(Guanghua School of Management)助理教授杨东宁称，高水平的工商管理教育不仅对青年管理者和未来商业人士的个人发展十分重要，同时也对中国经济在全球化背景下的可持续发展有著重要意义。他认为推动中国工商管理课程发展的3个主要因素是，私营企业和企业家的兴起；中国国有企业管理能力的匮乏；以及外国公司将业务在中国本地化的迫切愿望。
从1976年到2000年，中国经济保持著平均每年10%的增长速度。在这个13人口的大国，预计商学院项目将在未来数年同增长中的经济同步增加。 这就是像上海的复旦大学管理学院和北京大学光华管理学院开始提供一系列越来越多的更高水平的商业教育项目的原因。
除了其核心的硕士项目以外，光华管理学院还联通新加坡大学(University of Singapore)开设了一个针对外国学生的国际商务学位，并在深圳开设了一个特别商业学位。出于对中国经济快速增长可持续性的关注，在华盛顿的一个智囊团世界资源研究所( World Resources Institute)的协助下，该校自2000年开始推出有关公司环境管理的特别课程。
最近，高层管理人员商业硕士学位在中国遍地开花，比如，美国圣路易斯的华盛顿大学约翰?奥林商学院(John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University)和复旦大学管理学院就联合推出了这样一个项目。该项目第一批EMBA学员已于今年9月毕业。参加第一期历时18个月项目的70名中国学生中，一些人来自咨询公司埃森哲(Accenture)，图像技术公司伊斯曼-柯达公司(Eastman Kodak Co.)，制药公司罗氏制药(Roche Holdings AG)以及上海证交所(Shanghai Stock Exchange)。
法国商学院Insead新加坡校区院长黑尔姆特?舒特(Hellmut Schuette)说，"中国的每个方面都呈爆炸式发展，比方说，很多公司现在有50%的亚洲业务是在中国进行的。（这对商科教育的）重要性和冲击是显而易见的。"Insead已在北京推出几个高层经理人教育项目。
同样，伦敦商学院(London Business School)也正在考虑以不同方式扩大在中国的存在，不过该校管理人士称，要说拓展方式现在还为时尚早。伦敦商学院已与上海的中欧国际工商学院有了一个松散的学生交换项目。
尽管越来越多的欧洲和美国商学院在考虑中国经济增长带来的机会，但已经在中国经营的商学院并但太担心他们的竞争。中欧国际工商学院的郭理默说，"中国是一个非常大的国家，因此新项目发展起来满足潜在学生的巨大需求是很重要的。要不，在中国这么大的一个国家只有一两个、学生仅有20人的商学院又有什么意义呢？"
成立于1994年的中欧国际工商学院是中国第一所独立商学院，这所由中国政府和欧盟联合办学的商学院是中国商业教育的一种尝试。该校依然致力于服务中国的经济和商业发展，让其教员和教学设施给中国学员带来最新的国际管理知识。它的首要目标是训练那些工作经验至少有5到7年的年轻的中国管理人才。它的第二目标是帮助这些学生建立通向欧洲的桥梁，他们可能将在未来的商业活动中利用到这一桥梁作用。
