[photopress:Portland_State_Uni.jpg,full,alignright]Portland State University managers are in negotiations to offer what is claimed to be China’s first online graduate business degree. The possible deal with Peking University could lead to other offshore programs.
As many as 55 students, most likely Chinese workers accessing the Internet at their companies, would enter the program next March.
Sully Taylor, Portland State business school associate dean for academic affairs, said, after a year of studies in China, the first class would come to Portland for a second and final year.
Sully Taylor said, ‘This gives us experience delivering the eMBA in an international setting.’ The program could be replicated in other countries.
Portland State has launched a number of other Chinese programs recently. Portland State offers study-abroad opportunities in China, an undergraduate engineering program in Shanghai and training for Chinese officials on sustainable land-use management.
China’s government recently opened a Confucius Institute at Portland State to promote Chinese language and culture.
Portland State’s business school, which has about 350 MBA students, has offered distance learning for years, a record that attracted managers at Peking University, Beijing, China’s oldest national university.
Chinese students, who will study in English, will pay a tuition fee of $22,000. Portland State awaits approval of the program by its accrediting organization and by the Oregon university system.
Large brand-name U.S. business schools tend not to offer online programs, other than expensive classes for top executives. So Chinese education officials, who are embracing distance learning, are willing to go along with this chance to work with Portland State.
Source: The Oregonian