[photopress:chinese_student_for_EMBA.jpg,full,alignright]China has many executives pressed for time. They need to hone their management skills; add extra theoretical depth to their practical experience. To cater for this some business schools are offering individual,
Over the past decade, executive education has grown exponentially in China. No firm countrywide data exists but Shanghai’s China European International Business School (CEIBS) — undoubtedly the biggest player and recently named the best business school in China — shows some substantial increases in this area. As in from zero at the start to 500 students taking the shorter, specifically designed, courses today.
These shorter, more targeted courses are a popular alternative to full-time MBA programs for midlevel managers and executives. CEIBS offers more than 50 open-enrollment courses and dozens more custom-designed programs. Since CEIBS first opened its doors to executive-education students in 1994, nearly 7,000 participants have attended one of its courses. Executive education now brings CEIBS $12 million, 60% of its annual revenue.
Hobbs Liu, who heads the CEIBS program, said, ‘We don’t have enough faculty to meet all the requests we have coming in from companies. We have to turn down money.’
CEIBS, which is being here as an example of what is offered by many major business schools in China, has executive-education programs that range from as short as an afternoon to as long as six months in duration.
In April, 2004, mobile-phone giant TCL invited CEIBS to train top executives at the company’s Guangdong campus. TCL chief Li Dongsheng said the CEIBS courses were ‘indispensable to the company during its process of internationalization.’
Last September, Fudan University’s School of Management announced it will team up with New York City’s Columbia School of Business to offer Chinese CEOs a course in finance that entails 12 days of study in Shanghai and two weeks in New York.
Fudan dean Lu Xiongwen, said, ‘Executive education has enormous potential for us. Plus we get our brand name out there.’
For American and European business schools, collaboration with their Chinese counterparts may provide growth at a time when applications to traditional MBA programs are declining. For its part, Columbia sees working with Fudan as an entry into China’s lucrative management-education market.
Source: Business Week