All three institutions value transforming the future, and this has been crucial for us when designing the programme
that focuses on two certificates: one on international commerce at UCLA Extension and one on international management at NTU. For the past number of years, we’ve had 80 students per year. They spend the first year at EDHEC Business School in Nice, where they engage with the French way of working: learning by doing. We’re an entrepreneurial School, but classes remain traditional, with professors presenting knowledge. For the second year, students move to UCLA Extension in California, where they engage in a modular international commerce certificate, which can be standalone. It was developed by UCLA Extension, custom-made for EDHEC. Students do a five-month placement, before moving to Singapore for an international management certificate, which is focused on future management. They work with MBA professors, but the course is tailored to undergraduates, using various innovations. We offer students three different educational systems: traditional teaching, flipped learning, and dialogical teaching, as well as three different cultural experiences. All three partners have a strong interest in interdisciplinarity at the core of their strategic plans. However, NTU counts on diversity for size in terms of many departments and a lot of faculties. UCLA relies on flexibility, while EDHEC counts on strategic partners to achieve this. The pathway allows hybridisation to take different forms. Students are encouraged by mentors to try new things that they may link to their passion and
of communication. Changes and problems are flagged quickly because we are aligned. It is important for us to work with our partners to design aims and actions, as well as completion requirements for both
develop entrepreneurial activities for the future. All three institutions think about learning as a very complex journey.
How successful is the initiative?
national and international levels. Those operational elements are
AB: Our experiment has been successful because we are offering students more of a challenge – working with professors from different levels. Independent learning is becoming widespread and more open, so it’s fundamental. All three institutions value transforming the future, and this has been crucial for us when designing the programme, because we wanted to invest in the future, transform innovation and look at how innovation can transform the lives of individuals.
important for students, creating a sense of identity to the programme, so they feel part of one college and three at the same time. Denis Couturier (DC): For this partnership, we leverage our differences and our strengths, and that’s probably the main key to success in this collaboration. We are very different, but we also work very well together. What we have in common is that we’re always looking for change, in terms of how we can improve the programme; since we launched in 2007, we’ve been making small changes constantly. Most of our students at UCLA Extension are adult learners, so it’s a challenge for our instructors to teach undergraduate students. We give them feedback and work in collaboration with EDHEC to ensure a great learning experience and to make sure it’s aligned with students’ expectations. This programme was created in a year or two, so it was a very short timescale. Sometimes, I am involved in other collaborations, and they are one-week or one-month programmes which require longer conversations. With EDHEC being a private university, it was able to pivot and move fast and I feel that – probably because UCLA Extension is self-supportive in continuing education – we also have that ability to be more entrepreneurial. This was the key to the success. It’s so
What did you learn from this approach?
AB: We kept it simple: one degree, two certificates, modularised and adapted to the programme. We had each partner take the lead on one aspect; we all look at impact, but we have our own specificities. NTU takes the lead on technology, EDHEC on finance, and UCLA on modularisation. We think beyond fixed structures. Our calendar does not work in a traditional way. Students spend one year at EDHEC, before moving to UCLA in their second year, and it is easy from them to adapt. We create opportunities for impact, hybridisation, and work-based learning. We have a dedicated team from all three institutions working together. We have regular meetings with different channels
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