BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
‘ Our view is global, but we have a response that is local ’
MBA programmes, one of the most successful professional programmes in China, have made a great contribution to economic and industrial development since China's opening-up policy. Zhejiang is located on the east coast of China, and our MBA programme is a very important contributor to the economy in China. We have had three main features over the past 30 years. We have a programme called the Global Entrepreneurship Programme (GEP) in partnership with William Paterson University (US) and HEC Paris (France). This was the first global MBA programme in China, launched 15 Years ago. At that time, Zhongming Wang was the Dean of the School of Management, and he [oversaw] the first international accreditation. Since then, we’ve changed the design of the MBA to connect and be embedded into the globalisation, developing a connection with the global experience and global best practice. From the middle of 2010s, we launched another global programme with McGill University in Canada. We focused on manufacturing programmes for MBAs. Second, we focused on the private economy and entrepreneurship. Guangdong province and Zhejiang province are very special in the private [sector]. In Zhejiang, more than 8% of the companies are private companies, so we wanted to devote our MBA programme to the local economy, focusing on entrepreneurship. We launched the entrepreneurship programme in our MBA in 2005. At that time, Zhejiang university set the strategic direction of entrepreneurship education. So today, we have expanded our education around entrepreneurship from master’s, bachelor’s and PhDs to all the universities. The third feature is a new model we call ‘Business Plus’. We focus on business plus AI; business plus digital industry; business plus culture and arts; business plus capital markets; and business plus healthcare. We have several ways to go to the industries and we have seven checks which focus on different aspects of a business plus entrepreneurship programme. In the future, we will try to design within our new strategy. We hope to have a different educational model, a different expenditure, different student fees, and to co-operate further with organisations,
including Alibaba and Volvo, to develop the different Business Plus MBA programmes. [As shown by] the Covid-19 pandemic, the greatest challenge is globalisation, although we emphasise that globalisation is also the strategy. Previously, we sent our students to travel to learn in the US or Europe. But today, [travelling] is difficult, so we are waiting for the opportunity for our students to go abroad, to move, to learn, and to share the international experience. ZW: I have a question about faculty and the involvement of industry in teaching. What is the level of involvement of industry-based speakers? Are they just visitors that deliver occasional seminars or are they part-time faculty members? JW: In our School, most of the new faculty members are graduate students from international Business Schools. They come back to China to work in Business Schools. We have our Triangle Programme, in which young professionals come to our School and connect with the research team, business, and the [taught] programme. They must connect with one company or one industry; for example, healthcare. They must carry out research and look into new business models and strategies in this sector. Then, after three years, they can go to the classroom to give lectures and do research. We have a special fund to support young faculty to go into companies and become consultants, to do surveys or investigations. We help young people to go to the industries and companies, to survey and do special research (for example, leadership, entrepreneurship, strategy or the supply chain); to write the research cases and teaching cases. This is an important indicator for our evaluation and for our promotion. ZW: At this challenging time, we are thinking about the next 30 years of the development of Chinese business education. A recent trend in Business Schools is a move towards responsibility/responsible management education and sustainability. We have been talking about sustainable management, sustainable education, and entrepreneurship.
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