BGA | BUSINESS IMPACT
AB: Southeast Asia remains a good hub because of the quality of students, and there is more of an approach for Schools and universities to be entrepreneurial. In the west, we were myopic, and didn’t see, for example, the top Schools in Taiwan and China starting to become more entrepreneurial; we didn’t see students in Vietnam with amazing grades, and we needed to understand the change. If we look at China and Vietnam, they are exploring different forms of capitalism and looking at different forms of engagement with the internet. They are looking at innovations – things that we, in the west, have been taking for granted. What was the most difficult aspect of building a joint programme between your Schools? AB: In terms of challenges, there are requirements that go beyond us as a School. We can decide to innovate but the moment you have a government or a state that tells you that, ‘you must have this; you must work within a framework’, these requirements add complexity. We have been quite innovative; our final project – the dissertation – allows students to choose what they work on: either a personal research thesis, or an applied research project with a company. This did not come without challenges and discussions with ministers of education, to make sure that what we were proposing was in line with their accepted frameworks. In terms of the partnership, at the beginning we were learning about each other’s styles; how we do things here is different to how things are done there. We also had to get used to working with older learners and the way to communicate with them, because it can be different to talking to 19-year-olds. Business School partnerships can be resource intensive. How could a smaller institution approach this? AB: Modularity is a key aspect. Rather than designing something from scratch, it’s perhaps better to find modules that already exist that can be adapted and changed. The investment is important and significant in terms of resources, and in terms of the attention from the teams. But the course we’re discussing is one of the most in-demand courses when it comes to applications at our School, so the initial investment paid off strongly. It’s important for the institution to commit to that and to understand how the programme fits within a message. DC: I agree that you need to take a long-term commitment perspective. If you are only looking for short-term gain, this may not be the best approach. But the time and effort you put into this investment will pay off in subsequent years. We looked at one of our existing certificates in international trade and commerce, and we customised it based on the students and the courses students had already completed before they came to UCLA Extension. Also, when students come to UCLA, they are offered courses in a private cohort,
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