Asia

Our primary Asian initiatives are:

The MIT-China Management Education Project
In 1996, MIT Sloan, Tsinghua University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai established the MIT-China Management Education Project to strengthen graduate management education at those Chinese universities through international MBA (IMBA) programs. Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou joined the Project in 1999, and since 2002, Yunnan University in Kunming has also participated with an internationally oriented MBA (IOMBA) program. English is the official language in all of the programs.

The Project brings Chinese faculty to Cambridge for training in teaching and course development. While they are here, they are known as International Faculty Fellows (IFFs) — see below for a description of this program. By the end of the 2007-2008 academic year, 174 Chinese faculty had spent time as IFFs at MIT Sloan, 110 MIT Sloan faculty had served as their advisors and/or given lectures and taught short courses at the Chinese universities, and the programs had graduated 2636 young men and women. The English-only requirement enormously enhances the students' ability to compete in the international business community. It is also attracting increasingly international student enrollments.

The collaboration, initially intended for ten years, has been extended for another five.

The International Faculty Fellows Program
International Faculty Fellows (IFFs) at MIT Sloan are faculty from universities in China and Korea who come to MIT Sloan to learn what the School's faculty teach, how they teach it, and how students learn. They join MBA classes and consult with their faculty advisers on ways to adapt MIT Sloan course materials to their own environments. They also attend teaching workshops where they learn how to conduct Western-style participant-centered classes, a stark contrast with their traditional style of teaching by lecture. Many IFFs also take advantage of their time at MIT Sloan to learn Western research methodologies and identify research topics that they will continue at their own universities, often in collaboration with MIT Sloan faculty.

China Lab
In Spring 2008, the five universities participating in the MIT-China Management Education Project launched China Lab, an innovative, international collaboration that partners MIT Sloan MBAs, IMBAs in China, and Chinese entrepreneurs in an action-oriented learning experience that anticipates the multinational business community that these students will soon join. This pilot project brings 56 Chinese and MIT Sloan students — 32 enrolled at the Chinese universities and 24 at MIT Sloan — together to work in teams with 12 Chinese entrepreneurial firms. Their activities include classroom-based education and intensive on-site internships with the Chinese firms. Students sustain their teams both virtually, using information-sharing technology across thousands of miles, and face-to-face, meeting together in China and Cambridge. Every student who completes China Lab enjoys the benefits of genuine, collaborative project work and international travel. Many also earn course credit.

China Lab is modeled on MIT Sloan's G-Lab, which links teams of MBA students with entrepreneurs in emerging markets around the world. Nearly fifty percent of MIT Sloan MBAs participate in G-Lab. For many, it has been the most formative experience of their two years at the School. Now the pioneering students of China Lab also have a chance at this transformational opportunity.

MIT Sloan-SKK GSB
In 2003, MIT Sloan and the Sungkyunkwan University Graduate School of Business (SKK GSB) in Seoul agreed to work together for eight years to develop a world-class MBA program at SKK GSB. English is the program's official and everyday language, and enrollment is intentionally international. Most SKK GSB MBAs spend their third semester at graduate business schools outside of Korea, many of them at MIT Sloan. Every term one or more members of the SKK GSB faculty spend time at MIT Sloan as an IFF (see above). In 2008, the collaboration was extended for an additional four years.

The China Center for Financial Research
The China Center for Financial Research (CCFR) was established in 2002 at the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, in collaboration with MIT Sloan School. Jiang Wang, Mizuho Financial Group Professor at MIT Sloan, is the director. The CCFR aims to provide an open research platform to support and promote research on China's financial system, including the development and regulation of financial markets and financial institutions, governance of corporations, and government financial policies. CFFR also sponsors annual China International Conferences in Finance and advanced training programs and workshops for Chinese finance faculty. It has received generous support from the Goldman Sachs Foundation.

Epoch Foundation
The Epoch Foundation was established in 1990 by 20 leading industrial companies in Taiwan to integrate private sector resources with the world's best academic institutions. Initially the Foundation supported MIT Sloan research, teaching, and program development in the Asia/Pacific region. Over the years it has expanded to include almost $30 million in collaborative research and educational initiatives all across MIT — the Industrial Liaison Program, Media Lab, Microsystems Technology Lab, Laboratory for Computer Sciences/Artificial Intelligence Lab, Industrial Performance Center's Globalization Study, and other centers of activity. Epoch companies regularly host MIT faculty in Taiwan. More than 90 men and women associated with Foundation member companies have participated in or graduated from MIT Sloan executive education programs. Every two years, CEOs of Epoch companies visit MIT to attend seminars and meet with faculty and staff to discuss specific projects and ideas. They also visit MIT start-ups that provide object lessons about successful entrepreneurship as well as opportunities for investment.

The Nanyang Fellows
Every summer, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) sends approximately 20 fellows to MIT Sloan for four intensive weeks. The men and women in the program (hailing from the ASEAN countries of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Vietnam) are selected for their leadership potential. During this four-week learning experience, the Nanyang Fellows have the opportunity to learn with participants from the International Management Program.

Other Asian initiatives include:

Global Entrepreneurship Lab — Vietnam
A recent G-Lab team worked with IDGVV, a venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments in Vietnam-centered businesses, especially in the technology sector. The firm was launched in August 2004 and has already made a number of investments in Vietnamese startups. The G-Lab team analyzed portfolio investment strategies for the firm looking at the kinds of companies and sectors IDGVV should be targeting and how they could most effectively develop successful entrepreneurs.

The MIT-Singapore Program
Prior to working in Singapore's companies and research centers, students attend forums and seminars on Singapore. For the companies that hire them in the future, these students will offer — in addition to their talent and education as managers, scientists, and engineers — a valuable knowledge of what it takes to carry out projects in Singapore.

The Singapore-MIT Alliance
An exciting outgrowth of MIT Sloan's relationship with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is the Singapore-MIT Alliance. This collaboration among MIT, NTU, and the National University of Singapore promotes engineering education and research at a global level. Using distance-learning technologies, the Singapore-MIT Alliance spans twelve time zones with classes delivered by faculty at all three institutions. MIT Sloan faculty work with's School of Engineering to deliver multi-faceted knowledge that recognizes the critical link between effective management and effective technology in the 21st century.

The MIT-China Program
The MIT-China Program has quickly become a pre-eminent center for applied Chinese studies, giving young scientists, technologists, and managers the chance to work in a Chinese setting and participate in the rapidly expanding world of Chinese business and technology. Since its inception in 1994, nearly 400 MIT students have successfully gone on to work in China.

The MIT-India Internship Program
The MIT-India Internship Program allows MIT students (undergraduates, graduates, and post-doctorates) to travel to India for research or company-based internships. Students experience how work in their field is carried out and gain a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in the world's largest democracy.

The MIT-Japan Internship Program
The MIT Japan Internship Program is open to MIT undergraduate and graduate students as well as to alumni for up to one year after graduation. The program places interns in corporate, government, or academic research environments for a period of three months to one year. As part of the placement process, participants must study Japanese language and culture for two years and undergo a comprehensive program of coursework on Japan's culture, including participation in a weekend retreat.

The Chinese Business Forum
This goal of this forum is to develop, share, and sharpen insights for teaching and research regarding Chinese firms that operate globally. A virtual community consisting of selected faculty, doctoral students, and practitioners from MIT Sloan and its partner schools in China and elsewhere, as well as individuals from the broader academic and managerial community, the forum utilizes a Wiki-based Web platform for the exchange of ideas and developments for courseware, including “open-source” material.