Global MIT Sloan

China

The MIT-China Management Education Project was established in 1996 to strengthen graduate management education programs at selected Chinese universities. The China Leaders for Global Operations program, a collaboration between Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and MIT’s interdisciplinary Leaders for Global Operations program, is China’s only dual-degree, graduate-level program in engineering and management.

MIT-China Management Education Project

The project initially supported International MBA (IMBA) programs at Tsinghua University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai. Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, joined in 1999. Fudan and Tsinghua graduated their first IMBAs in 1999. Lingnan graduated its first IMBAs in 2002.The MIT-China Management Education Project has worked so well that in 2001 its time frame of five years was extended to ten, and in 2006 it was extended for five more.

Tsinghua University Dean Yingyi Qian discusses the value of the International MBA (IMBA) programs.

The project brings Chinese faculty to MIT Sloan for training in teaching and course development. While they are here, they are known as International Faculty Fellows (IFFs).

The project also sends MIT Sloan faculty members to the Chinese campuses to give lectures and teach short courses. For 10 years, Project Teams of MIT Sloan MBA students visited the Chinese campuses to teach IMBA students about aspects of the workplace not usually included in their curricula (for example, leadership, teambuilding, and career development). In 2008, these visits were replaced with China Lab. From time to time, administrators at the participating universities also come to Cambridge to talk with their MIT Sloan counterparts about important functions, such as marketing and communications, alumni relations, admissions, career development, resource development, finances, and technology services.

By June 2010, the IMBA programs had graduated more than 3,400 young men and women. All IMBA graduates are considered Affiliates of the MIT Alumni Association, which greatly increases the size of their network. Many IMBA alumni forge high-profile international careers. More than 200 Chinese faculty have spent time as IFFs at MIT Sloan, more than 200 MIT Sloan faculty have served as their advisors and/or given lectures and taught short courses at the Chinese universities, and over 220 MIT Sloan MBAs have visited the Chinese schools. The English-only requirement at the Chinese universities enhances their students’ ability to compete for jobs in the global business community. It has also resulted in increasingly international enrollments. For example, 48 international students from 11 different countries registered in the Class of 2010 at Tsinghua, chosen from a pool of international applications that had increased 40 percent over the year before. With the influx of international students, English is commonly spoken not only in classrooms but outside in hallways and common areas as well.

In 2006, Tsinghua and Fudan celebrated the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the MIT-China Management Education Program with a gala series of seminars, social gatherings, and fireworks. In 2007, the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University was awarded accreditation by AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), and in 2010 the School of Management at Fudan University was awarded AACSB accreditation. In 2009, Lingnan celebrated its 10 years of participation in the project with a weekend of ceremonies and celebration.

China Leaders for Global Operations

Developed in 2005 at the request of a group of US industrial partners as a collaboration of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program, the China Leaders for Global Operations (CLGO) program is China’s only dual-degree, graduate-level program in engineering and management. The contents and materials for the CLGO curriculum are provided by MIT and core SJTU faculty teaching in the CLGO program are mentored during semester-long fellowships at MIT. CLGO was created in order to strengthen the global content of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program for MIT faculty and students, to help partner companies’ operations in Greater China, and to promote global manufacturing. CLGO seeks to strengthen its partners by developing leaders who apply both managerial and engineering expertise to global manufacturing and operations. Through this partnership, joint student groups from the two programs have conducted plant tours in China and in the US, executed “Lion Team” projects for industry partners in China, and collaborated in case studies and ethics classes at MIT.