China

The MIT-China Management Education Project was established in 1996 to strengthen graduate management education programs at selected Chinese universities. English is the official language for all teaching, homework, and examinations.

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.

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 2009, the IMBA programs had graduated more than 2,500 young men and women. Nearly 200 Chinese faculty had spent time as IFFs at MIT Sloan, more than 200 MIT Sloan faculty had served as their advisors and/or given lectures and taught short courses at the Chinese universities, and nearly 150 MIT Sloan MBAs had visited the Chinese schools. The English-only requirement at the Chinese universities enormously 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 tenth 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), the first business school in mainland China to be accredited for having met the highest standard of achievement in education and research for business schools worldwide. In 2009, Lingnan celebrated its ten years of participation in the project with a weekend of ceremonies and celebration.