Just in time for Christmas and New Year, MBS China centre wins a national award again–2013 outstanding contribution award to the China education industry! What a fantastic festive gift! The sohu.com annual education grand ceremony was held in Beijing yesterday (18 Dec) and I was honorably invited to receive the beautiful trophy and interviewed by group of major Chinese media. Actually back to late November, Gorge Xue, MBS excellent alumnus in Beijing representing the centre received another national award- The Most Influential MBA Brand at Sina education 2013 banquet. The two national awards (to the only foreign education institution) reflect MBS’ increasing influence and awareness in China, recognizing phenomenon achievements that we’ve made since 2008 when MBS opened the centre in Shanghai.
2013 is also a year of an exciting expansion, not only in terms of the new students number (159 enrolled Global MBA, incl.32 Tongji/MBS cohort), but also on a smooth relocation to a fabulous new centre. I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Keith Brown, Prof. Fiona Devine and Mr. Nigel Banister who made a special trip to Shanghai in November and officially opened our new centre. The grand opening was a great success with wide media coverage across the region. One of the stunning reports was published on 2nd Dec at China Daily, on the first day of the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to China.
During the year we also witnessed the growing number of alumni networking activities in China. Our Beijing alumni association kindly organised a welcome reception during Prof. Nancy Rothwell’s visit in September. The first MBS healthcare club was successfully launched in Oct and more industry based-clubs are being formed and will be announced at the upcoming alumni annual dinner in 18th January next year.
Thanks all for your great support to MBS China in 2013 and I look forward to a more prosperous year of the Horse-2014!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Sherry Fu
Regional Director, CHINA
Ms. Sherry Fu and all MBS China Centre Staff wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
British Ambassador Lunch Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Sebastian Wood hosted lunch and briefing at MBS China centre
On Tuesday, 10 December 2013, The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai invited members to join Sebastian Wood, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, for an informal lunch and briefing at Manchester Business School China Centre, following the British Prime Minister’s recent visit to China.
On Tuesday, 10 December 2013, The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai invited members to join Sebastian Wood, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, for an informal lunch and briefing at Manchester Business School China Centre, following the British Prime Minister’s recent visit to China.
The objective of the visit was to build relationships for the future, push forward trade and investment relationships and to discuss global issues.
The Prime Minister brought with him six government ministers and a trade and cultural delegation of 130 including over 50 SMEs, and museums and universities.
During the briefing, the Ambassador emphasised Britain’s strategic fit with China, which presents an “historic opportunity (for partnership) that applies only to the UK (within Western countries)”.
The Ambassador also highlighted key results of visit which saw the announcement of over £6 bn worth of business deals. They included with Jack Ma (Alibaba) an agreement by T-mall, China’s largest online retail platform, to fast-track and promote UK brands (150 SMEs so far have signed up); and new bilateral platforms for companies in two crucial, high-potential new markets: healthcare and digital media.
Over 70 MoUs and agreements were signed, including big agreements on healthcare, science, and education.
Alongside was a three-day rolling “British Business Embassy” with presentations, seminars and workshops, covering a wide range of issues from offshore wind to healthcare. A symposium on the Shanghai Free Trade Zone was also held.
Professor Keith Brown, Vice President of the University of Manchester, Professor Fiona Devine, Head of Manchester Business School, Mr. Nigel Banister, Chief Global Officer of Manchester Business School and Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional Director of Manchester Business School in China visited the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University.
Professor Keith Brown, Vice President of the University of Manchester, Professor Fiona Devine, Head of Manchester Business School, Mr. Nigel Banister, Chief Global Officer of Manchester Business School and Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional Director of Manchester Business School in China visited the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University. This is the first time for Professor Brown and Professor Devine to visit Tongji University. Prof. Wu Zhiqiang, Vice President of Tongji University and Prof. HuoJiazhen, Dean of SEM met the distinguished guests.
MBS and SEM have been offering a jointly delivered Global MBA Programme since 2009. This has proved very successful and the partnership agreement was formally renewed. During the meeting there was discussion concerning potential cooperation in other disciplines and with of Sino-Europe innovation research.
The grand opening ceremony of Manchester Business School ‘s (MBS) new China centre was held on 12th November in Shanghai. The new office occupies space of over 1,000 square meters, four times larger than the previous one in order to accommodate the growing student body in Shanghai. It is located in the prestigious Shanghai Centre in the central business district of Shanghai. The centre is equipped with first class facilities including audio-visual systems and provides free Internet services to visitors and students.
The grand opening ceremony of Manchester Business School ‘s (MBS) new China centre was held on 12th November in Shanghai. The new office occupies space of over 1,000 square meters, four times larger than the previous one in order to accommodate the growing student body in Shanghai. It is located in the prestigious Shanghai Centre in the central business district of Shanghai. The centre is equipped with first class facilities including audio-visual systems and provides free Internet services to visitors and students.
Professor Keith Brown, Vice President of the University of Manchester along with Professor Fiona Devine, Dean of Manchester business school and Mr Nigel Banister, Chief Global Officer of Manchester Business School made the special trip to China to attend the grand opening ceremony. Mr Matt Burney, Area Director of the British Council delivered a keynote speech at the event. Representatives from MBS partner institutions Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University together with senior executives from major multinational companies witnessed this new development for MBS in China.
To celebrate the establishment of the new office, a short film had been made to introduce the MBS China Centre. It showed the 5 year milestones of the MBS China Centre from the “Cube” to the well-equipped centre. Nigel Banister thanked all the participants for supporting MBS and emphasised the importance of developing the China centre as one of the strategies of the school’s internationalisation.
Professor Keith Brown was invited to give a keynote speech on behalf of the University of Manchester. He congratulated everyone associated with the MBS China Centre for all they have accomplished in the past years. MBS took the decision in 2008 to open a centre in Shanghai, recognising China's growing importance as an economic power and Shanghai's role as a global financial centre.
Matt Burney as the Area Director of British Council represents the British government, social institutions and organizations delivered an including congratulations to MBS and the China Centre. Matt said that the development and achievements that have been made by MBS is a role model for the British education overseas. He expects more Sino-UK education projects and cultural cooperation in the future.
The highlight of the ceremony was the opening of traditional ‘virtual’ Chinese doors by Professor Keith Brown, Professor Fiona Devine, Mr Nigel Banister and Ms Sherry Fu.
Sherry Fu, Regional Director of Manchester Business School, who is also the founding director of the MBS China centre in her address, explained that the new centre was carefully designed by combining western and eastern styles together with the overall style of MBS in the UK. Ms. Fu said MBS China Centre is committed to provide world-class business education opportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making a contribution to society and development of regional education.
MBS China Centre wins a highly respected national award—2013 outstanding contribution to China Education Industry Award. The award was presented to Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional director of MBS China at Sohu grand annual education ceremony in Beijing on 18th December. The great news broadcasting to 400 million Chinese netizens raised a sea of jubilant alumni.
MBS China Centre wins a highly respected national award—2013 outstanding contribution to China Education Industry Award. The award was presented to Ms. Sherry Fu, Regional director of MBS China at Sohu grand annual education ceremony in Beijing on 18th December. The great news broadcasting to 400 million Chinese netizens raised a sea of jubilant alumni.
Chinese leading educational organizations, well known educators and experts participated in the events. Ms. Sherry Fu were interviewed by a group of major national media on the day. She thanked the award judge panel, Chinese netizens and university of Manchester alumni who voted the top award to MBS China.
As the winner of Outstanding Contribution Award, MBS has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Chinese market by working successfully and closely with its Chinese partners to provide world-class business education opportunities to business professionals and executives in China, continuously making contribution to the society and development of regional education.
The top China national award to the only foreign education institution reflects MBS’ increasing influence and awareness in China, recognizing the phenomenon achievements that MBS China centre has made since 2008 when the centre launched in Shanghai.
On 28 November 2013, MBS was awarded the most influential MBA brand in China by Sina China Education. The grand ceremony was held in Beijing and more than 400 major educational organisations and institutions participated in this annual event. Gorge Xue, MBS Global MBA student was entrusted to receive the award on behalf of MBS China centre. The nominated educational organisations are voted through Weibo, blogs and various online systems by reviewing the size of the class, students profiles, faculties, increasing of salaries after graduation, alumni and career service etc.
On 28 November 2013, MBS was awarded the most influential MBA brand in China by Sina China Education. The grand ceremony was held in Beijing and more than 400 major educational organisations and institutions participated in this annual event. Gorge Xue, MBS Global MBA student was entrusted to receive the award on behalf of MBS China centre. The nominated educational organisations are voted through Weibo, blogs and various online systems by reviewing the size of the class, students profiles, faculties, increasing of salaries after graduation, alumni and career service etc.
The nominated educational organisations are all competitive in the China Market. MBS as the most influential brand in the educational market is not only for its well-known faculty and research ability, but also for its flexibility to adapt the needs of Chinese Market as well as the scope of the Global contents. Most participants are attracted by unique international experiences provided by MBS. With the global learning experiences, what the students gain is not only the international exposures, but also the potential business and professional opportunities in Manchester, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Miami or Brazil.
Furthermore, with the accreditations of AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, the students of MBS are much easier to be recognized by the recruiters. In fact, MBS helped one student to increase his salary by 1000%, apart from the personal effects, MBS, in fact, created a perfect platform for the ambitious young professional. According to MBS, currently MBS alumni are over 50000 all around world.
On behalf of MBS, Mr. Jian Xue, who is MBS 2013 Jan intake student participated the event. He was proud of being part of MBS and was confident that in the approachable future, MBS can be more influential in the Chinese education market.
On the November 12th, 2013, Manchester Business School (abbreviated as MBS) HR Forum and the launch of Global EMBA was successfully held in Shanghai.
On the November 12th, 2013, Manchester Business School (abbreviated as "MBS") HR Forum and the launch of Global EMBA was successfully held in Shanghai.
Ms. Sherry Fu, director of MBS China centre delivered a welcome speech. She introduced that MBS China Centre which was launched in 2008 is committed to provide world-class business education opportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making contribution to the society and development of regional education. The centre not only cooperates with prestigious business schools but also work closely with world leading companies to help them attract, develop and retain best talent available. AstraZeneca China is the first company signed up the Talent Management Partnership with MBS. Quite many senior managers of AstraZeneca have now chosen MBS GMBA as their career ladder to empower themselves.
Vice President of AstraZeneca China, Meade Zhang was invited to deliver a speech on “Career Advice from HR perspective?” He also shared his own career developing experience and stories and provided professional insights and recommendations to the audiences.
Followed by the keynote speech is the panel discussion. Yiming, Wang, CEO of Sense Consulting; Judy Shen, Human Resource Director, Legrand (Shanghai) Management and Jerel Bonner, Executive Leadership Coach also shared their experiences in professional training.
Mr. Nigel Banister, Chief Global Officer of MBS announced the launch of GEMBA after the short coffee break. He briefly introduced the programme that the MBS GEMBA is distinctive, challenging and inspirational; it is designed to take delegates out of their time zone and comfort zones, and equip them with the higher level skills (i.e.strategy and leadership), knowledge and networks to transform their career, organisation and the communities around them. The programme also balances academic rigor with getting out in the real world to try ideas and critique current practices. Delegates will take ideas and perspectives and relate them to real global business problems.
Mr. Banister emphasized that Shanghai is the business capital of one of the fastest growing and largest economies in the world. During the workshop in Shanghai, delegates will not only access world-class education, they also will meet senior leaders (i.e. from The Economist) and enjoy a range of customisable extra-curricular experiences – GEMBA+, which is one of the most attractive points of the programme. In fact, MBS China Centre has already received enquires about the prgramme of GEMBA. It shows the programme actually reflects the needs of the market.
“It will be another milestone” said Banister. “MBS GEMBA will be a great platform for all the senior executives and it would be the most valuable investment not for your personal career development but also for the organsation.”
On 28 August, Manchester Business School (MBS) China Centre held a Project Management workshop taster and MBA programme information session.
On 28 August, Manchester Business School (MBS) China Centre held a Project Management workshop taster and MBA programme information session. MBS Professor Philip Baylis shared his thoughts with working professionals. The topic was“How do you create exceptional results in managing a project?” Sherry Fu, Director of MBSChina Centre opened the session with an introduction to the Global MBA Programme.
Worldwide statistic says that 80% of all projects fail. This surprising situation brings questions about why this happens? Professor Philip Baylis gave a lecture on project management and shared with the audience his thoughts, insights and theories that he has formed during his years of experience as business school professor and also founder of a consulting company which helps clients to improve efficiency and deliver better result.
Sherry Fu, Director of MBS China Centre gave the audience a thorough introduction onManchester Business School, China Centre and the Global MBA Programme. Many workingprofessionals are very interested in this programme because of the Reputation of MBS,students’ learning experience in seven international centres and the transformation that itbrings into real world business.
Marketing team of MBS China Centre also gave a coaching session on the application and took questions from the floor.
The audience was totally amazed by the Professor’s lecture and the introduction on MBS;they will learn more and benefit more after enrolling in this Global MBA programme.Manchester business school is one of the first business schools in the UK and becomes aglobal leading business education provider after nearly 50 years development. MBS Chinacentre which was launched in 2008 is committed to provide world-class business educationopportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making contribution to the society anddevelopment of regional education.
On 10th September, Manchester Business School China Centre held a workshop taster and Part-time Global MBA programme information session for working professionals who seek career progress. Dr Martin Bennett shared his knowledge and thoughts in Accounting. Sherry Fu, MBS China Centre Director introduced Global MBA programme.
On 10th September, Manchester Business School China Centre held a workshop taster and Part-time Global MBA programme information session for working professionals who seek career progress. Dr Martin Bennett shared his knowledge and thoughts in Accounting. Sherry Fu, MBS China Centre Director introduced Global MBA programme.
“What is accounting? The process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of the information.Dr Martin Bennett encourages participants to develop skills in the analysis and interpretation of financial information. The full Global MBA Accounting course will provide a conceptual framework for the evaluation of company financial reports, analysing the impact of regulation, managerial motivation and economic consequences on the credibility and usefulness of published financial reports. Dr. Martin Bennett shared the most up-to-date theories and cases concerning how Management Accounting could be in a fast Changing Environment.
Sherry introduced in details about The University of Manchester, MBS and Global MBA Programme. The world well-known “Manchester Method”, original thinking applied programme and seven international centres are contributed to this truly global MBA programme, MBS ranks No.2 in “Best International MBA Programme” by the famous business magazine Forbes.
After Sherry’s introduction, marketing team introduced to the audience about course structure, criteria for admission and application process. Early bird who completes application process before 30th September will enjoy tuition fee discount.
Manchester business school is one of the first business schools in the UK and becomes a global leading business education provider after nearly 50 years development. MBS China centre which was launched in 2008 is committed to provide world-class business education opportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making contribution to the society and development of regional education.
On 15 October, 2013, Manchester Business School China Centre offered an open class on Strategic Management at new China Centre in Shanghai. More than 30 company executives and managers attended the class.
On 15 October, 2013, Manchester Business School China Centre offered an open class on Strategic Management at new China Centre in Shanghai. More than 30 company executives and managers attended the class.
The class was delivered by Prof. Bob Vass, who is Module Coordinator at MBS Worldwide. He is a popular workshop director of the Strategic Management and Management Accounting Module of Part-time MBA programmes in Manchester Business School over 17 years. He has profound experience in teaching business executives internationally. Prof. Vass is also a consultant with over thirty years’ experience of working with major UK companies, small start-up businesses and, over the past decade, he has consulted extensively in the dynamic transformation of business in Western Europe.
In this open class, Prof. Bob Vass gave a broad view on strategy with practical and interesting illustrations. Such as “how to choose your mate?” and the case of Winchester mysterious house, instead of approaching the case generally, Prof. Vass provided a unique angle to view these issues with applying the concept of strategy management. All these problems become straight forward. With these theories, the audience found that lots of questions puzzled them are easy to solve.
During the class, Prof. Bob Vass also commented that all the strategy management models are just the strategic analysis tools, to manage a company requires a whole bunch of quality, you cannot judge the failure and success of a company for only one dimension, the failure of the company cannot make the strategy management model worthless, instead, it serves the function that help the management to know their organization better.
Sherry Fu, Director of Manchester Business School China Centre attended the class, and introduced the audience to Manchester Business China Centre and the Global MBA Programme. The class content taught at this time is just one part of Manchester Business School Global MBA Strategic Management module.
Manchester Business School is one of the first business schools in the UK and becomes a global leading business education provider after nearly 50 years development. MBS China Centre which was launched in 2008 is committed to provide world-class business education opportunities to the Chinese people, continuously making contribution to the society and development of regional education.
On 22nd August, Manchester Business School (MBS) China Healthcare Club officially launched with the first industry forum. MBS Alumni RonghuiGao, Founder and CEO of G-Med Consulting, MBS Global MBA Students Yunfei Zhang, Greater China BD Director, Frank Zhang, BD Director of Shanghai Medicilion and Shelly lai, Marketing Manager of AstraZeneca China shared their insight and thoughts of the industry with MBS Alumni and current MBA students. Sherry Fu, Director of MBS China presented the event.
On 22nd August, Manchester Business School (MBS) China Healthcare Club officially launched with the first industry forum. MBS Alumni RonghuiGao, Founder and CEO of G-Med Consulting, MBS Global MBA Students Yunfei Zhang, Greater China BD Director, Frank Zhang, BD Director of Shanghai Medicilion and Shelly lai, Marketing Manager of AstraZeneca China shared their insight and thoughts of the industry with MBS Alumni and current MBA students. Sherry Fu, Director of MBS China presented the event.
Firstly, Sherry welcomed Alumni and students and congratulated the founding of MBS China Health care Club. Sherry introduced MBS China’s development during the past five years. Till today, there are already more than 600 students in MBS China. Many of them are working for world leading Pharma Companies with healthcare or related background. The University of Manchester has been enjoying a very high status of Healthcare related research and the cooperation between the University and company also regarded as shining example. Sherry encourages students to fully utilise resources and platform that MBS provides, applying knowledge into real work practise.
Following Sherry’s keynote speech, Yunfei Zhang hosted the Healthcare Industry Forum. He firstly introduced the purpose of this club. It is to provide a sharing and learning platform for MBS alumni and students who have healthcare related background.
The first speaker is RonghuiGao. He has abundant experiences and deep insights of healthcare industry. He shared with the audience an overview and current situation of the whole industry.
Yunfei Zhang’s speech focused on New Drug development, during his speech, some alumni and students also actively participated in the discussion and mentioned a new vaccine of cervical cancer will launch in the market and it can help to greatly reduce the possibility of the disease. Another student also brought good news that there is also a lung cancer vaccine that will launch by the end of this year. The progress of healthcare technology greatly encourages people’s confidence to fight disease and brings hope of life to many patients.
The audience was still excited, Frank Zhang further introduced the mechanism of bio-drug and CRO operations of bio-drug development, which enabled the audience to have a closer look and deeper understanding of this cutting edge topic.
Shelly Lai from AstraZeneca mainly introduced Market Forecast of new drug. She explained in details about how to make a scientific market forecast before considering the launching of a new drug. How to ensure the credibility of the forecast and make the forecast convincible so that the management can take it as a reference when making decisions.
Speakers’ sharing really benefited the audience. But the audience are not just there to listen, they actively participated in the discussion and shared their own thoughts and experiences, making the discussion more like a “brain storm”.
After the event, alumni and students said that this kind of club is very helpful and they love to see more clubs. Sherry told them that Finance Club is on the way, together with several other clubs, it will help students to learn more and make more progress in their personal and professional life.
MBA News caught up with Professor Fiona Devine, Head of Manchester Business School (MBS), and Professor Keith Brown, Vice President of the University of Manchester, during their recent trip to Shanghai to open the MBS China Center in the city.
MBA News caught up with Professor Fiona Devine, Head of Manchester Business School (MBS), and Professor Keith Brown, Vice President of the University of Manchester, during their recent trip to Shanghai to open the MBS China Center in the city.
We discussed the school’s new Global EMBA, expanding its presence and network in China and why the City of Manchester is a great attraction for Chinese students.
MBA News: Can you explain the recent developments on the MBS Global MBA program, and what’s behind these changes?
Fiona Devine: The program was originally three years and now it has dropped to two and a half years. It is in the [first] two years where they [the students] do most of the coursework and different workshops and it’s the final part in the fifth semester where they do a major piece of project work. And that’s where we really press upon original thinking to get the students to put into practise everything that they have learned in the courses in the previous two years. That is a really critical experience as part of that program.
I think it [the change] is being led by student demand. They wanted to have a tighter program and it makes sense in relation to our competitors that also have a tight program. So now within the first part of the program, they have a very intense period of study, they want to make the best of their time and are keen to get on, while then at the back end of the program is where they do most of their project work.
MBA News: MBS is now launching a Global EMBA. What can you tell us about this program?
Fiona Devine: Well, the idea of launching this program is partly to separate it out from our existing offering, so our MBA program that we offer at the moment is for middle level executives who have got about four or five years of experience. With the executive MBA program, we are now looking for people who’ve got 8 or more years of experience so they’re really people moving into, if not there already, quite senior managerial positions.
So again, there’s a variety of courses that we expect people to do as part of the program but then there’s an extensive range of activities around it in terms of learning about new challenges within the working environment, about flexibility, resilience across different market conditions, emotional intelligence, networking. It’s offering a wider suite of activities around the courses that we also offer as well as that distinctiveness in terms of practice-based learning.
MBA News: How important is China in your considerations when designing new programs such as the Global EMBA?
Fiona Devine: Extremely important. As you know we have seven centers around the world and the Shanghai and Dubai offices are our most successful and we really do see these two centers as critical to our success.
So the Shanghai enter is very important to us. We largely recruit Chinese nationals that work for international companies to do the Global MBA and we imagine that will be the case with the Global Executive MBA.
MBA News: What is the goal for the MBS centers in the next few years?
Fiona Devine: We want to have a reputation for both attracting high-quality students but then giving them a top rate student experience so that they’re going out and they’re representing us, MBS, when going back into the business environment and that’s then, of course, critical for us in terms of our recruitment in the future.
We also attach a lot of importance to growing alumni, so the students that are graduating, they will be very important for us to keep in contact with them. They’re also critical for coming in and talking to the students that we have on our programs at the moment so we are really building up quite considerable cohorts of people that we have as students and then remain in contact with them after they have completed their studies with us and we will continue with that activity.
We continue to want to offer a very good, high quality product in our Global MBA so we want to continue to be successful in that market as we have just been discussing. We have just launched this global executive MBA, we’ll want to see that take off and build that up over time. And then we’re also launching a program, which we’re working with the Centre for Creative Leadership, that would involve a group of participants, I won’t say students because these a very high level executives, that will be based around four different locations as they’re doing the program so they will be based in the work shops in Britain and will also in the US, then they’ll be going out to Ethiopia for one project and then another project will be in China. So we’ll be looking to see all that develop and take off.
We’re also keen to be exploring how we can perhaps be doing more executive education through our global centres. So within the Manchester Business School, we have an executive development centre. A lot of that work is UK-based at the moment, it’s very prestigious. We work with, for example, BP, and offer a major program with them in collaboration with the faculty engineering and physical science where we do a lot of work on project management with engineers and so on. We’ve just won a major contract again in the UK to deliver training programs for high level managers in the National Health Service but what we would like to do is to use the global centres to now extend our activities there to be doing more executive education around the global centres that we have around the world.
Also, they are a platform for us for all different types of collaboration. We’ve got a close relationship with Tongji University in Shanghai, and also Shanghai Jiaotong University where we offer a DBA program. I gather we are the only university that offers a part-time DBA, which is particularly attractive. And so again, we’ll continue those collaborations and extend them and also be thinking not just about the teaching activity but also exploring whether the basis of the research collaborations here as well, so that will be important for us to extend that.
MBA News: Does MBS have plans for further cooperation with Chinese institutions?
Keith Brown: This is something that we’re developing all the time. Only last month, [UK] Chancellor [George] Osborne was here and he announced a major relationship between Peking University and Manchester University in genomic research, so that’s our medicine people and medicine people in Peking. So that’s very, very recent news. We’ve got all sorts of talks, relationships in areas like engineering, physical sciences, health. The Chinese government is showing more and more interest in social sciences, we’ve got a lot of capacity there, so there’s the opportunity to grow that as well.
So these will be evolving relationships and some of them will take time. Many of them will start around student exchanges et cetera and develop from that right through into full-blown research collaborations, so there’s a huge amount of potential there. And I think, too, what we’d like to see longer term is more UK students coming over to China as well as Chinese students going over to the UK and I think there’s more of our staff coming over and spending some time in China.
MBA News: MBS China Centre was launched in 2008. What are your expectations for the China Center for the next five years?
Keith Brown: Well, see, when I came here last year, there was a smaller centre about less than half the size of this one, which had been running for four years. Now we’re in a nice big shinny new one and in five years, we’ll need another floor. I think to some extent, we can plan for a bit of growth but we’re mustn’t exceed ourselves and get carried away with overflowing admissions, but there’s no reason why the China centre here in Shanghai, or indeed the one down in Hong Kong, can’t get bigger.
As long as it gets bigger, they’re getting better because for the university’s reputation is absolutely essential so if you lose the reputation, you’re in trouble, so for us the quality is more important than the quantity. It’d be nice to see more students and obviously to see more revenue, to see more alumni, but more than anything else, we want to be known by employers that our graduates are the best in the market and we want our students to be going out there and saying, ‘yes, I had the best experience possible.’
MBA News: As the vice president of the University of Manchester, what is your most challenging job? And what’s the most enjoyable part of your work?
Keith Brown: Finding enough resources to bundle the fantastic things that my colleagues want to do. I mean, one of the great things about university is you’re working in a very creative environment. It’s just buzzing with people with good ideas whether it’s a new course that they want to teach or different ways of teaching or some new research venture, whether it’s individual work or collaborative work. All that requires money. Universities do their best to generate money but sometimes you’ve got to make quite tough decisions so it that can be a challenging bit of it. Do you back this particular research group or that one or do you put money into developing a distance-learning course here or there or whatever? I guess like any big organization, those are the sorts of difficulties senior managers have backing horses, if you like, and placing bets. The most enjoyable bit is when people succeed in doing what they set out to do, whether that’s a student who comes to the university and three years later, graduates, they’re going off to get a good job, or whether that’s a colleague who’s discovered something or finished a book or won a research contract or whatever and seeing these things through thinking that’s what universities are here for, all the time being caught up in keeping the machine going, but actually what it’s about is allowing people to live their dreams, I guess, whether that’s a student or a professor, it doesn’t matter, they’re all pursuing some sort of dream.
MBA News: Students from China on the MBS programs have the opportunity to visit other centers in the MBS network. How do you attract Chinese students to visit Manchester?
Fiona Devine: I’m not sure we have to attract students to come to Manchester. As part of the program there is always an emphasis on how participants are being exposed to a global environment and if you are working in a business environment you have to understand foreign cultures and it is very important to do so. There is actually a lot of movement and it’s actually a very popular part of the program and attracts students to the program in the first place. Keith Brown: Leaving aside the specific program there is just short of 3,000 Chinese students in Manchester University at this moment so that university actually has the highest number of Chinese students in the UK. So there is no difficulty in attracting Chinese students to come to Manchester; it’s a dynamic and exciting city and it seems somewhere where Chinese students feel very much at home.
Fiona Devine: Many of those [Chinese] will be students at MBS as well, often doing undergraduate degrees but also we have at MBS something like 22 specialist masters degrees and we have huge numbers of students again from China and of course elsewhere coming to do those programs as well. And also then coming back to China and getting high level jobs at both multinationals and Chinese companies.
A new center of the Manchester Business School in Shanghai will create opportunities for Chinese students who are seeking cross-cultural education, experts said at the opening ceremony.
A new center of the Manchester Business School in Shanghai will create opportunities for Chinese students who are seeking cross-cultural education, experts said at the opening ceremony.
The new office, opened on Nov 12, covers more than 1,000 square meters, four times larger than the previous.
Located in the city's CBD area, it has first-class teaching facilities, such as audio-visual systems and free Internet services.
The new center was carefully designed to combine Western and Eastern styles with the overall style of Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom, said Sherry Fu, regional director of the school and founding director of the MBS China Center.
"MBS China Center is committed to continuously making a contribution to society and the development of regional education."
Participants in the opening ceremony also include Keith Brown, a professor and vice-president of the University of Manchester; Fiona Devine, dean of Manchester business school; Nigel Banister, chief global officer of Manchester Business School, and Matt Burney, area director of the British Council.
Representatives from MBS partner institutions Shanghai Jiaotong University and Tongji University also attend the ceremony, together with senior executives from major multinational companies worldwide.
One highlight of the ceremony is a short film made to introduce the history of the MBS China Center.
It showed the five-year development of the center from a "cube" to a well-equipped mature one.
Another one is the opening of the traditional virtual Chinese doors by Brown, Devine, Banister and Fu.
Banister said he appreciates all the efforts the participants made for supporting MBS.
"We aim to develop the China center as one of our key strategies to promote the school's internationalization."
Meanwhile, Brown congratulated everyone associated with the MBS China Center for all their achievements in the past few years.
In 2008, MBS decided to open a center in Shanghai to meet the surging demand in the Chinese market. "Today, China has become a vital economic power around the globe, and Shanghai is a key global financial center."
Burney said the MBS's example is a role model for the British education overseas. He said he is willing to see more Sino-UK education projects and cultural cooperation in the future.
WhichMBA Interviewed Prof. Elaine Ferneley and Prof. Bob Vass
Prof. Elaine Ferneley, Interview Topic: the impact of E-commerce
