Director's Message
 

The dramatic spread of the coronavirus is painfully changing the world we live and the way market operates. During this difficult time, The University of Manchester China Centre tried our best to come up with strategies to deal with those unprecedented challenges brought by the ongoing Covid 19.

 

In the past three months, UoM China Centre has been actively cooperated with leading academics from the University of Manchester by hosting a series of online masterclasses and webinars in China open to the public, which provided attendees with great opportunity to learn from world-leading minds with diverse range of business projects. Together with our alumni community’s support, we invited our senior alumni and guest speakers to deliver keynote speech and industrial talk to enhance our programmes reputation. Also, our student support team proactively organized events to enrich our students learning experience with us.

 

Only in the darkness, you can see the stars. Under the environment of fear and uncertainty, I believe that working together with one heart will bring everyone a new life!

 

Sherry Fu

China Centre Director


Coronavirus information - Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor
 

I appreciate this is a very worrying time and this decision was taken to protect the health and wellbeing of our students and staff, which is our primary concern. These are challenging times and unprecedented arrangements. I am very proud of the way our University community is rallying together in these difficult circumstances. The most important thing we can do over the coming weeks and months is to support each other.


Celebrating the women taking action for equality
 

Named one of Shanghai’s most outstanding women in 2019, Sherry Fu established The University of Manchester China Centre in 2008 – the first dedicated executive centre of a UK business school in Shanghai. It is now one of the University’s largest overseas hubs. Women’s resilience to stress and their persistence to face uncertainty and challenges helped me move forward under pressure. I believe it is the most positive capacity of women to thrive despite adversity.


Manchester MBA ranked 5th in the UK by Financial Times
 

The Financial Times has today ranked Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) 5th in the UK, 11th in Europe and 45th in the world in its annual ranking of the world’s best MBAs.The FT found that the Class of 2016 MBA alumni enjoy a 103% salary increase three years after graduation, earning $128,745 on average. The School is ranked 31st in the world for Career Progress which is calculated according to changes in the level of seniority and size of company alumni are working in now compared to before their MBA.


How The University of Manchester is contributing to the fight against coronavirus
 

At The University of Manchester, our people are working together and with partners from across society to understand coronavirus (COVID-19) and its wide-ranging impacts on our lives. Researchers, teachers, students and professional service staff are combining their knowledge to contribute to the local, national and international response to the disease. This brings together the research and innovation strengths of our partnerships in an unprecedented way to focus on this public health crisis.


Online Masterclasses offer an MBA-style experience in China
 

The University of Manchester China Centre has hosted a series of online Masterclasses webinar in China that were free and open to the public and our prospective students. Each Masterclass was delivered by a leading academic from the University of Manchester and offered an MBA-style classroom experience in action. The series of Masterclasses delivered by Malcolm Smith and Xavier Duran provided attendees with the opportunity to learn more about a diverse range of business subjects, from negotiation skills to service design, and building critical thinking to thrive in a changing environment.


Online Alumni Talk to boost MBA career
 

China Centre invited Manchester Global MBA senior alumnus Mr Simon Zhou to deliver an online sharing focusing on personal and professional development on 13th March. The University of Manchester DBA alumna Ms Catherine Zhao, former country manager of MAMMUT China shared her insights of fashion industrial trend after the outbreak of coronavirus from different aspects such as health development, eco-friendly textiles and AI technology on 28th March. During the alumni industrial sharing event on 15th April, Ms. Aileen Wei shared with our prospective students the latest trend in fashion industry together with branding strategies and how to discover new opportunities in this dynamic world. 


Strategic Branding in Fashion Industrial Talk | Saving Brands with the Culture
 

On 8th March, China Centre hosted a Fashion Industrial Talk online with Vogue Business China. Ms Cherry Ying, Senior Business Development & Consulting Manager, Vogue Business shared the fashion trends in the global marketing during the past 10 years as to analyse the impact of the outbreak of novel coronavirus on fashion industry. Mr Lawrence Hua, alumnus of MSc Fashion Retailing from The University of Manchester to share his memorable study experience with potential candidates of MSc International Fashion Marketing.


UMW Course Webinars | MSc Financial Management & MSc International Fashion Marketing
 

The University of Manchester China Centre has hosted a series of online webinar in China for our MSc Financial Management and MSc International Fashion Marketing that were free and open to the public and our prospective students. The series of MSc FM webinar delivered on 27th Feb, 2nd April and 15th April by Course Director Arif Khurshedas, Amedeo De Cesari and admission officers took our prospective students through the unit spotlight on Finance, course structure and application process. On 28th Feb and 17th April, MSc International Fashion Marketing Course Director Patsy Perry presented key course information and how to pursue a successful career in fashion industry.


Study Tips and Experience Webinar Sharing
 

On the evening of 16th March, China Centre Student Support Team invited Mr Evan Hua, Distinction Graduate of the Year 2019 and Ms Shirley Qian, excellent current student from Jul 2019 intake to share their study tips and experience in the MBA journey. In the beginning of the webinar, Centre Director Ms Sherry Fu welcomed over 30 students from Jan 2020 and Jul 2019 intake and heartened them in the studies despite the outbreak of COVID-19. The event covered many topics, such as workshop preparation, time management, communication, etc. and received many positive feedbacks such as “very helpful to academic studies”.


Senior Alumni Talk: Air Quality in Public Space
 

On the evening of 24th March, China Centre launched “UoM NoW” activity project during COVID-19 and welcomed its first online alumni sharing session. During the talk, Dr Sihua Fan, Manchester DBA alumnus and Co-founder of Flory Technology explored the topic of Air Quality in Public Space: safety and hygiene and shared with more than 1500 audience online some popular practices in air quality purification and ventilation. Special cases amid COVID-19 were illustrated including Dr Fan’s charitable action in leading his company in helping hospitals on the front lines across China with indoor air quality purification and ventilation by donating and installing equipment. Audience raised interesting questions via live-stream platform and learnt from Dr Fan different types of pollution they were unfamiliar with, including the underestimated Ozone where exposure to ozone can cause serious health problems in plants and people.


In the morning of 1st Dec., we welcomed the first sharing session of Alumni Social Responsibility Month: Legal Knowledge Sharing on Prevention of the legal risk for our disability - Guardianship by Conduct. During this sharing session on provisions of adult Guardianship by Conduct, invited by Ms Fiona Xu more than 60 alumni learned from Mr Chenyang Li the first notary in mainland China to handle the notarization of Guardianship by Conduct and dealt with the largest number of cases cleared their concern on issues such as means to arrange our medical treatment and property management in advance when one is unable to make decisions independently due to illness or accidents and persons to approach as guardian when one lose consciousness.

In the afternoon of 1st Dec., invited by alumna Ms Yihan Tan, Huawei mobile photography workshop took place at the University of Manchester China Centre where alumni had the opportunity to get hands-on tips for taking great photos with camera phone and start capturing the best moments in life from professional photographer Mr Zhenzhong Xing. Alumni learnt about practical techniques and mobile functions. By experimenting newly learnt tricks on and with each other, theory was quickly put into practice.   

On 12th Dec., 2019, University of Manchester China Centre Beijing Alumni Christmas Gathering and Year-End Social Responsibility Panel took place in central Beijing. Mr Richard Cotton, Director of Student Recruitment and Outreach and Ms Sherry Fu, University of Manchester China Centre Director welcomed alumni and shared University and Centre news, followed by keynote speech by alumnus Daming Liu who is the first Chinese to study abroad on the wheelchair as an undergraduate and earned bachelor's degree in Psychology and the title of "International Honorary Alumni of the Year" from the University of Manchester. Ms Sherry Fu then moderated the Year-End Social Responsibility Panel joined by Mr Joseph Du and Ms Mavis Meng who shared their experience and thoughts with charity, philanthropy and NGOs. This happy occasion ended with exiting secret santa session where alumni exchanged their best wishes through carefully picked presents for their fellow mates.  

On 17th Dec., Alumni Social Responsibility Month welcomed its last session: Sharing on Hypnosis & Aromatherapy where two GMBA alumna Ms Candice Zhang and Ms Aileen Wei invited our attending alumni to embark on a spiritual journey with themselves through hypnosis experience and aromatherapy workshop. Using coaching techniques, Candice helped audience to release stress to have their attention focused so that hypnotic hints (positive psychological hints) were more likely to be accepted from both physical and mental side. As they always say "All roads lead to Rome", the other speaker Aileen presented means to activate positive emotions with aromatherapy where  scents with various application methods can lead vitality, joy, optimism and calmness in our daily life. Alumni went home with custom essential oils and make lotions, home spray for relaxation and better sleep after a full-day of intense work.

Global MBA Masterclass in Disruptive Technologies & Sharing Economy
 

On the evening of 22nd April, The University of Manchester China Centre invited Paul Patton, from Alliance Manchester Business School, to deliver a Master Class in Disruptive Technologies & Sharing Economy (Innovation and Efficiency) which will provide an overview of how disruptive technologies have impacted innovation and efficiency within various businesses. It will also explore how disruptive technologies has enabled the growth of the sharing economy and how our behaviour is now related to being an 'onsumer' rather than a 'consumer'.


MSc International Fashion Marketing Webinar | Sustainable Fashion Revolution
 

In the afternoon of 24th April 2020, join our Course Director Dr. Patsy Perry will give a special fashion industry keynote speech on the annual commemoration of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. During this webinar, Patsy will discuss the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry, highlighting how international fashion brands are innovating in this area and considering the impact of consumer behaviour on sustainability in this industry.


Global MBA Masterclass in Strategy, Game Theory and Decision Making
 

On Tuesday, 28th April, you are invited to join Manchester MBA Masterclass online webinar, which offers a great snapshot to the keys of Strategy, Game Theory and Decision Making. The online webinar will be delivered by Dr. Rick Audas, who comes from Alliance Manchester Business School and we believe that will bring you with better understanding of observed behaviour (inductive) in a game and how firms adopt alternative strategies by taking in to account rival behaviour. 


Global MBA Masterclass in Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Business
 

On 28th April, leading academic Reza Salehnejad will host this online information session featuring a sample MBA lecture on “Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Business”.Reza’s talk will reflect on the role of evolving AI-based algorithms in organisations and discuss their implications for business strategy and corporate management. He will also explore some of the most interesting research about advances in computational, text and image recognition technologies, machine learning and statistics, and tracking engineering, which have paved the way for the AI revolution. These advances are likely to impact and reshape organisations, and lead to the emergence of algorithmic firms.