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Saint Louis University has joined Peking University in Beijing, China, and 24 other Jesuit universities in creating the Beijing International Management Center. Neil Seitz, dean of the School of Business and Administration, announced the University's participation in the program last month.
This new cooperative educational venture between U.S. universities and Peking University will offer the first foreign M.B.A. in Beijing, the nation's capital, recognized by the Chinese State Council, the government's highest administrative body. The program will be administered on the park-like campus of Peking University, China's oldest and most prestigious university.
The M.B.A. will bring an American curriculum and American business courses into a Chinese context, combining the best of each tradition. The program will be entirely in English, with professors provided equally by Peking University and the U.S. university consortium. Fordham University's Graduate School of Business will grant the official degree for the U.S. consortium. The U.S. consortium has a combined business faculty of more than 1,000 professors and access to most of the major markets in the United States.
During a recent ceremony in Beijing to sign the agreement, Peking University Vice President He Fangchuan stressed the importance of this program "as the globe becomes smaller." Calling the program the "beginning of serious business education at Peking University," he said it will develop world-class managers with a global perspective who are important to China's future.
The Chinese government estimates its economy needs 300,000 M.B.A.s to help privatize state-run companies and enable Chinese industry to better compete globally.
This Chinese-American international M.B.A. will accept an initial class of 80 students, half in a part-time program and half in a full-time program. While the M.B.A. is designed for Chinese students, about 20 percent of the student body is expected to be full-time students from other countries who wish to get an American M.B.A. in China. In addition, the M.B.A. students at Saint Louis University and other consortium institutions will have opportunities to study at the Beijing International Management Center if they choose. "This gives our students a unique opportunity to study alongside the best and brightest of China, a country that will be a major trading partner and a major market in the 21st century," Seitz said.
Prerequisite courses and courses in intensive business English will start in June. In addition to the four 10-week modules of upper division courses, the students will take summer classes at Saint Louis University or any of the consortium universities, can do an internship in the United States or China or participate in a U.S. study-tour.
For more information, call Neil Seitz, dean of the School of Business and Administration, at 977-3833; or Ron Anton, project coordinator and associate professor at Loyola College in Maryland, at (410) 617-5328.
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