Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A9

May 5, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business

Suzhou school’s vision for a future business elite

By Leng Cheng | May 5, 2016, Thursday | Print Edition

UPON her arrival as the Dean of International Business School Suzhou (IBSS) at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in January 2016, Professor Chen was surprised by how dynamic education in the eastern China commercial hub was.

After almost 30 years working in UK higher education, including at the Southampton Business School, Professor Chen said that she rarely saw a new campus rise without arduous debates, nor had she seen a rapid increase of students from about 30 to 4,500 within a time of three years.

Based in Suzhou and established in 2013 under the Sino-British joint university, IBSS now has more than 25 programs that range from bachelor’s curriculum to MBA courses and PhD in the areas of accounting, finance, economics and business management.

With more than 2,000 of its students now able to pursue their studies in Liverpool, she has a clear vision on cultivating talent: Combining the best of East and West so as to build an international, innovative and inspirational standard of education.

Professor Chen said the school’s growth potential attracted her back to her home country, and the pace of development at IBSS is even faster than she had imagined.

“We are now the youngest business school in the world that has been accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the most important verification organization of its kind with only 15 Chinese business schools on the list so far,” Professor Chen told Shanghai Daily. “That’s a big achievement for us.”

Achievements don’t come from nowhere. Investments on hardware and facilities as well as its strategic location in the heart of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) where more than 130 Fortune 500 companies and some 5,000 Chinese and international enterprises are located have enabled the school to engage closely with local business bodies and offer practical training to IBSS students.

“As opposed to other business schools which are pretty much based on text-book-knowledge approach, while we use a lot of domestic and international business cases to support students’ understanding of the theory,” Professor Chen said.

“We invite guest speakers from industry and introduce a mentor system with industrial people to further link students with internships and job placements.”

IBSS’s commitment to blend East and West is also found in its academic degree system that suits Chinese demands.

For the next step, IBSS expects to accept more students into the Master of Science program. “We hope our global vision and education beliefs truly bridge the East and the West to help our graduates become responsible adults who think differently in this fast-moving, globalized business world.”

Business


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend