On August 27, the MBA Program of SEM held an opening ceremony to welcome over 400 new MBA students in 2011. The opening ceremony was chaired by Professor GAO Jian, Assistant Dean of SEM.

At the opening ceremony

Dean QIAN Yingyi delivers the opening remarks

Assistant Dean GAO Jian chairs the ceremony

Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of SEM delivered the opening remarks. He first welcomed the new cohort of MBA students, and then elaborated on SEM’s leading role in China’s MBA education from three aspects:

First, in 2008, Tsinghua SEM launched the new MBA curriculum, leading the MBA education reform in China. The new curriculum sets as its goals the balances between knowledge, moral integrity and capabilities; academic rigor and practical applicability; as well as China roots and global vision. In the following three years, inspired by SEM’s portfolio, more and more business schools began to implement their own reforms in MBA curriculum.

Second, in addition to the curriculum reform, in 2010, Tsinghua SEM became the first school in China to launch the MBA admission reform. In the new agenda, the student evaluation and selection criteria focus more on one’s general capability, both intellectual and moral. Moreover, SEM also took the lead in China to offer prospective students conditional offers.

Third, on May 21, SEM held the ceremony for 20th anniversary of MBA education in China and Tsinghua. During this event, SEM envisioned and highlighted three new themes in the coming years for China’s MBA education: leadership, entrepreneurship and experiential learning. These key themes set up a new journey and future trend for MBA education in China, while representing global characteristics in MBA education as well.

Following Dean QIAN Yingyi’s speech, Professor Alan F. White, Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, delivered his congratulations via the internet to new students in the IMBA program, jointly-organized by SEM and MIT Sloan. He said, based on feedback from MBA alumni, students could learn much more from each other’s work experience than textbook knowledge. Thus he encouraged the students to work together and learn from each other to aim for the best that IMBA program could offer.

Later on, Professor YANG Zhishu from the Department of Finance talked on behalf of the faculty. He said, in order to become an excellent leader, one has to first learn to be a fine person with high intellectual and moral characteristics. He hoped the new students could learn to understand China’s political, social and economic system and market mechanism, as well as to cultivate personality and charisma in their future study at SEM.

HU Yudong, a 2011 MBA student, talked on behalf of new students. He proposed that students should shoulder their social responsibility and foster their managerial “characters” in their MBA study. REN Yue, a 2010 MBA student, echoed with HU Yudong by re-emphasizing the importance of “responsibility” in her speech. “Actions speak louder than words,” she said, "Upon Tsinghua centennial celebration and the 20th anniversary of MBA education in China, we should take the initiatives to become the leaders of the new journey.” 

At the orientation session 

At the end of the opening ceremony, an orientation session was formally initiated as a tradition of the MBA Program. The 2011 orientation includes two modules “leadership” and "learning”. The former consists of leadership experience, social responsibility and teamwork; and the latter includes Tsinghua culture and integration, learning contents and needs, and learning resource and environment.

In general, there are 462 new MBA students in 2011, including 54 students from abroad or from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. There are 124 new students in IMBA program; 136 in full-time MBA program, and 202 in part-time MBA program. This is the first cohort of MBA since SEM’s MBA admission reform in the new Tsinghua centenary.