On May 21, 2011, a forum to commemorate “20th Anniversary of MBA Education in China and Tsinghua” was held at School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University. This event, hosted by Tsinghua SEM, was joined by deans or MBA program representatives from 106 business schools in China which offer MBA programs.

In 1991, as one of the nine pilot universities in China, Tsinghua launched the MBA education program. This year marks the 20th anniversary not only for Tsinghua MBA Program, but also more broadly, for MBA education in China. The forum and relevant activities held by Tsinghua SEM aims to create a platform for counterparts and fellow institutions to exchange valuable experience and to discuss about China’s MBA education development and reform, and to further promote MBA education in China.

The whole event consists of two sections: commemoration of 20th anniversary with the theme “China’s MBA Education: A New Journey”; and forum of MBA education in China. The latter includes two sub-forums: the first features a Dean’s Forum among pilot institutions of MBA education reform, and the other focuses on MBA education management, and raises the question “How to manage MBA program effectively in China?”

In the 20th anniversary ceremony, Professor ZHAO Chunjun, Vice-Director of China National MBA Education Supervisory Committee, gave a speech themed “China’s MBA Education: Achievements Review”. He said, since 1991, when the first group of nine pilot schools started to enroll MBA students, MBA education in China had undergone 20 years of exploration and development. On the one hand, China’s MBA programs speeded up internationalization to learn from world’s top business schools their teaching content and method; on the other hand, China also gave much attention to localization, trying to combine foreign MBA theory and general philosophy with the actual situation and special features within China, so as to discover a unique way of training Chinese executives and professional managers.

Professor ZHAO Chunjun, Vice-Director of China National MBA Education Supervisory Committee

During the 20 years, the scale of MBA education in China has been expanding rapidly. In contrast to the 9 pilot schools in 1991, today 236 schools in China offer MBA education. A total of 142,421 students have been granted MBA degree. Regarding EMBA, the number has increased from 2,447 graduates from 30 institutions in 2002, to today’s total of 26,000 graduates from 62 institutions. Most of these 170,000 graduates have now become the top executives or key managers in China’s state-owned, private-owned or foreign-invested enterprises ranging from various sectors.

Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM then delivered a speech “China’s MBA Education: A New Journey”. He reviewed the MBA education reforms undertaken at Tsinghua SEM in the past four years. He then envisioned and highlighted three new themes in the coming years for China’s MBA education: leadership, entrepreneurship and experiential learning. He believed these three themes would be the key in future MBA education that every business school offering MBA education in China should discuss and practice.

Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM

Following the opening ceremony, a Dean’s Forum among pilot institutions of MBA education reform was held at SEM auditorium and hosted by Tsinghua SEM Assistant Dean Prof. GAO Jian. Prof. XU Xinzhong, Senior Associate Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Prof. YI Zhihong, Dean of School of Business, Renmin University of China, and Prof. YANG Haiying, Associate Dean of School of Economics and Management, Beihang University gave talks respectively in the forum. Then more than 200 forum participants joined the discussion.

Dean's Forum among Pilot Institutions of MBA Education Reform

In the afternoon, China’s MBA Education Management Forum was also held at SEM. MBA program directors and representatives from participating institutions shared ideas and experiences on various topics: MBA admission reform, classroom instruction, extracurricular activities, patagogy, lifetime learning, etc.