Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management will launch a reform on the core curriculum of its MBA program. This was announced at a press conference by Professor Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM on September 24, 2008.

Dean Qian said, this year marks the 100th anniversary of MBA education. Harvard Business School was the first business school in the world that set up the degree of Master of Business Administration in 1908; Dean Qian said, he believed that on this occasion, the reform on its MBA program launched by Tsinghua SEM was a significant step that will bring MBA education in China to a new development phase in the next century.

Since the fall semester of 2008, Tsinghua SEM has introduced some new courses in the first-year MBA curriculum on a trial basis. The redesigned curriculum will be applied to the MBAs enrolled in 2009.

The initiative of reform on MBA program was put forward in August, 2007. The structural schedule of the reformed MBA program was approved recently at the Dean’s Council after one-year repeated discussions.

According to Dean Qian Yingyi, the reformed Tsinghua MBA program aims at cultivating future leaders with comprehensive management capabilities. The first-year courses for MBA students, which bear most distinct alternations, include four modules: Self-cognition, Analysis Basis, Management Basis, and Integrated Practice Courses. For the MBAs enrolled this year, during the first eight-week after they begin their studies, students will attend some “soft courses” such as “Management Communications,” “Leaders and Teams”, “Career Development Planning”, and “Introduction to Management Science”. For the MBAs enrolled next year, new courses like “Critical and Analytical thinking,” and “Leadership Potential Development” will be added to their curriculum.

“We not only expect our students could become talents on management; what’s more, we also hope they could ultimately become important figures who could reshape China even the world. And that’s the very goal of these soft courses. ”said Professor Yang Bin, Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM.

In the redesigned courses, particular emphasis was put on the cultivation of students’ practical capabilities. The newly introduced “Integrated Practice Courses” that students need to attend in the fourth module, provides students with a platform where students could learn from experience in the practice of operating real programs. The “Integrated Practice Courses” have three tracks—“management consulting”, “start-up enterprises management”, and “management in the information age.”Students can choose to provide consulting service on strategic events for mature enterprises such as strategic reorganization, going public, mergers and aquization; or write business plan for start-up enterprises, or to experience how to manage a company in the information age relying on Tsinghua SEM’s powerful information management platform.

The reformed MBA program also attaches great importance to students’ global experience. Students could obtain valuable international experience through participating in summer overseas internship, international exchange program and short-term overseas study trip. After they accomplish all the courses, students need to submit a case analysis report, instead of a graduation paper or graduation report as the original program requires. The alternation was made based on a research as faculty and students both believe that it will be more meaningful to do an in-depth analysis on a case than to write a paper or report as the research-oriented master program requires.