Crossroads

Located in the heart of Southeast Asia, Singapore is one of the crossroads where Western and Eastern influences converge.

"We have the capability to offer students the best of East-West educational pedagogy with Asian contextual applications," says Magdalene Lee, director of education services division with Singapore Tourism Board.

The Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management course in Singapore offers students the opportunity to be exposed to Asian companies, business models and practices in addition to the North American style of teaching.

The National University of Singapore Business School has the "knowledge of Western business practices and technology, and their understanding of Asia allows them to provide the best of East and West in business education and research," says Lee.

There are also wide opportunities for networking among more than 80,000 international students from 120 nationalities.

Students can gain work experience through internships and research with the 7,000 multinational companies located in Singapore.

"It's much easier for me to apply for a visa to study in Singapore than in US, yet the courses and teachers are the same," says Qi Lin, an undergraduate student majoring in hospitality at the University of Nevada Las Vagas (UNLV) Singapore campus.

"The geographic position of the country provides me more opportunities for home visits and a familiar living environment," says the 27-year-old Qi from East China's Anhui Province.

She plans to go back to Shanghai to begin her career after earning a master's degree from UNLV.

Chen Jun, an MBA student at INSEAD, decided on his choice for overseas study after spending a few months in Singapore.

In addition to the lower cost for a one-year program at INSEAD, the Shanghainese stresses "diverse" time after time when asked why he chose Singapore for an MBA program.

"People always consider the US as the best destination for MBA courses. But in the US, at least 70 percent of your classmates are American. It's hard for Chinese students to be involved in the US-dominated environment," says Chen.

The student with a master's degree in engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University has six years of experience at a consulting firm and two years working as an entrepreneur.

When he decided to return to his studies he familiarized himself with many business schools across the globe.

"The cosmopolitan environ-ment in Singapore and the opportunity of studying at the management school INSEAD made up my mind," says Chen, one of the five Chinese at the INSEAD Singapore campus last year.

He says he enjoys exchanging ideas with team members from four different nations, two of them from Western countries.

"It's better for us to have different cultural backgrounds and be from different economic regions because the MBA is so open-minded and diverse," says Chen.

He has decided to take his remaining courses at Fontainebleau, INSEAD's European campus in Paris, beginning this month.

"How else could I enjoy such a study experience on two continents in a one-year course at a top management school?"

(China Daily 01/05/2008 page6)