US biz school absorbs China scholars focusing on innovation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-20 07:34

LOS ANGELES -- Many American business schools have a niche offering. For some it is finance, others marketing, but the MBA program at the Rady School of Management at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) was designed with focus on innovation.

As a result, the program has attracted many scientists and doctors from China, who want to learn how to move from medical and scientific roles into business.

"Many Rady MBAs already hold Ph.D.s, M.D.s and other advanced degrees," said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. "Of the 33 percent of students with advanced degrees, many of them have come from China to the Rady School to improve their ability to work in a global business environment."

The Rady School at UCSD transforms innovators into business leaders, the school's management said in a press release e-mailed to Xinhua on Wednesday.

Ning Wang is one of those students. In her eighth year at the Beijing Hospital, the physician knew the work wasn't for her. It wasn't just the long, 13-hour shifts, short staff, low pay, status or monotony of the work. Wang craved greater challenges and adventure. "I wanted to feel more rewarded," Wang says.

When Wang moved to San Diego in 2006 with her Ph.D. scientist husband, American friends convinced her to work as a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, but she still felt unfulfilled.

Upon applying and entering the Rady School, Wang finally found her niche. As part of the Lab to Market program, Rady's capstone course that helps students commercialize innovations, Wang built up the e-commerce company she and her husband had founded in China. Thanks to her training, the company secured venture capital and has grown. Rady is the only business school in America to make scientific and technical students their prime niche.

Asian doctors and scientists make up growing numbers of students as more leave low salaries to come to the United States to get their MBA degrees. Many universities report the numbers of Asian students growing by 20 percent each year and this trend is expected to continue at the Rady School.

"From outside the U.S., China constitutes the top traffic to the Rady Web site," according to Kim Kennedy, Rady director of marketing and communications.

Doctors like Wang still feel confident that the blend of skills from medicine and business will work. "As a doctor I learned to judge personalities well and this helps me hire the right staff. I also handle risk well and remain calm in adversity," she said. " What better skills for running a business?"

The Rady School of Management at UCSD educates global leaders for innovation-driven organizations. A professional school within one of the top-ranked institutions in the United States for higher education and research, the Rady School offers a full-time MBA program, a FlexMBA program for working professionals, undergraduate and executive education courses.

The school's lineage includes 16 Nobel Laureates (former and current faculty) and eight MacArthur Foundation award recipients.