What they say

"Business education should aim at improving career opportunities and our commitment to exploring the potential of each individual remains unchanged. The partnership with FDSM suggests that we are walking towards that goal of making the program one of the best in China as well as in the world. We develop leaders with excellent business acumen in a bid to help China and the region significantly enhance productivity and growth in the future."

Mahendra Gupta, dean of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis

"Online MBA courses will serve as a good supplement to the current curriculum. In South Korea, where information technologies are cutting-edge, many people are opting for e-classes in accounting and finance. While some experts are concerned that time is (not) yet ripe for online business classes, we are actually seeing a growing number of private institutions providing such services."

Yong Keun Yoo, professor at Korea University Business School

"While online classes are gaining in popularity, they cannot erode the competence of offline, face-to-face interactions in class. Up to 95 percent of online class participants choose to drop their class, according to the latest estimates, mostly due to lack of interaction. But a digital course is a great complement to the physical classroom, especially for business courses. We encourage students to attend preparatory courses online so that everyone is equipped with the basic knowledge before embarking on real-world case studies.

Julie Dagonet, associate director of China strategy at the London Business School

"Take a look at the latest MBA rankings on the Financial Times and you will notice the trend that leading programs are usually the result of collaboration among different business schools. Fudan's School of Management has done pioneering work in the past three decades in building its global network and partnering with the world's leading business institutions, and we are glad to become one of the earliest partners of FDSM.

Inge Jan Henjesand, president of BI Norwegian Business School

"As one of the earliest partners with the Fudan University School of Management, MIT Sloan has seen great potential in MBA education in China and is working in tandem with Chinese counterparts to improve the program. Many Fudan MBA students are high-caliber candidates among their international peers. MIT professors who have come to Fudan to teach the MBA class all speak highly of students here.

Jacob Cohen, senior associate dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management

"It is imperative for business schools to gain a global vision through international collaboration. China-Asia experience is being increasingly recognized. A growing proportion of students at our school is from China. Enterprises in Europe, should they do business with Asian corporations, do value a candidate's familiarity with the Chinese market.

Andrea Sironi, rector at Bocconi University

"Cross-Straits collaboration on EMBA studies has profound meanings. It suggests that cooperation on the education front can surpass ideological disparity. We notice that senior students, thanks to their business interests, have expressed growing enthusiasm to understand their counterparts on the mainland and in other parts of Asia.

Andy Guo, dean of the College of Management at National Taiwan University

"Against the changing tide of the global economy, MBA education has taken on a new look today. Emerging markets are growing to become new economic powerhouses, pushing MBA courses to shift away from purely Western-oriented thought to the embracement of an Asian angle. Business schools should be dedicated to localizing global business management knowledge and expertise, and applying them to real-world cases.

Eric C. Chang, dean of the faculty of business and economics at the University of Hong Kong

"Hong Kong has played a critical role in mingling Eastern and Western cultures. Our mission as a business school in Hong Kong is to promote students to stay ahead of the curve in the globalization context, and help nurture students from the Chinese mainland to adapt to, or even implement the policies from the central government, such as the Belt and Road Initiative. Business schools in Hong Kong are also in a good position to serve as an "intermediary", for example, by introducing social capital into public-private partnerships.

Houmin Yan, dean of the College of Business at the City University of Hong Kong

"The development of the Fudan IMBA Program over the past 15 years has resulted from a gathering and digesting of the experiences and successes of top business educational institutions from all over the world. Today we have formed a global network of leading business schools and are carrying out joint programs with our partners. The partnerships allow us to learn about teaching experiences, research methods and administrative capacities from our peers. FDSM welcomes all forms of international cooperation to give business schools in China a foothold in education about management on a global scale.

Lu Xiongwen, dean of School of Management at Fudan University

"The world economy is changing in a rapid manner that corporations require people with sophisticated understanding of country-specific contexts and various business scenarios. Therefore, each top business school finds it imperative to prepare students for the intensely globalized and localized world. That said, working in teams with peers across regional and institutional boundaries, and with different backgrounds, is a huge plus to address major challenges in this rapidly changing world.

Edward Snyder, dean of the Yale School of Management

(China Daily 11/13/2015 page17)