China Southern Airlines has donated 1 million yuan ($152,300) to Tsinghua University to sponsor 100 promising yet impoverished college students. The university, ranked among the nation's top two, will celebrate its centenary in April.

The two sides also agreed to intensify their cooperation in education with the airlines, declaring it will send another 100 executives and managers to Tsinghua's Executive MBA (EMBA) courses over the next five years.

"The training broadened our horizons and improved our business management expertise," says Si Xianmin, president of China Southern Air Holding Company and one of the enrollees.

The money it donated comes from China Southern's "10-fen" Caring Foundation, established in 2005 with 20 million yuan as the initial fund. For every flight ticket sold, 10 fen, or 0.1 yuan, goes to the fund, which is aimed at providing medical and educational help to the needy, besides contributing to disaster relief efforts.

By 2010, the fund had made available 31.61 million, with more than a third going to education. Some 6,000 students in 21 colleges and universities across China have benefited from the program.

To boost its talent development, the airlines put 100 mid- and high-ranking executives through the EMBA program in 2006. Of them, 55 have completed the course.

Those chosen for the course are drawn from all departments of the company, including aviation, marketing and finance.

The year 2011 marks the 10th year of the launch of the EMBA program under Tsinghua's School of Economics and Management (SEM).

Tsinghua SEM was established in 1984 with former Premier Zhu Rongji as its dean.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/26/2011 page13)