Despite reports of a glut of MBAs in the job market and recent graduates from the US having problems finding jobs when they get back to Taiwan, National Taiwan University (NTU) is increasing the English offerings in its MBA program.
Other universities have English courses in their MBA programs, but NTU's main competition comes from National Chengchi University's (NCCU) reputable College of Commerce, which started its International MBA program five years ago.
According to professor Chou Seng-cho (曹承礎), who is in charge of developing the English content for NTU's MBA program, the university felt it needed to become more "internationalized," and inviting foreign MBA students seemed like a good way to do that.
PHOTO: GRAHAM NORRIS
"The country has been very slow in internationalizing things such as MBAs. NTU is the first to be serious about creating an international environment for its students," Chou said.
In the program's first year, which the university has been treating as a trial run, 10 overseas students attended the courses in English. For the forthcoming academic year, the university has received 80 applications from foreign students, not including those counted as overseas Chinese, and it expects to accept 40 of them.
Chou emphasized that the goal of introducing English into the MBA program was to improve the learning environment at NTU.
"We thought it was important to create a better environment for our students, to broaden their view and see things beyond Taiwan," Chou said. "An important ingredient is the foreign students, who can benefit, too. This is good for our students, good for our school and good for our country," he added.
In fact, there is no separate English MBA program at NTU, but courses originally offered only in Chinese are now being offered in English. When students graduate, they get the MBA certificate, plus a certificate demonstrating that they have completed the courses in English. The university is relying mainly on its existing faculty to offer English courses. The vast majority of them have doctorates from US universities. Last year, two professors from overseas universities served as lecturers for the MBA program, and Chou says more are planned for the upcoming year.
The program also offers electives that are only available in English, including High and New Technology Investment and Accounting Workshops for High-tech Business and E-Business. The university works with corporations such as McDonald's and Citibank to offer special courses. Chou said that many of the university's professors have connections with local companies that do business in China.
"Quite a few of these professors visit China and give lectures and frequently exchange ideas with professors in China," he said.
English Instruction
When asked about the program's possible shortcomings, Chou said that compared to US business schools, some of the faculty and local students are not yet ready to deliver or receive instruction in English. Even so, the program provides 40 courses in English, and the university gives incentives to its professors to offer more.
Chou said that NTU's reputation meant that local graduates rarely had problems finding jobs. The entrance requirements are quite lax, and although the school has a code for GMAT, the test required for most MBA candidates in the US, NTU doesn't require applicants to take the test.
Also, the program does not require applicants to have work experience, a common requirement for other MBA programs, including the one at National Chengchi University (NCCU).
Perhaps the biggest selling point about NTU's program is the price. At just US$750 a semester, the program can be completed for around US$3,000, making it, as Chou says, "one of the least expensive MBAs on earth."
In fact, this is the price paid by Taiwanese students, and to attract foreign students, the university is charging them the same tuition. Scholarships are also available from the government and corporate sponsor Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行).
The university is applying for accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which Chou says he hopes will be completed in the next two years. In Taiwan, only National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung and Fu Jen University in Taipei County have AACSB accreditation.
The students seem to be content with the NTU program so far. When asked what he thought of the program, Philip Krause from Austria smiled and said, "It's a very new program."
Krause is on an exchange from the University of Linz, and said the teaching style was quite different from what he had experienced in Austria.
"The classes here are a lot more interactive, with a lot more presentations and discussions, which for me is a good thing," he said. "It's not fair to pick out the negative aspects."
Linda Lin (林映成), who joined the English MBA program after graduating from NCCU, said she moved to NTU to get a new perspective from professors she hadn't worked with before, even though the two universities' reputations were comparable. She said the program motivated her and the other students from Taiwan to speak English, but that there was some room for improvement, particularly in attracting foreign students.
"If the course is taught in English, the depth of study is probably less than for the courses taught in Chinese because of the language barrier," she said. "It's good NTU has this program, but they should try to find methods for us to learn more deeply."
Anne Wu from Texas wanted to study at NTU because her parents were from Taiwan and studying was the best opportunity to find out more about the country and learn Mandarin. She hopes to find a job with a multinational company in Taiwan after she graduates.
"The facilities here are nice, and the program allows me to experience what it's like to live in Taiwan and gives me a broader prospective on Asia and particularly China," Wu said.
Comparable Programs
A more established MBA course in English is the International MBA (IMBA) program at NCCU, which has been running since 2001. It has been run separately from the university's MBA and EMBA programs, and has its own administration. This year, the university will accept 44 students into the program, half from Taiwan and half from overseas, including some on scholarship from Taiwan's diplomatic allies.
NCCU's program also differs from NTU's in terms of who teaches it. A third of the professors are from the faculty, another third are from overseas and the remainder come from the business community.
Professor Samuel Poon (潘耀堅), president of Merrill Lynch Asia-Pacific, teaches an Applied Corporate Finance and Business Strategy course. He teaches the same course at Chinese University in Hong Kong and at Beijing University in China, and every few months students from all three universities meet and hold strategy competitions.
Jane Ko (柯世雯), a public relations specialist at the university, said the course is based on studies of the top 20 business schools in the US, and the first-year curriculum is pretty similar to those of Western business schools.
It is in the second year that students get to see the benefits of studying at NCCU, she said, with a number of electives on doing business in Asia, focusing on China.
For example, the most recent speaker in the Cross-border Strategic Alliance course was Nicholas Chen (陳文俊), managing partner of Pamir Law Group (帕米爾顧問), who used his experience of negotiating with companies in China to lecture students on "Forming Partnerships in China." The university is also planning on publishing case studies students have conducted on companies here, mimicking the case studies of Harvard Business School.
As with NTU, NCCU has exchange programs with overseas universities, such as the University of Washington's Business School. The downside is the price, which is around US$13,000 a year, a lot more expensive than NTU's program, but still less than a third of the cost of most business schools in the West.
The entry requirements are a little more stringent, too. GMAT scores are preferred but not required, and applicants must have at least two years' working experience and three letters of recommendation, compared with two for NTU. To take into account the fact that many of the program's students have full-time jobs, courses are offered in the evenings and on Saturdays.
Ko said the program was easily the best in Taiwan.
"We think we are far ahead of the local competition already," she said. "Our real competition is overseas."
Enoc Burgos from Honduras, who graduates this week, plans to go back to Honduras and implement his thesis, a business plan for an online gaming company. He said he was satisfied with NCCU's program.
"I have no complaints whatsoever," he said. "The professors are excellent, the course structure is good and with so many foreign students, there is definitely a very international feel."
Good Connections
Kate Chang (張瓊文), who works in human resources at software company Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技), was attracted to the program by NCCU's reputation and the flexibility of the course that lets her continue working full-time. She was particularly interested in a course taught by Lee Swee-huat (李瑞華), former vice president of human resources at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
"The program has very good professors and offers good connections to the business world," Chang said. "Their management courses include the latest concepts."
Comparing the two programs is difficult, as neither has AACSB accreditation, which puts them both at a disadvantage compared to many US business schools. In terms of reputation, NTU as a whole is viewed as the best university in Taiwan, but NCCU has the most famous business school, which was ranked as the sixth best business school in East Asia by Asia Inc magazine in September last year.
Chiu Wen-jen (
"It's good that these schools are providing MBAs in English, because students need the environment to be able to confidently communicate with foreigners," she said. "English education needs to improve a lot in Taiwan, because in terms of English ability, Chinese students are probably better."
The online job bank reported in October that a little over half of the positions offered by companies required some foreign language ability, almost always English. English ability was especially important in the high-tech and financial sectors, the survey showed.
"Both schools are very good," she said. "The key issue is whether the student is willing to study hard," Chiu said.
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