Programme Introduction

History of MBA Education Center

Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well-known overseas Chinese leader. It is situated in Southeast China in the beautiful coastal city of Xiamen Island.

Xiamen University offered business education from its foundation and during the past 80 years has undergone three transitions from business, finance and economics to modern business administration education. Authorized by the Ministry of Education according to the China-Canada Management Education Exchange Program (CCMEP) signed by the two governments in 1983, Xiamen University began to establish cooperation and linkages with Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's University. Over 70 faculty members were sent to Management schools in Canada for research and study, which help propel the establishment and development of our business administration education.

MBA Education Center, School of Management, Xiamen University was founded in 1986. The center began to enroll and cultivate MBA students together with Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's University, the teaching borne by Professors from Canada and Chinese professors trained overseas. The first 30 MBAs graduated in July 1990, and 108 MBAs in all during the 5-year Sino-Canada cooperation program.

School of Management of Xiamen University consists of Accounting Department, Business Administration Department, Management Science Department, Tourism Department, MBA Education Center, Accounting Research Institute, Human Resource Institute and Modern Management Science Institute with 7 undergraduate programs in accounting, business administration, corporate finance, human resource management, e-commerce, management science, tourism management, 5 postgraduate programs in MBA, accounting, business administration & corporate finance, tech-economics & management, tourism management, 3 doctor-degree programs in accounting, business administration and tech-economics & management, and postdoctoral institute in business administration. A total of over 1600 undergraduates and over 1200 graduates are now studying in the school.

MBA Education Center's outstanding faculty includes those from other schools of the University and long- or short-term specialists from other countries. On the foundation of School of Management and the syntheses of the University's Economics, Law and Humanities, MBA Education Center has 8 key research tracks: corporate finance, capital market, accounting, strategy management, marketing, human resource management, international business, MIS and e-commerce.

School of Management has established cooperative relationships with Dalhousie University, St. Mary's University, and McGill University in Canada, Oregon University and Cornell University in the United States, Ulster University in the United Kingdom, Singapore National University, and other famous management colleges in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many foreign and domestic experts engage in academic exchange and lectures at our MBA Education Center.

We provide a modern and business-like environment for our MBA students. We have international standard case-study rooms, group-discussion rooms, role-playing classrooms, computer labs connected with internet, case-teaching research labs, a Dow-Jones global financial information system lab, accounting labs, a management process lab and a long-distance education lab. In a word, our MBA Education Center provides IMBAs the necessary knowledge to be executives in the near future according to international standards and the realities of our country.

Our Features

Our MBA education targets not only strategic business skills but also improvement of synthetic management decision-making and general leadership, which can be summarized as the "5 Cs for 1 L", namely Competition, Creation, Cooperation, Confidence and Credibility for Leadership. Sound philosophy and concrete practice have led to these features:

Strategic Melding of Localization and Internationalization in MBA Education

Xiamen University's MBA programme was born out of international cooperation programs such as the Sino-Canadian MBA Education. Now that we use more and more original textbooks in English-English has become the working language of IMBA programme.

Combination of Generalization and Specialty in MBA Education

With the foundation of General Management, and Xiamen University's advantages in strategic disciplines, we stand out in finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, investment, and human resource management. Thus, our MBAs possess both macroscopic and strategic vision, and the skills necessary for business executives.

Emphasizing Interactive and Multi-teaching & Learning Approaches

Though foundational lectures are given, the primary emphasis is upon case studies, field study, and in-class presentations. MBAs are confronted with hands-on trading, management, and decision-making scenarios, and field practices in businesses. Many executives and alumni are invited to the classroom to share ideas with our students. We also emphasize the interaction between lecturers and students by case study and role-playing, between MBA students through teamwork and group discussion, and between people and computers by e-commerce and simulated decision-making via the Internet.

Building up a Modern and Corporate-like Teaching Environment

In our view, MBA education should be connected directly with the market. To insure that we cultivate qualified executives, we ourselves implement Focus-on-Clients managerial philosophy, and provide our MBAs with a high-quality and valuable education service.

IMBA Programme

Objectives

Our goal is to cultivate IMBAs with rich modern business knowledge and management skills including strong analytical of analysis, judgment, decision-making, organizing, leadership and strong entrepreneurship; good business ethics of lawfulness, faithfulness and goodness for society; healthy confidence; skills in communication, cooperation and harmonization; good grasp of English and managerial communication and international negotiation; and competence in global strategic vision for executives of large multinational enterprises and international businesses.

IMBA Tracks

IMBAs can focus on Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting, Corporate Finance, Capital Market Analysis, Management Theory and Application, Human Resource Management, Marketing Management, International Business, Information Management and E-commerce, and Production and Service Operation.

Credit Hour Requirements

Our IMBA students can graduate in as little as in two years after finishing the required 48 credit hours.
Textbooks and Working Language
English textbooks will be selected for IMBA students. All core courses and required courses with the exception of political science, and more than half of other courses, are offered in English.

Tests

The student's grade is based upon performance in oral tests, exercises, case study reports or specific reports and presentations in class.

Internship

IMBA students are required to have practicum during the first summer vacation.

Thesis

At least one semester should be spent on the thesis. Supervisors for the MBA thesis will be assigned during the 3rd semester.

In October - November 2000 we carried out some research into UK MBA schools. We wanted to know what were the relative reputations of MBA schools across the UK. This meant not just the top MBA programmes but also the good national MBA schools as well. We researched MBA recruiters (in house and agency) and MBA graduates and candidates. The ratings from this survey (and a comparison with the FT 2001 research) are repeated in this commentary and are also available UK MBA RANKINGS as a single table.

In this report, we've divided up the rankings into a number of divisions. The first is that of business schools which have a truly international reputation.

Tier 1: Schools with international reputation

There's no doubt about which is the top MBA school in the UK. By a significant margin it is still London Business School (LBS). Arguably it is the only truly international class school in the country and ranks in the top 10 international schools worldwide. Within Europe its main competitors remain INSEAD and, to some extent, IMD rather than other UK schools.

Our research on european schools, that of the FT, Business Week, etc all indicate that LBS and INSEAD are broadly comparable in international reputation. For example in the FT 2000 research LBS came out slightly ahead of INSEAD, while in 2001 INSEAD came slightly ahead of LBS. This means that in the UK we have included only LBS as a "tier one" school.

Of course LBS is aware of this advantage and fees for both the part time and full time courses are ?6,000 ($53,000). Fees for INSEAD's MBA course (it offers only a full time MBA) are under ?0,000 ($30,000).

Tier 2: Schools with european or top national reputations

Below LBS in the UK tables are the schools with excellent national and wider European reputations but which are less well known outside Europe. The key schools in this second tier in the UK are Cranfield, Imperial, Warwick and Manchester. These schools often have especially good reputations for key areas, such as Cranfield (manufacturing and marketing) and Imperial (research). Based on anecdotal reports the marketing modules at Cranfield are at least equal to those at LBS.

The other schools in this tier are City, Oxford (Said), Cambridge (Judge), Ashridge, Henley, and Edinburgh University. Our research here shows differences from the FT research which places Oxford (Said) and Edinburgh (at 2nd and 6th respectively) within the key schools in this tier. For this reason we have combined these schools into this second tier. Both schools performed well in our research (7th and 11th respectively) and we've heard some very good comments on the Edinburgh MBA. But we're surprised that Oxford's Said school has been rated as the 2nd best in the UK. It's a good course, but has only recently started and it still seems to early to have earned this position.

The schools in the bottom half of this tier all offer very good quality education, but for those of you looking for "calling card" MBAs they won't offer the recognition (especially at the international level) of schools higher up the rankings.

Some of the schools in this list are also well known for particular areas. To take one example City University offers a range of MBAs (including specialist MBAs in subjects such as marketing) and has very strong links to financial institutions in the City of London.

As mentioned above, we believe it is possible that the rankings of some schools, such as Oxford and Cambridge and perhaps Bristol, may have been boosted by a number of factors. While doubtless offering excellent courses it is possible that the placings have been boosted by the recruiting policies of some major recruiters (such as McKinsey who have the Oxbridge business schools on their preferred list) and also by their deserved reputation in other areas. Overall we think it's still too early to properly evaluate the quality and true ranking of the MBAs from both Oxford and Cambridge. The Bristol MBA has been "transfered" to Edinburgh University Management School so while the Bristol MBA appears in our research Bristol appears to have no further plans to offer their own MBA.

Tier 3: Good National MBA Schools

Tier three schools are similar in both research studies. Our research indicates that Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol (see above), Lancaster, Bradford, Strathclyde, Kingston, Oxford Brookes, Bath, Newcastle, Durham, Exeter, Manchester Metro, Nottingham Trent, Southampton, and Sheffield Hallam all rank in this tier. The FT research shows a similar picture, as can be seen from the FT rankings alongside our own. The FT research also included Nottingham University, which we were surprised not to see in our own research.

While no new universities (former polytechnics) appeared in the FT research a number showed up in ours, the highest placed being Kingston (18th) and Oxford Brookes (19th).

As a final note, the research on MBA schools, whether ours or another publications only give a guide to the reputation of schools. It does not suggest that MBAs towards the bottom of the table are "bad" MBAs, quite the opposite. In the UK alone there are nearly 100 institutions offering MBAs, often in a number of different formats (part time, full time, distance learning, modular, specialist MBAs in marketing, finance, etc). Therefore the total number of MBAs in the UK alone is in the hundreds.

Our main ranking research covers less than 30 schools in the UK, while the our expanded list covers the top 40 schools. All of these schools, therefore are in the top half of all UK MBA providers. Our list of all the schools offering MBAs in the UK also highlights the top 40 MBA schools in the UK UK MBA SCHOOLS. In another version of this, we combine our rankings with those of the FT to produce a ranked list of the top 39 (excl Bristol) schools with links to the MBA and postgrad study pages UK MBA SCHOOL