Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(9)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China - Integrating East & West

In that Korea, Japan and China is located close to each other, MBA schools in three countries have great advantage to provide comprehensive curriculum.

In this sense, BESETO program, a North-East Asian university belt for strengthening relationship among Beijing (Peking) University, Seoul National University and Tokyo National University, is required to be more activated. Nobody will dispute that MBA schools primarily exist for practical education.

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(8)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China - Integrating East & West

Moreover, when it comes to class profile, apart from the Asian student dominant class, the number of non-Asian students is better to reach half. This is no exception to faculty profile. According to the 2009-2010 global MBA program of College of Business at Seoul National University, 48 out of 49 full-time professors are Western Ph.D. But to integrate East and West, around 30% should be Asian Ph.D. professors. 

Of course, Eastern-Western value integration is not enough to fully improve the quality of MBA education in Korea, Japan and China. We also need additional initiatives, to name a few, active globalization, regional cooperation, practical and timely education. Going without saying, more English class and profile diversity is a must to most Asian MBA schools for real globalization.

Enhancing the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(3)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China - Integrating East & West

In fact, deans of top Korean and Japanese business schools shared this idea when they discussed the future of Asian MBA schools last August. Taeshik Ahn, dean of the College of Business at Seoul National University of Korea said the desirable MBA education is to highlight both talent and co-existence. 

He added that a MBA school must be a place where students can learn not only knowledge but also life. Hirotaka Takeuchi, dean of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University of Japan, showed similar opinions as well. 

He stressed that leaders should be equipped with ethics and cultural diversity. He further developed his argument that the core competitiveness of Asian business schools lies in delivering these values to students.

How I became interested in Southeast Asia(1)

Brief story of how I became interested in Southeast Asia including Indonesia

I spent most of my early days in the society at a newspaper company after finishing my bachelor's degree of business administration at Seoul National University. Starting from the industrial section followed by the social section, the corporate section and the real estate section at Maeil Business Daily, I worked hard for about 6.5 years as a journalist. 

Though I was still young, I could broaden my horizon by interviewing various leaders in the Korean society such as CEOs and university presidents. In addition, I went business trips to more than 30 countries to navigate new articles outside South Korea. 

Flights to Americas, Northern Europe and Oceania surely enlarged my global insight. Memories of visiting member countries of Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia and writing stories on Korean companies in the region are vivid as ever.

Essay for EWKLP application(1)

Essay for EWKLP(East-West Knowledge Leaders Program) application

Before joining Maeil Business Newspaper in 2004, I majored in business administration at Seoul National University. Further, since 2007, I have taken legal classes at the graduate school of law at Yonsei University at night time. Though I still have a lot to learn, I suppose I have been getting familiar with business and law step by step.

As a journalist of a business daily, I have been involved in corporate, legal and educational sectors over the past four and half years. However, in spite of abundant hands-on-business-related-experience at home and abroad for my age, it is true that I have a long way to go for systematic approach to my articles.

Time to time, I had a hard time in making articles on what I saw and felt in the business field in order. It is partly attributed to lack of time to step back and organize hands-on experience into stories.

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(5)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(5) - Integrating East & West

In that Korea, Japan and China is located close to each other, MBA schools in three countries have great advantage to provide comprehensive curriculum.

In this sense, BESETO program, a North-East Asian university belt for strengthening relationship among Beijing (Peking) University, Seoul National University and Tokyo National University, is required to be more activated. Nobody will dispute that MBA schools primarily exist for practical education.

In this regard, MBA schools should listen to corporate voices and be ready to adapt to changes. Master of Business and Engineering Program of Steinbeis University in Germany can be a good role model for Asian MBA schools. At Steinbeis University, students are admitted to school upon the corporate requests and sponsoring companies pay the student’s tuition in return for comprehensive study on specific projects of importance to them.

As a result, after a one year intense curriculum and additional focus on the above specific projects, the student would return to the company armed with practical knowledge especially on those targeted projects.

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(4)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(4) - Integrating East & West

Last but not least, inducing western applications to Korean, Japanese and Chinese MBA schools is of great significance. It is basically because Asian value needs be passed to Western students so that they can broaden or deepen their horizon in Asian context.

However, it is also true that we still need Western value in many ways. Thus, the ideal model of Asian MBA education can be achieved by balancing Western curriculum with newly-introduced Eastern curriculum. For example, existing subjects such as international strategy, management information system and new subjects such as Confucianism and Buddhism, both of them should make their presence.

Moreover, when it comes to class profile, apart from the Asian student dominant class, the number of non-Asian students is better to reach half. This is no exception to faculty profile. According to the 2009-2010 global MBA program of College of Business at Seoul National University, 48 out of 49 full-time professors are Western Ph.D. But to integrate East and West, around 30% should be Asian Ph.D. professors.

Of course, Eastern-Western value integration is not enough to fully improve the quality of MBA education in Korea, Japan and China. We also need additional initiatives, to name a few, active globalization, regional cooperation, practical and timely education. Going without saying, more English class and profile diversity is a must to most Asian MBA schools for real globalization.

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(2)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(2) - Integrating East & West

In fact, deans of top Korean and Japanese business schools shared this idea when they discussed the future of Asian MBA schools last August. Taeshik Ahn, dean of the College of Business at Seoul National University of Korea said the desirable MBA education is to highlight both talent and co-existence. He added that a MBA school must be a place where students can learn not only knowledge but also life. Hirotaka Takeuchi, dean of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University of Japan, showed similar opinions as well. He stressed that leaders should be equipped with ethics and cultural diversity. He further developed his argument that the core competitiveness of Asian business schools lies in delivering these values to students. 

Against this background, it isn’t too much to say that this is the right time to improve the quality of MBA education especially in Korea, Japan and China. It is mainly because MBA schools in these countries have not met corporate expectation in spite of the countries' economic status in the global stage. Needless to say, integrating Eastern-Western value into MBA curriculums will be the most desirable and persuasive way to upgrade MBA education in three countries.

In fact, general analysis of 13 Korean, 29 Japanese, over 45 Chinese schools (defined as professional schools with full-time MBA programs) supports our idea. SWOT analysis indicates that western-oriented curriculum such as marketing, financial accounting, organizational behavior and insufficient globalization and lack of practical education constitutes the weakness of Asian MBA schools.

However, at the same time, Asian MBA schools also have a life-time chance. With the rapid growth of Eastern economy and subsequent highlights on Eastern value, they draw more and more attention from all over the world.