MBA in Management
JUFE/HKMA

Learning about the mainland has become a top priority for business professionals who are keen on expanding their operations in China.

“Since 2006, we have seen a huge increase in the number of applicants from Hong Kong wanting to take mainland university entrance exams in the hope of studying PhD programmes,” says Professor Chen Fuliang, dean of the Faculty of Economics at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (JUFE). “But without much knowledge of education on the mainland, many are unable to get a spot.”

Seeing the demand, JUFE and the Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA) joined forces to offer an MBA programme to help students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan gain qualifications from mainland universities.

JUFE is one of China’s top universities and one of the few that offers postgraduate programmes in Hong Kong.

The MBA programme provides students with world-leading management methods and excellent networking opportunities.

“Networking is one of the programme’s biggest advantages. Most of the students have held senior management positions in financial institutions and listed companies. They will be able to meet high-fliers from politics, business and the academic sector,” says Chen.

To cater to students with full-time jobs, lectures are held at weekends. Besides lectures, students are involved in group discussions and are invited to attend seminars. The programme takes two years of part-time study to complete. Students are required to do a dissertation and undergo an oral defence to graduate.

Chen encourages business professionals who want to establish operations on the mainland not to miss out on the chance to study on the programme. “The mainland education authorities have made it a priority to encourage managers from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to study on the mainland and build up business connections. But this open-door policy has a time limit so I would encourage students to take advantage of the policy before it is too late,” says Chen.

Applicants need a bachelor’s degree and must be permanent residents of Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan. The programme is conducted in Putonghua so students should be able to read and write in the language.

Yang Guangwen, general manager of the Shenzhen Zohontie Holding Group, is a student on the course. He had always wanted to upgrade his qualifications with an MBA but was worried about not being able handle school and work. Fortunately, the study-group mode JUFE offered was able to help him.

“I am really impressed by the support that teachers and students have given me. We form study groups of five to six people and a teacher is assigned to each group. Fellow students help each other out and we can consult the teacher which makes studying a team effort. This also makes it efficient. I was able to write down what I had done with my work, and the programme also offers me a chance to reflect on my career,” he says.

Yang also speaks highly of the networking opportunities the programme offers. “I chose this programme because it has very good networking policies to connect students and alumni. I have the chance to build networks with high-profile businessmen. On the mainland, people connections mean money connections,” he says.

“With the school having more than 6,000 alumni, I benefit a lot from business networking. The school holds various seminars, inviting high-flying alumni and experts in various fields to share their success stories. I learned a lot from them.”

The programme is perfect for senior managers who are looking to take a step forwards.

“Under the guidance of the teacher, I have gained a new understanding of business operations and have developed new thoughts on theories in management. Now I have developed a whole new mind in business management,” Yang says.

Yang found human resource management and marketing strategies the most useful courses. “I learned a lot about how to manage people from the human resource management course, while the marketing strategies course included many case studies from around the world and on the mainland, which were very inspiring,” he says.

The application deadline for the programme is October 13, while teaching starts in November.