Foreign MBA students enrich cooperation with Taiwanese
-- October 3, 2005 --
More and more universities in Taiwan are beginning to offer courses taught entirely in English to attract foreign students. Leading the charge is the International MBA (IMBA) program at National Chengchi University. Also, more Taiwanese and foreign students are teaming up to set up businesses. Some are opening up manpower companies, while others go into multinational marketing of Taiwanese fertilizer, with figures running into the millions of NT dollars.
To promote internationalization, universities in Taiwan have been establishing more and more programs taught in English. National Chengchi University, Chengkung University, and Yuanchi University have all opened up EMBA programs for experienced executives. In the past there have been numerous examples of EMBA students getting together to set up business ventures, for example, this year a number of students opened the "Lianyi Investment Company," where they not only gain valuable experience but also give back to their alma mater. The Web site "Like Network" is also an offshoot of students from the EMBA program at National Taiwan University and National Chiaotung University.
National Chengchi University has also given birth to several cooperative schemes between Taiwanese and foreign students this year. Professor Chen Chunlong, head of the IMBA program at the university, says that four companies have set up "joint ventures" in this way. One is a collaboration between four Taiwanese students who have set up a personnel company, and made a point of inviting a foreign IMBA student to participate. After he returned to his country, he set up a subsidiary, and the company is now poised to help foreign companies find manpower for their foreign subsidiaries.
Another case involves a student from Guatemala who obtained the IMBA degree in Taiwan. After graduation, he was hired by the Liba Group to work in Guatemala with high-ranking executives of the Group, establishing economic ties between Taiwan and Guatemala. This Guatemalan student also got together with several Taiwanese students and one from Honduras to organize a multinational trading company, building channels of communication and trade between Taiwan and Central and South America.
This year, the company has already purchased over US$1 million in chemical fertilizers from Taiwan.
Several other IMBA students have set up an electronics technology company. Right now, they are formally taking orders for production of electronics products, and the company has great potential for future development. With the assistance of the foreign IMBA student in overseas marketing, the company marks yet another successful example of collaboration born of the IMBA program.
Chen says that currently some foreign students at the university are exchange students, while others are paying their own expenses to come to Taiwan for advanced studies. There are at least 150 foreign students in all, from the US, Canada, Russia, Guatemala, Haiti and 15 other nations. The IMBA program, for example, has over 41 percent foreign student participation. Taiwan's management and business experience is very attractive to other countries, and Taiwanese student cooperation with foreign students in the program is not only Taiwan's best chance to internationalize education, but also a further expansion of trade cooperation abroad.
[Taiwan]
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