China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) today (June 6) announced that it has revamped its English language Executive MBA program, putting greater focus on Africa and Asia. The changes won’t affect the Shanghai-based school’s Mandarin language EMBA.
The current CEIBS Africa EMBA will be merged with the new Zurich GEMBA class, a move that the school says will provide both sides with greater networking and learning opportunities. “The restructured CEIBS GEMBA is in line with our enhanced corporate social responsibility focus in our operations in Africa,” says Dean Ding Yuan in a statement.
The changes, aimed in part on enticing more Africans to attend the program, comes after the Chinese government barred government officials and state-owned enterprise (SOE) employees from EMBA programs. Among other things, CEIBS says it will offer 15 scholarships to GEMBA students from Africa. The school said there will also be week-long free executive education courses for up to 50 African government officials and business executives every three months, and younger students can access financial aid to do their MBA at CEIBS Shanghai campus.
EXPECTING NEXT COHORT TO NEARLY DOUBLE IN SIZE
The school’s Global Executive MBA program was ranked 16th best in the world by The Financial Times last year, dropping six places from tenth in both 2014 and 2013. The 2015 cohort, which entered the program in September, boasts 56 senior executives from 18 different countries and regions, with one third of the class composed of women.
For the first cohort, the school says it is expecting 90 to 100 students, a significant increase from the 56 who entered in the fall. A spokesperson for the school said that tuition for the new offering is expected to be in line with current rates of $89,703, or RMB 588,000.
“It’s not surprising that as relations improve between China and Africa at the government level, there is increasing interest in the way business is done in both of these emerging economies, markets which are also of significant interest to Europe,” says Dean Ding Yuan. “We are simply anticipating and responding to these needs. The programme will be for high potential executives who understand that business – and learning – is not constrained by geographic location.”
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