INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

ROBERT E. MARKLAND, Feature Editor, College of Business Administration, University of South Carolina

MBA Programs in Hong Kong (SAR)

by Japhet S. Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Having been a British colony for over one and a half centuries, it is no surprise to find a significant British influence in the development of higher education in Hong Kong. I still remember being told by a senior administrator of a local university during my job interview in the mid-seventies that my American Ph.D. wasn't as good as the doctorate degrees from the United Kingdom. That was why I spent my first ten years after my Ph.D. working in the U.S. instead of returning home to become a second-class citizen due to my "inferior" training from a very reputable school. The British colonial influence also meant that the development of quality business education in Hong Kong was slow in coming.

The University of Hong Kong was the only university in Hong Kong until 1963, when the Chinese University of Hong Kong was established. Not until very recently did the University of Hong Kong take steps to expand the Department of Management into a School, which was housed previously under the Faculty of Social Science. In the case of the Chinese University, we were fortunate to have as our founding vice chancellor (the governor is the chancellor for all universities in Hong Kong) a Professor of Business Administration from UC Berkeley. The first MBA program in Hong Kong was established at the Chinese University in 1966, three years after the university was founded, with an intake of six students.

The University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University remained the only two universities in Hong Kong until recently. In the past seven years, we have seen the inauguration of the new Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the conversion of three tertiary institutions to university status-the Baptist University from the former Baptist College, the City University from the City Polytechnic, and the Polytechnic University from the Hong Kong Polytechnic. All six universities now offer part-time MBA programs, while only the Chinese University and the University of Science and Technology offer full-time MBA programs.

In 1993, the Chinese University offered the first executive MBA program in Hong Kong, catering to senior executives in the colony. The design of the program was unique in the sense that the aim was to create a classroom environment that reflects the future mode of management operation in Hong Kong-with significant interactions among Hong Kong, multi-national companies and their mainland China counterparts. City University will be offering another executive MBA program in 1997 focusing on China, while the University of Science and Technology will offer their EMBA program jointly with Northwestern in 1998.

The Chinese University currently has the largest enrollment in its MBA classes, at 450, followed by the University of Science and Technology at 300, the City University at 200, the University of Hong Kong at 180, the Polytechnic University at 130, and Baptist University at 85. The vast majority of these students are local, as the local demand for MBA education alone outstrips supply by the six institutions.

Size of the programs, of course, does not necessarily reflect their strength or quality. One may look at the research output of the faculty, or the quality of the students' intake as measured by GMAT scores. Here, I may use the Chinese University's figures to give readers a glimpse of the Hong Kong picture. Our average faculty member (a total of about 110 full-time faculty members) publishes two to three refereed articles a year. The average GMAT score of our students is comparable to the top 20 US programs as ranked by Business Week. Although I would not venture to say that these are representative figures for all institutions in Hong Kong, I do believe that many of our MBA programs have very respectable statistics. The Chinese University currently ranks 4th among business schools in Asia and Australia.

One unique feature of Hong Kong business schools, in contrast to their North American counterparts (in spite of the fact that most Hong Kong programs are somewhat modeled after North American schools and with North American trained doctorates) is that they tend to have smaller class sizes. At the Chinese University, we take in a class of about 40 for the full-time program, two classes of 45 each for the part-time program, and 36 for the EMBA program. Class sizes for elective courses are typically smaller than the entrance class size.

This fortunate situation is possible in Hong Kong because the Hong Kong government, never having a deficit year, covers over 80% of our budget. The rest primarily comes from tuition and research grants (again mostly from the government). North American schools typically get quite a bit less from their governments, as business schools in general are asked to be as self-sufficient as possible, a situation that may cause some institutions to think more like businesses than schools. I myself am very much against the "commercialization" of education for the society, particularly in the area of business education, as the decision of our graduates, as future business leaders, can have a profound impact on modern society.

The tuition for our full-time program is about US$5,200 a year (irrespective of whether the student is a local resident or foreign). Part-time programs can be up to twice as much as the full-time programs. As in the case of the Chinese University, the extra cost reflects the high cost of maintaining an MBA center in the downtown area for our part-time programs, where real estate costs are among the highest in the world.

Our curricula are quite similar to those offered in the U.S.: a first year core with varying degrees of integration, followed by advanced courses and concentration electives. A strategy/business policy capstone course together with an MBA project rounds out the requirements. Length of the programs varies from 36 to 56 credit hours equivalent, with the majority of programs requiring around 48 to 54 hours.

Different institutions may have different special features in their programs. In the case of the Chinese University, students are required to go through an Outward Bound Leadership Program before formal school starts. Executive development seminars and program group activities such as plant visits or social services are conducted every week. There is also a required summer internship for the full-time students, and optional enrollment in the business practicum/consultancy course and the China Exposure Program. There is also an optional student exchange program with various top universities around the world.

Having spent a significant part of my academic life in both Hong Kong and the U.S., I can say that there is little difference in most Hong Kong MBA programs and the quality programs in North America. One does find a natural lean towards an Asian/China perspective in our classrooms, with frequent references to comparisons to European, North American, and Australian practices. This, I believe, is one of the strengths in our students' training-being immersed in a truly international business metropolis.

I would like to end this article by saying that all of Hong Kong's business schools have very active participation programs for visiting faculty members and researchers. Those who have taken their time to venture and explore our part of the world, have all found their experience to be intellectually stimulating and rewarding.