Tongji University began programs in Economics and Management in 1956, and was one of the earliest universities in China to launch such programs. In the past 60 years of development, School of Economics and Management at Tongji University (Tongji SEM) has gradually set the mission of “innovation, cultivation and service” with the aim of “internationalization and research orientation”. A few days ago Mr. Wang Guangbin, vice dean of Tongji SEM, pointed out in an interview that high-level internationalized business programs should have three features.

Host: At the beginning of the program, could you please make a brief self-introduction?

Guangbin Wang: Hello, all the netizens. I’m Wang Guangbin, vice dean of Tongji SEM, and I’m in charge of the professional degree in our school. There are many kinds of professional degrees in Tongji SEM, such as MBA, EMBA, MPA, MEM, and apart from them we also have MF and MPAcc. That is to say, our professional degrees cover four disciplines: business administration, public administration, applied economics and engineering management. Our school covers a very wide range among the universities in China that have economic management programs.

Tongji University Adheres to a Rigorous and Earnest Spirit in Running Schools

Host: Dean Wang, you took a successive postgraduate and doctoral program at Tongji University and have been in Tongji for nearly 30 years. What do you think of SEM?

Guangbin Wang: I started working at Tongji University in 1988 and have been here for nearly 30 years. I think that the education at Tongji University is quite rigorous and earnest and has made a contribution to the development of our country, the society and the economy. Historically, it has always been adhering to a rigorous, earnest, and innovative spirit. It is strong in engineering fields such as city planning, transportation, civil engineering, etc. and management subjects. Its rigorous, earnest, and practical spirit has exerted great influence on several generations of students at Tongji.

The programs in Economics and Management originated from the subject of Engineering Management, when we established the major of Construction Economics and Organization in the subject of Civil Engineering, being the starting point of the education of the subject of Economics and Management. Now, we have six departments, four first-level disciplines, various majors, and multiple levels of bachelor, master and doctorate degree programs and research institutes. It adheres to the rigorous and earnest spirit of Tongji University, and goes on with the spirit of Tongji in the international communication and the close relationship with international development. Moreover, it also carries on the traditions of Tongji to solve practical problems and to make contributions to the development of the country, economy and society.

To Build a High-level International Business School with a Practical Orientation and Sustainable Development

Host: Compared with the other colleges in China, what are the advantages of Tongji SEM?

Guangbin Wang: There are three main features of the education in Tongji SEM. First, it has a practical orientation, closely related to practice and to the development of society and economy. Tongji SEM is especially advantageous and unique in the three areas of engineering management, service operations management, and urban development and management. A number of teachers with both profound theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience teach students modern management knowledge and advanced management theories and methods at home and abroad. We give full play to the advantage of integration of various disciplines and the feature of “the three platforms” so as to cultivate our students as leading professionals in business management who are capable of solving practical problems. Many of the cases we use in MBA and EMBA education come from the engineering practice programs and enterprise management programs which our teachers directly participate in.

Second, it is internationalized. Tongji University has long been a window to communicate with Germany and the whole Europe, creating more opportunities of exchange and cooperation for our students. Tongji University is closely related to universities in Europe and the whole world, with internationalization being an important feature of our programs in Economics and Management. Up to now, SEM has established a cooperative relationship with nearly 70 business schools in the world, with whom we have double degree programs, exchange programs, and also many scientific research programs among teachers.

The third main feature is sustainable development. It is our new goal to become a first-rate university developing sustainably in the world. Sustainable development is a spirit throughout the whole SEM and even the whole Tongji. It can be reflected in many aspects such as our curriculum, research and talents cultivation, the setting of teaching environment, etc.

Internationalization is One of the Important Strategies in the Development of SEM

Host: The internationalization of Tongji is advanced among the universities in China, so what is your understanding of “internationalization” in a real sense? What is the internationalization of SEM like?

Guangbin Wang: Along with the economic and social development, globalization is an obvious tendency. In this process, there is more and more interpersonal, economic and social communication. In the field of education, we would find that globalization is more obvious in programs in Management and Economics than in programs in Engineering.

Programs in Economics and Management involve a lot of cooperation and exchange among different organizations. The students will be faced with a global economic and business environment, and they will also receive education in different cultural and business background. Therefore, it is a consensus that globalization is an inevitable tendency.

The globalization of programs in traditional engineering subject may be reflected in the cooperation among professors, while that of programs in Economics and Management is more reflected in the cooperation among organizations, colleges, and universities.

After the reform and opening-up in 1978, the then president of Tongji University, Professor Li Guohao, proposed that Tongji was to become a window to connect Germany and Europe. We can say that he set two strategies for Tongji University: one is the international development strategy oriented to Germany and Europe; the other is gradually transforming Tongji from an engineering university to a comprehensive university. These two strategies were of vital importance for the development of Tongji University, especially in its internationalization.

In the internationalized development, Tongji has gradually expanded its cooperation with Europe to cooperation with America, Asia, and Africa, and transformed from a single window to a university connected with various universities in the world. In this process, Tongji SEM is leading the way of internationalization, which can be reflected in various aspects. We have multi-dimensional international cooperation programs. For example, in EMBA, we have a double degree EMBA program in cooperation with Mannheim Business School in Germany. In this program, 40% of the students come from Germany, 40% from China, and 20% from other countries. Students from various countries in the world study together three models in Shanghai, three models in Germany, and one model in America, with internationalized teachers, internationalized classes, and internationalized business environment. In MBA, we have a double degree MBA program in cooperation with Manchester Business School in Britain. Our students can enjoy the same global resources of education and career development with British students in the several teaching schools of Manchester Business School. We also have double degree programs of MBA and MF in cooperation with Case Western Reserve University. This is the first international program in which a top university in the US confers MF degree on students in mainland China. After two and a half years’ on-the-job learning, students can get a MBA degree from Tongji University and also a MF degree from Case Western Reserve University. It is also unique in this aspect.

You can see there is internationalization in our double degree programs, and there are 300 to 400 international students every year in our school either for a degree or for communication. Meanwhile, every year we would send 300 to 400 students to Europe and America. We have nearly 70 partners in the world, among which more than 20 have signed a long-term agreement with us in double degree programs, students’ exchange programs and faculty exchange programs. It is very stable. This is a process of internationalization.

SEM takes internationalization as one of the important strategies, and set its objective and development strategy oriented to sustainable development, trying to cultivate talents for international and national competition and development, and for business, management, and economic development. Its scientific research and talents cultivation are integrated, with an integrated aim of developing sustainably, cultivating internationalized and local talents, and creating new economic and management knowledge. Internationalization is a very important part here, closely related to the development strategy of the school. To make a summary, internationalization must be an inevitable tendency of programs in business, management, and economics.

Secondly, internationalization must be integrated with the strategy, talents cultivation, scientific research and disciplinary development of the school.

Thirdly, in the whole management education, the internationalized development can even be closely combined with schools and organizations. International cooperation requires common language and common basis, so we need to find common platforms in internationalization. There involves international evaluation and international accreditation, which are important in that they enable us to cooperate on the same platform at the same level of quality.

International accreditation is much more important in the education of management and business than in that of any other subject, and no other subject has as many international accreditations as business education in international cultivation. There is a saying in management that you can never manage what you can’t measure, so the fundamental purpose of international accreditation and international evaluation is to improve the teaching quality.

International accreditation is of vital importance to business schools, so the top management schools or business schools universally participate in international accreditation, which is an objective requirement on disciplinary education in America, Europe, Asia, and even in Africa. At present, SEM has been accredited by AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA and all of the three accreditations last for five years, being the fifth business school in mainland China that has been accredited by the three most authoritative associations for business education accreditation. In the internationalized development, I think we need to make clear the following three points. First, we need to clearly realize that internationalization is a very important part in management education; secondly, internationalization must be integrated with talents cultivation, disciplinary development and scientific research; thirdly, internationalization should involve international evaluation and international accreditation so that we can promote the development of each other on the same platform.

Host: Through your introduction I have got to know that SEM has many MBA programs in cooperation with business schools from other countries, so what is the standard in choosing foreign business schools?

Guangbin Wang: Firstly, we think that the choice of international cooperative partners should be in accordance with the development strategy of the whole school. It should be integrated with the development strategy of our school, with our own disciplinary advantage, and with our idea of talents cultivation.

Secondly, we should have requirements on the quality of our partners. Good partners can promote your own development. We take this into consideration when we choose our international cooperative partners. For example, in America or other countries or areas where management education is relatively advanced, we make a choice from the top 20 or 30 universities; in Europe, we make a choice from the top 10 universities; in Asia or other countries, we make a choice from the top 5 universities. High-level cooperative partners will help to improve our own teaching quality and our own talents cultivation, and will be beneficial to our students, making MBA and EMBA students enjoying wider international networks.

Thirdly, we need an attitude of win-win sustainable development when we choose our international cooperative partners. International cooperation is not a zero-sum game, but a win-win strategy. Only in this way can it last for a long time. At the beginning it can be a small point, but it will develop gradually. We may start from student exchange and faculty exchange, but later we will have cooperation among organizations and develop into a program and then more programs. In this way, we will have more and more choices and achieve a sustainable development as much as possible.

School Management and Scientific Research should be Attached Equal Importance and Advance Side by Side

Host: Let’s return to the academic problem. Which aspect do you think business schools should focus on, management or scientific research? What are the features of SEM in this aspect?

Guangbin Wang: The development of scientific research in the discipline can promote the MBA and EMBA education, while the MBA and EMBA education can promote the disciplinary development, for many cases in MBA and EMBA education comes from practice and scientific research questions can be found through practice. In the long run, they are united.

Moreover, scientific research and talents cultivation are related, and are consistent in the long run, especially for first-rate universities and business schools. However, in a certain period there would be unequal emphasis or even conflicts. This should be based on the long-term development goal of a school of management or a school of economics or a school of business and the comprehensive consideration of the reality and their competitors.

Host: That is to say, we can’t focus just on management or on scientific research. They need to advance side by side.

Guangbin Wang: Yes. It may not be so for some business schools. However, they must advance side by side in first-rate and advanced management schools and business schools.

The School Should Keep Up with the Changing Tendency of the Times

Host: Dean Wang, now more and more students in business schools in China are young people. How do you think of this phenomenon?

Guangbin Wang: First, this is a very obvious phenomenon. For one thing, many students pursuing higher degrees or advanced business education tend to be young at age; for another, undergraduates or postgraduates would like to pursue further study because they find themselves lag behind in hunting for a job. This is an objective phenomenon in economic development.

Second, business education should adapt to this development trend, and the trend that more and more young people have active mind and have a good mastery of information and telecommunication skills. They communicate in various ways, so they should also learn in different ways. We need to consider young people’s requirements when we set the teaching environment.

Third, education should be aimed at the future. We should consider more the role the young people will play in the economic and business environment in China and in the world. We should not just rely on the students or young people to make this consideration, but we should make more research on this aspect, and provide platforms or resources for them.

Business Schools are Closely Related to Local Economic and Social Environment

Host: In your opinion, what is the relationship between SEM and the economic development in Shanghai? How can SEM achieve a positive interaction with the economic growth?

Guangbin Wang: To be frank, it is fortunate for Tongji University to be located in Shanghai, an area boasting active business. Tongji has benefited a lot from the development of Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta, which is closely related to the business environment. Business education and management education, different from pure scientific education, must be closely related to local economic and social environment. The development of Tongji these years has also benefited from the economic growth of Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta. Meanwhile, Tongji has also made much contribution to the economic and social development in Shanghai and the whole country.

Broadly speaking, education of a business school and the whole university is closely related to the local economic and business environment. We can see students graduating from Tongji everywhere, in the infrastructure construction, business reform, the formulation of development policies, and the market advisory committee.

All the business schools and universities are closely related to the local development. Their curricula, their students, their advantages are all closely related to the local economic and business environment.

Host: Dean Wang, my last question is about the future of SEM? What do you think of the future development of business schools? Can you share with us your personal plan for Tongji SEM?

Guangbin Wang: Business schools in the future should have the following features.

Firstly, the scientific research and talents cultivation should advance side by side, and should be closely related to the local and global economic and business development. Secondly, it is an important part of the innovative development of business education to lay stress on the quality of business education, sustainable development, and continuous improvement. Thirdly, special attention should be paid to information and telecommunication technology in the development of business education and the whole business school. In the present information age, information and telecommunication technology is of vital importance in the development of business, management and education. The whole society, economy and education today are totally different from the past. A major difference lies in that the technologies represented by information and telecommunication technology will affect the original business model, production model and consumption model and various aspects of the society and the economy. Tongji SEM has attached sufficient importance to the application of information and telecommunication technology, the reform and innovation of teaching methods, and we have been equipped with advanced informative teaching facilities, introduced learning management system Blackboard to enhance teacher-student interaction and monitor the teaching quality, offer MOOC courses such as Project Management, Market Management, etc. and develop micro learning platforms.

My expectations on education in business schools are as follows.

I hope that the business education in Tongji SEM can cultivate leading, responsible, persevering talents who make a contribution to the whole country and the economic development. As for scientific research, I hope students in Tongji and graduates from Tongji can, based on the practice in China, make research-based innovations and lead in and contribute to their own career and field.

I hope there will be the following key points in talents cultivation and scientific research. Firstly, we should try to improve the quality through our internal examination and external examination such as international evaluation and accreditation, and related people such as our alumni, our students, our teachers, etc. Secondly, internationalization is important. Tongji students and alumni should have an international vision, and give full play to the effect of international vision and international talents cultivation, and try to achieve the two goals through international cooperation, student or faculty exchange and scientific research. We should cultivate leading talents, who are needed for the society and the economy and who can make contribution to the management education and scientific research in China.

I believe that Tongji SEM, with a rigorous spirit and its internal features, can achieve a long-term sustainable development.

Host: Thank you very much for accepting our interview today. We hope that in the future more and more talented people will join Tongji SEM and we hope Tongji SEM can cultivate more and more talents for the society. We hope that your expectation and your plan can be fulfilled as soon as possible. Thank you!