Restructured EMBA at CEIBS Looks to Africa

CEIBS’s dean, Dr Yuan Ding stressed his belief that a cross-continental program offered through a single institution promised to be stronger than similar offerings provided jointly between institutions. CEIBS’s dean said that a joint EMBA program of this ilk threw up issues of cost, communication and integration, going as far as to describe the model as being “outdated”.

In explaining the move to bring its African and European EMBA classes together, Ding said the school was “simply anticipating and responding” to the needs of the market: “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,” explained the accounting professor, who joined CEIBS from HEC Paris.

Another global-minded EMBA program responding to growing interest in Africa’s emerging markets is that offered by Copenhagen Business School. The school ran an international module in Kampala, Uganda, for the first time last month, on the subject of innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Africa has experienced significant growth in recent years and there are an increasing number of business opportunities to be explored. By making senior executives acquainted with the key themes concerning doing business and innovation in Uganda, we aim to assist them and their organizations in building the necessary insight needed to assess the potential for entering these markets,” explained Søren Jeppesen, the Copenhagen Business School professor who helmed the trip.

Part of the Copenhagen Business School module involved working with MBAs at a local institution – Makerere University Business School (MUBS) – from whom participants can learn more about the local context.

Indeed, to the keep the level of student enrollment from Africa high in its restructured EMBA, CEIBS has moved to set aside 15 scholarships for applications solely from the region. In addition, the school has said that it will be offering free executive education classes for local officials at its campus in Accra and will be making financial aid available to younger students keen to study their MBA at CEIBS’s Shanghai campus.