Harvard opens Chinese facility

Harvard Business School is to open its first overseas facility, in Shanghai, and expand the number of overseas experiences available to its MBA students. The latter is part of a wider curriculum development programme which includes a range of intensive seminars taught in small classroom settings and addressing subjects such as negotiation, sustainable development and healthcare - arch rival Stanford pioneered this concept of small class teaching and tutorials in the top US business schools.

The expanded immersion programme, which will take MBA students to countries as far afield as China, India, Rwanda and Peru, is a bid to give both first and second year MBA students the chance to experience business outside the US. It is something that other top schools such as Wharton and Stanford now do as a matter of course, but Harvard has been slow to initiate such projects, as data from the Financial Times 2009 rankings show. The other top seven US programmes all rank more highly in the international experience enjoyed as part of the MBA programme, as shown below.

More than 400 first and second year Harvard students will participate in the programme beginning this month - less than a quarter of the total population.

Meanwhile this month will see the unofficial opening of Harvard’s Chinese facility. The move is revolutionary for the school, which has always argued that students should go to Harvard rather than Harvard going to the student. The facility will be used for short executive courses as well as a base for MBA students on overseas projects.

www.hbs.edu