London Business School and Fudan launch Masters in Management

In a further example of the growth in high quality degree programmes between Chinese and western business schools, London Business School and Fudan University, in Shanghai, have announced they will teach a double degree Masters in Management (MiM) programme from September 2015.

The move will give LBS a foothold in another of the world’s top financial markets – the school already has campuses in London and Dubai and teaches in New York and Hong Kong in collaboration with Columbia Business School and Hong Kong University.

The announcement by Fudan and LBS is the second alliance to be unveiled between a western business school and a Chinese counterpart this week – Cornell University’s Johnson School and Tsinghua University in Beijing said on Wednesday they will be teaching a double degree MBA programme together.

Johnson and LBS will be following in the footsteps of the Kellogg School of Management, which announced in February that it would run an Executive MBA degree with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management.

The first year of the two-year LBS and Fudan programme will be taught in London, the second year in Shanghai, with both schools recruiting students for the double degree. “We are preparing them [students] for a global career with a China experience,” says Leila Guerra, executive director of early career programmes at LBS.

MiM degrees, which give a general management education to those with little or no work experience, have been widely adopted in Europe but they are also proving to be increasingly popular in both the US and Asia. Kellogg, Michigan Ross and Duke University’s Fuqua school all teach, or plan to teach, MiM degrees in the US. Fuqua will also teach its MiM on its campus near Shanghai from July. Tsinghua teaches a MiM in Beijing and Fudan has run a double degree MiM programme with Italian business school Bocconi for several years.

The agreement between LBS and Fudan was signed in Shanghai by the deans of the two schools, Sir Andrew Likierman and Lu Xiongwen.

“The programme will give its graduates a ‘two-world’ mindset,” said Sir Andrew. “The balance of theory and practice will ensure students gain a head start in the competition for the world’s best business jobs.”

Prof Lu said that many business schools in China were looking to broaden their horizons. “This collaboration will help to draw out the best of the management systems employed in both East and West, aiding the development of more capable leaders in future.”

The double degree is one of the first steps in LBS’s strategy for the Chinese market, which includes working more closely with Chinese companies and growing the school’s reputation in China. The school recently launched a webpage in Mandarin.