Top Asia B-Schools: An Ivy League of Their Own
Asian universities have stepped up their game when it comes to competing for students as Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, the region’s top-ranked graduate school of business, joins with three rivals to raise their visibility in North America and Europe and lure more Western candidates to Asia to earn MBA degrees.
Bloomberg is reporting the Hong Kong university will recruit jointly with the China Europe International Business School, the Indian School of Business and Nanyang Technological University.
The Asian allies have created a brand, Top Asia B-Schools, they hope will generate the sort of cachet associated with the Ivy League, Nick Soriano, director of marketing and admissions at Nanyang, in Singapore, tells Bloomberg.
“There’s the Ivy League in America, so we thought why can’t we Asian business schools do the same kind of thing,” Soriano says. “Even though we are very much each other’s competitors, we thought we can all work together in trying to attract and convince people to come to Asia for their MBA.”
Calling itself “Asia4,” the group has established a web presence and touts the region as the first-choice destination when it comes to management education, a place where you can learn to address the challenges of today’s increasingly complex business world.
Lower program costs and Asia’s ever-increasing economic relevance, plus the use of English as the language of instruction, makes this quartet particularly appealing to students in the West.
Officials from the four Asian schools will travel later this year to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Paris and Madrid to speak with students at recruiting events, says Pauline Cheung, director of overseas marketing and admissions at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.
