About 150 professionals in management education around the world gathered together inBeijingfor 2007 AACSB International World Class Practices in Management Education Conference duringMay 20-22, 2007. The conference is the first one that AACSB has ever held inChina. AACSB is a professional association for college and university management education and the premier accrediting agency for bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. The School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University(Tsinghua SEM), the host this year, has just been awarded accreditation by AACSB one month ago for having met widely recognized high standards of achievement in education and research for business schools worldwide.

From the left:

Chen Guoqing, Executive Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM

Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM

Xie Weihe, Vice-president ofTsinghuaUniversity

Judy Olian, Conference Chair, Dean and John E. Anderson Chair of Management, Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles

John Fernandes, President and Chief Executive Officer of AACSB International

Jerry Trapnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Accreditation Officer of AACSB International

This conference has brought together information exchange about the most effective practices in management education, with sessions designed specifically to capture the unique aspects of business education at present time. Under the topic of “The Perfect Balance of Growth and Quality”, the conference provided a platform for dynamic sessions, presented by leaders from the academic, business and professional communities. The speakers at the conference included Judy Olian, Dean and John E. Anderson Chair of Management of Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles,John Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of AACSB International, Jerry Trapnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Accreditation Officer of AACSB International, Yingyi Qian, Dean of Tsinghua SEM, Wei Christianson, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley China, Yibing Wu, Chief Transformation Officer of Lenovo Group. Deans from other renowned business schools around the world also attended the conference.

A wide range of topics was covered during the conference, including Chinese Economy and Financial Markets, Lenovo Transformation, Opportunities in Non-degree Executive Education, International Strategic Alliances and AACSB Accreditation, etc. The participants discussed the global and regional trends and issues in business and management programs, reviewed successful models for international strategic alliances, and explored the process for evaluating and selecting potential partners, shared their best practices in faculty management and development, student recruitment, and curricula identified through accreditation reviews worldwide.

This conference was the second collaboration between Tsinghua SEM and AACSB right after the School earned one of the most recognized accreditation for business schools in April, making Tsinghua the first accredited school in Chinese mainland. “The achievement of AACSB accreditation indicates the excellence of management education in Tsinghua SEM. It makes Tsinghua be able to share the same platform with other accredited business schools worldwide”, said Professor Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM.

The conference showed that international education agencies like AACSB had cast more attention to the rapidly developing management education inChinaandAsia; while as for the Tsinghua SEM, the event was a recognition extended by AACSB on Tsinghua status to the global community of management education. The School said the international conference provided opportunities for dialogues between world-leading business schools, which would be conducive to the School’s quality improvement, internationalization, and finally exert a positive influence on its realization of its strategic goal of “being a world-class school of economics and management.”