Bulletin Issue Nov 2011
城大商學院
College International Advisory Board expands
Welcome to our new CB Management Team members
The College International Advisory Board met for its third annual meeting in November. Charged with making policy recommendations for the development of international programmes, and helping to identify suitable overseas academic institutions and business corporations as strategic partners, the Board is a keystone in our internationalization strategy. The Board welcomed new member Mr Albert Ip, an international banking and real estate professional with 33 years of industry experience. Mr Ip was the Managing Director of Investments at Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) from 2008 to 2011. In a move to provide our students with expert guidance, Mr Ip has also been appointed Adjunct Professor in charge of student career counselling, and gave his inaugural lecture on ‘Career in Corporate, Investment, Private and Consumer Banking’ in October.
The Dean, Professor KK Wei, extended a warm welcome to faculty at a Town Hall meeting held in early September, and gave an update on the latest CB news and activities. This included -
Executive Education goes region-wide
College of Business
A Key Business Education Hub – in China for the World
Management Team changes - The Dean introduced new members of the CB Management Team Prof Kelvin Yau (MS) – Associate Dean (Research & Postgraduate), Dr Dou Wenyu (MKT) – Associate Dean (Undergraduate), and Dr Ron Kwok (IS) – Assistant Dean (Assurance of Learning). CB is delighted to bring these new team members on board, and looks forward to benefitting from the multifarious expertise that they have to offer. An outstanding legacy - Professor Wei bid goodbye, and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the outgoing members of the management team who have provided such stalwart service to the College over the past years. “Thank you” gifts were presented to Prof Matthew Lee, Associate Dean (Research, Postgraduate, and Executive Education), under whose stewardship much of the outstanding progress in research has been achieved, Prof Eden Yu, Associate Dean (Undergraduate), whose work reaffirmed the College tradition of teaching excellence in the BBA programme, and Dr Louis Ma, Assistant Dean (Assurance of Learning), who stepped into the breach to revamp the College assurance of learning system, and ensured that CB complied with the requirements of our AACSB certification. Collectively their legacy provides a strong platform - with CB well placed to meet the demands of the coming decade. College Excellence Awards The Dean presented awards to the winners of the College Teaching Excellence Awards (CTEA) 2011, Dr Andy Kwan (MGT), and Dr Tom Vinaimont (EF); and to the winners of the College Research Excellence Awards (CREA) 2011, Prof Kim Jeong Bon (AC), Dr Julie Li (MKT), and Dr Yang Haibin (MGT). The College emphasises research and teaching excellence and recognises and awards those who excel in these areas.
The CB Executive Education (EE) Programme is expanding rapidly with no less than seven programmes active in Hong Kong and the CityU Shenzhen Research Institute Building since this April. CB has provided executive education services to more than 200 students during this period, from companies such as Han Kou Bank and HNA Group, to universities such as SungKyunKwan and Yonsei both in Seoul. It is expected that the number of participants will be doubled by the end of this year since the EE projects with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Renmin University of China and Hainan Airlines are in the pipeline. EE also contributes to the Advanced Masters Program in Management of Global Enterprises (AMPM) for Globally Distributed Work in India, and is set to expand yet further - watch this space!
Internationalisation drive In a quest for new experiences and action CB students were off to all corners of the globe this summer. 136 BBA students took part in the Cultural and Language Immersion Scheme flying as far afield as the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Universities of Kent and Warwick in the UK, and the University of Victoria in Canada. Amongst other things students experienced English language classes, home-stay, voluntary work and cultural activities. The Work Abroad Programme gave 22 student volunteers the opportunity to practise social responsibility as well as to immerse themselves in local communities through volunteering their services. Partner organizations were Habitat for Humanity in Thailand (Habitat) and Udavum Karangal (Helping Hands) in India. Habitat is a world-known organization based in the US which aims to build affordable housing for those in need in underdeveloped countries, while Helping Hands houses and takes care of orphans and the underprivileged in Chennai, India. In a newly launched Overseas Internship programme, CB placed students in research jobs in East Malaysia in conjunction with the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, as well as an audit internship with Metro AG, a major retailer in Germany. Back at home, CB has extended a warm welcome to 219 new inbound exchange students from 79 overseas universities, and of 23 nationalities. A four day orientation full of activities was held for the new students. Internationalisation is indeed in the air!
Full-time MBA opens Prof Wei presents the CTEA awards to Dr Tom Vinaimont and Dr Andy Kwan
(From left) Prof Wei, Dr Yang Haibin, Dr Julie Li and Dr Sidney Leung (who represents Prof Kim Jeong Bon) at the CREA presentation
The first intake of Full-Time MBA students commenced studies at both SRIB and on CityU campus in September 2011. The introduction of this degree format enhances the CB programme portfolio, and caters for the expanding market for full time taught postgraduate programmes.
College research hits new high The College of Business now stands at 77th in the UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings (2006-2010), an improvement of 13 places on last year. In related news, research outputs are up 10% this year, with the College recording 32 successful General Research Fund applications in 2011. The College has also scored a major success with the Innovation and Technology Fund. Dr Liao Shaoyi (IS) has had three research projects approved for a total of over HK$5M.
Research successes CB has notched up a series of successes in the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Research Grants Competition 2011. Four projects, submitted by Dr YANG Zhilin (MKT), Prof MA Jian (IS) and Dr LU Ye (MS), have received a grand total of RMB1.41M. This achievement signals a strategic shift in research funding towards the mainland. The NSFC is a public institution set up to promote and finance research projects in China and is directly under the State Council. An MS project “Use-IT-Easy Low Cost USB Handheld RFID Reader” has won Gold Award in the category of “Most Innovative EPC/RFID Products” at the GS1 Hong Kong Annual Supply Chain Management Excellence Summit 2011. The project also won a “Most Innovative Award” in the first ever Guangdong-Hong Kong RFID Awards.
CB – a destination of choice The BBA programmes are now attracting students with JUPAS scores at a record high. We are gratified that the word is getting around, and that CB is increasingly a destination of choice for business students. In a bid to offer yet further options, the BBA major in Banking and Financial Services will be introduced in 2012. Prospective students were alerted to the full range of our services at two CityU Information Days held for HKALE and HKDSE students in mid October. A big “Thank You” to all faculty who contributed to involved in our marketing drive.