'Attracting foreign students vital to success of local MBA schools'

Lee Du-hee, dean of the Korea University Business School Courtesy of Korea University

By Yoon Sung-won

“Attracting talented foreign students is the key to the success of Korean-style MBAs since it will be profitable both for local business schools and the national interest in the long term.” This is what Lee Du-hee, the dean of the Korea University Business School, or KUBS, said while unveiling his vision for KUBS and other Korean business schools during an interview with The Korea Times.

“Korean business schools should be able to help domestic and international students improve their career in global businesses,” the dean said. “Developing education programs that offer useful knowledge for the ever-changing environment is the most important.”

Reflecting the introduction of Korean business schools, Lee acknowledged that much has changed in the education field of professional business management.

“Studying in globally-prominent institutions overseas has long been considered as a necessity in achieving an MBA. But Korean business schools have grown to introduce many talented overseas students, which is a significant change from the past.”

The 55-year-old dean reiterated the overall growth of “Korean-style” MBA programs will benefit the whole nation.

“The advance of Korean business schools in competition with overseas institutions will cut the amount of deficit in the education industry generated by the rush to study abroad. And hopefully, Korea can record a surplus in the education industry like Australia. The country earns more money from education than tourism,”

“Secondly, international students, who come from Asian countries where businesses see Korea as their role model for success, will introduce Korean-style and Korea-friendly businesses to their homelands,” Lee continued.

“For this reason, I hope the Korean government actively nurtures Korean-style MBA programs to change the country from an importer to an exporter in the global education market and to expand the country’s influence in nearby regions,” he said.

According to the school, the KUBS Alumni Association holds regular meetings to build a domestic and international business network spanning 50 nations around the world. Its alumni number 200,000 and includes some the well-known CEOs and CFOs in Korea such as LG Group founder Koo Doo-heui, and Hyundai Development Company Chairman Chung Mong-gyu, as well as high-ranking political figures such as former President Lee Myung-bak.

Putting emphasis on the importance of internal renovation and improvement, the dean picked three key factors for a quality MBA program; superior curriculum, provision of actual benefit for alumni careers, and competitive faculty members

“I believe that a superior curriculum should reflect the world’s contemporary business environment and provide know-how to prepare for the future,” Lee said.

“Thorough management on alumni career development is also essential for a high quality MBA program. For example, one-on-one career coaching and counseling sessions, provided in close cooperation with career development centers within the university, is being offered to students and is scheduled to be improved.

“Lastly, faculty competence is also important. One of the most representative indexes of faculty competency is the number of research papers published. More creative and influential ideas and research means higher-quality MBA courses.”

KUBS is said to be one of the most globally-recognized business schools in Korea. It ranked 86th globally last year in the University of Texas Dallas Ranking for research accomplishments. And its executive MBA program was 12th in the U.K.’s Financial Times’ top 100 Executive MBA ranking, up 11 places from the previous year.

The dean said the results are due to passionate students and professors.

“Korean-style MBA programs are based on the idea of working during the day and studying at night, as many Korean businessmen are commonly occupied on weekdays. The KUBS Executive MBA program was established to meet such a need in 2003.”

“KUBS EMBA introduced modular instruction in which professor and students intensively cover only one subject in each two-week period. Nevertheless, most students devote themselves to the course to learn as much as they can. I believe the enthusiasm contributed most to the recent achievement in the global ranking,” Lee said.

The business school also acquired double accreditations from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), international business school accreditation organizations based in the U.S. and Europe, respectively, for the first time in Korea and has successfully renewed them in recent years.

Thanks to the double accreditations, MBA degrees acquired at KUBS are widely acknowledged worldwide. For this reason, foreign businessmen and students who seek job opportunities in multinational companies will find KUBS MBA programs attractive, the dean explained.

“To attract more talented and enthusiastic students from home and abroad, and to better compete with world’s leading business schools, we are constantly checking on advanced MBA programs to learn from them,” Lee said.