Yonsei MBA goes global

By Choo Sung-ho

If you thought that Korean MBA schools would be less competitive than Western MBA schools, think again. A growing number of international students are choosing Korea for their higher education and Yonsei University is one of the most sought-after schools among Korean schools.

Lee Moon-kyu, a marketing professor at Yonsei University School of Business, said that Yonsei Global MBA has attracted an increasing number of foreign students year after year, especially those seeking to get a job in Korea after school.

Andy Gutierrez, Yonsei Global MBA student from the United States, said he is planning to work at a Korean company after graduation. “I am really into IT technology and Korea has expertise in that area, I am hoping to work for Samsung Electronics or CJ Group after my studies,” he said.

Yonsei University School of Business, established in 1915, is known as the first university that introduced business education in Korea. In 1965, the school started offering MBA programs with the aim of nurturing creative business leaders.

For many years Yonsei has maintained its reputation as one of the best schools in Korea, and recently it achieved a world reputation as well. Yonsei was ranked as one of the world’s top 100 MBA schools by The Economist over the past few years, proving its competitiveness in the global market.

Yonsei MBA school offers one full-time and three part-time MBA programs — global, corporate, finance and executive MBAs. Each of programs is designed to provide students with a customized curriculum in accordance with their work experience and professional interests.

The corporate MBA, an evening program, is targeting mid-level managers and junior executives, who have more than two years of work experience and are currently working at a firm. Meanwhile, the executive MBA is aimed at high level executives with 10 to 15 years of professional work experience. The finance MBA program is more focus on nurturing specialized professionals by providing them cutting-edge financial theories and industry practices.

The 18-month-long Yonsei Global MBA is a customized program for nurturing creative global business leaders equipped with expert knowledge of business management. The best part of this program is that students will study in a 100 percent English speaking environment with students from many different countries.

International students enrolled in Yonsei University School of Business’ Global MBA program accounted for over 50 percent of the total number of registered students from 2010 to 2012. For those Korean students who want to expand their global perspective, this program is their best choice as well.

The program offers global experience trips and a one semester exchange program with top global universities such as Cornell, New York and Peking universities, and the University of British Columbia.

Recently, Yonsei MBA has signed an agreement for a dual degree program with Olin Business School of Washington in St. Louis, the U.S. Olin Business School made the list of world’s top 100 MBA schools by The Economist and the Financial Times in 2012.

When this reporter visited the school to attend a marketing research class on Jan. 7, each group of five in a different seminar room was discussing preparing in-class presentations for their marketing research project.

“The purpose of this course is to make students learn how to do marketing research for better marketing decision. Students work in teams to conduct marketing research for a real case using a variety of research methodologies,” professor Lee Moon-kyu said.

For each group, Lee reinforced and integrated the research techniques taught in the class and guided how to apply those theories into the real case by giving groups one to one couching. A selected group consisting of three foreign students and two Korean students shared their stories about why they choose a Yonsei MBA over other schools and their satisfaction with the program.

Clara Chua from Singapore is a Korean government full scholarship student. Chua, who speaks almost fluent Korean, said she is interested in the cosmetic industry and looking forward to work at AMOREPACIFIC, Korea’s number one cosmetic company.

“I got accepted from other universities but I chose Yonsei because of its most established program in Korea,” she said.

Sanae Abed from Morocco, another international student in the group, worked at the Korean cultural center in France before coming to Yonsei.

“The working experience at the center led me to come to Korea and I also want to get a job here after my studies,” Abed said.

The two Korean students Song In-kyung and Kim Hyun-jin spent their high school and college life in the U.S. They both said they enjoy Korean college life, making both Korean and foreign friends at Yonsei. “I want to expand my Korean network through this program since I studied in the U.S. for a long time,” Kim said.

Song, who studied auditorium architecture at a college, received her master’s degree in the same field in the U.S. She said, “I chose Yonsei because I heard that this school has one of the best business programs in Korea.”

“While I was working in the U.S., I felt that I needed to learn business management to run my own business someday in the future. So far I am quite satisfied with the programs as well as the school life in Korea,” she said.

Besides the MBA programs focusing on educational aspects, the school also places a greater emphasis on the career consulting service for students.

Yonsei MBA School is operating the Career Development Center (CDC) to provide students one on one coaching sessions, advice on how to prepare their resume and job interview. The center also helps students find internship positions. For the last two years, 100 percent of students who wanted to do an internship worked at the one of Korea’s leading companies.