On a press conference held on October 18, 2010, Tsinghua SEM annouced the launching of a two-year, full time Masters in Management (MiM) Program. It is the first comprehensive applied MiM Program in China.

The Program will start in 2010 fall. Till now, the recommended admissions have come to an end, and prospective students can now sign up for the public entrance exam. “This is a new graduate program initiated by SEM, right after the MBA curriculum reform. It is a step forward for Tsinghua SEM, and also an innovative move for the management education reform in China.”

Dean QIAN Yingyi speaking to the media

What’s MiM?

Different from current MBA and academic masters education, MiM is a pre-experience comprehensive program with a concentration on application. It admits undergraduates without professional experience, aiming to further their analytical, comprehensive management and leadership abilities. Graduates of the program will develop their career as leaders in enterprises, governments of all levels and nonprofit organizations.

The MiM Program of SEM is an integration of four previous masters programs: Business Strategy, Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Marketing, as well as Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It is a critical move of the School’s graduate education reform.

Last fall, London Business School (LBS) and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business also launched masters in management programs. Different from the MiM Program at SEM, the length of study in those programs are one year, instead of two. Additionally, being graduate schools in nature, LBS and Fuqua only recruits from other institutes, while SEM also selects candidates from its own undergraduates.

Faculty members introducing the MiM Program

Eight Features

Dean QIAN Yingyi of SEM has summarized the eight most distinctive features of MiM:

1. Concentration on application: MiM is not a repetition of existing academic business management masters education. It focuses on practical application rather than researches.

2. Comprehensive education: MiM does not limit itself to the education in finance, accounting, marketing or human resources, but aims to provide students with all-around abilities required by real-world management practice.

3. Pre-experience education: MiM is a pre-experience program with no demand of applicants’ work history. Therefore, it differs from MBA education where at least three-year professional experience is required.

4. Leadership oriented: graduates of the MiM Program are supposed to become leaders of the future. Students are encouraged to build analytical, comprehensive management and leadership abilities. Newly graduated from bachelors programs, MiM students should be able to conduct intensive analysis, which is sometimes overly demanding for MBA students.

5. Extensive coverage: the definition of “management” in MiM is highly extensive. It does not differentiate among business, public or nonprofit management. Students will graduate from MiM with a set of flexible skills that could be applied in a variety of settings.

6. Outstanding students: it does not only attract SEM’s own students, but also recruits from the most capable undergraduates from other schools and universities. With the program size limited to a small scale, MiM will be among most selective graduate programs in China.

7. Bright Career Prospects: MiM students have broad career prospects with strong potentials. The MiM graduates will seek employment with enterprises as managerial leaders, with government departments as officials, and with international organizations as senior professionals.

8. Internationalization: the MiM Program adopts bilingual education. SEM is the only academic member of the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) in China. We shall further our cooperation with CEMS to develop a dual-degree program, drawing experience from the MiM Program.

The press conference

Competitive Selection

The Program only recruits 40 students for 2010 fall admissions, including recommended students and those selected via the public exam. As a result, the selection process turns out to be highly competitive.

In the recommended admissions, 33 students were selected from SEM and other institutes, a large number of whom ranked no.1 or top five in the national undergraduate entrance exam. The registration for public exam admissions has now started. The total estimated number of exam takers comes up to one to two hundred, and only seven will attain the final offer.

Internationalized Curriculum

The Program offers a range of course types, including compulsory courses, core specialized courses, elective specialized courses, open selective courses, student report and experiment. Students will develop their knowledge structure with intensive analytical education, and build their hands-on management skills through practical training.

As the only academic member of CEMS in China, MiM students will take advantage of the education and placement resources made possible by the 26 members of CEMS and over 50 high-level corporate partners. What’s more, the dual degree program currently under development by SEM and CEMS will further allow students to access the alumni network, placement and exchange opportunities of CEMS.

“SEM is the first school in China to launch a comprehensive applied MiM Program. It is a ground-breaking move,” said Dean QIAN Yingyi, “our reform is supported by the Graduate School of Tsinghua University. It is in line with the promotion of application focused masters education as advocated by the Ministry of Education. SEM is fully confident about the MiM Program. We look forward to see similar moves in other management schools in China.”