I believe that Nancy will find things to be much better on the dimensions discussed below in Hong Kong than on the mainland.  In fact, even in Shanghai at an institution like CEIBS, I think things would be much different in a positive way.

Laura

 

-----Original Message----- 

From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of Michael O'Hara 

Sent: Thu 8/18/2005 5:40 PM 

To: [log in to unmask] 

Cc: 

Subject: Re: Teaching in Hong Kong







	      I can offer good news and bad news.

	

	      Several years ago UNO offered its MBA on site at a university in

	Beijing.  This was the UNO MBA delivered by UNO professors on site in

	intensive courses.  Each class started on Monday at 8AM and ended on Friday

	by 5PM.  Our Dean at the time had played host to a Fulbright Scholar a

	couple of decades earlier who then became Dean at Beijing.  They maintained

	a warm and friendly relationship over a couple of decades and it matured

	into this program.  Both sides welcomed the opportunity and worked to

	assure its success.

	

	      First the bad news.  Relative to our original expectations it had a

	multitude of failures, mostly far from small from our perspective but

	ranging from just what they wanted to unquestionably acceptable from their

	perspective.  The primary source of the failures was an inability to align

	expectations.  Regardless of how vigorously and relentlessly UNO expressed

	UNO's expectations, either the Chinese did not or would not understand our

	commitments to some criteria of success.  After completing one cohort of

	degree recipients out of an originally anticipated three cohorts, the UNO

	faculty and the UNO administration refused to continue.  Trust, but verify

	is not sufficient.  Get a performance bond issued by a firm in the USA that

	views contracts the same way you do.

	

	      What were the flaws?

	

	      [A]   TOEFL scores were fraudulent.  Persons other than the students

	took the exams.  UNO insisted on the students taking an earning the

	astronomical (yeah, right) TOEFL score of 450 prior to being handed a UNO

	diploma.  That caused all sorts of consternation, especially when UNO made

	clear that UNO was going to control the chain of custody of all documents.

	Rather than a mean of 570 --before-- classes were delivered in English,

	--after-- all classes the mean TOEFL was 470.

	

	      [B]   Since it was to be a rapid fire delivery (i.e., 40 classroom

	hours within one work week), all of the textbooks were to be delivered to

	the students at least three weeks prior to the start of class so that all

	students would have had the opportunity to read the entire textbook prior

	to the start of class.  Of twelve classes, 1 class had the textbooks

	delivered more than 1 day before the first day of classes; 1 class had

	textbooks delivered on the -last- day of classes; and the other 10 had the

	books delivered during the first class meeting.

	

	      [C]   Contrary to express commitments, communist watchers attended

	every class.  The watchers glared at students when -any- discussion broke

	out, thus creating a stifling classroom setting.  One watcher became so

	distressed by the instructor's refusal to take a hint and the students

	following the instructor's lead (recall a teacher's position in the

	pecking order in Asia), that the watcher stopped the class meeting and

	berated the students then and following the class.  There was zero

	discussion in that class after that incident.

	

	      [D]   Both for education and for AACSB accreditation requirements,

	library resource commitments were sought and obtained.  No real library was

	available in Beijing for doing USA MBA research.  That UNO anticipated.

	UNO fenagled "on site" status for the Beijing students logging on through

	the UNO Library server to all of UNO's electronic library resources.

	However, only one internet line per --class-- was provided, rather than the

	promised one line per student:  and, the communist watcher had to be

	present during use the line.  Watchers saw no need for working overtime.

	

	      [E]   I got conflicting reports on this next item.  UNO has a series

	of prerequisites for the MBA.  Some were (e.g., statistics) and some were

	not (e.g., accounting, economics) part of the engineering school's ordinary

	curriculum.  The additional prerequisites were to be delivered by the

	Beijing faculty --prior-- to the first class delivered by UNO faculty.  The

	conflicting reports were the additional prerequisites never were delivered

	or were delivered after the middle of the UNO program.  I suspect the

	latter is more true.  When it became clear that the capstone course

	required mastery of accounting and economics, and that UNO would not

	graduate a student who did not earn a "B" in the capstone course, I suspect

	Beijing dedicated the time and money of the Beijing faculty finally

	delivering those prerequisites.

	

	      Now for the good news.

	

	      [1]   The students were eager and willing to work.  In every class

	meeting after the books did arrive, at least one student had read the

	chapter and had written up study notes that were distributed to the other

	students.  All students clearly read most of the text prior to the end of

	the class.

	

	      [2]   The students are well prepared in anything that the student

	actually had in a class.  The prerequisites (not promised to be completed,

	but actually completed) are learned at a level of long term retention

	rather than forget it right after the exam.

	

	      [3]   The students are mentally agile and mature (avoiding repression

	does that).

	

	      [4]   All of our faculty were glad they went, even if none were

	willing to return.

	

	      [5]   The Beijing physical accommodations were as bad as we

	anticipated (e.g., run down Motel 6 from circa 1960), thus that was neither

	a plus nor a minus.  The welcoming attitude of everyone other than the

	communist watchers created a delightful social environment.

	

	      Since political cover is needed, you would be wise to craft written

	materials that explicitly bring out all issues.  Not because the students

	won't "get it" otherwise, but because it is far more socially acceptable to

	say "The textbook says xxxxx is an issue we must consider.".  Similarly, in

	the written materials be more blunt in -requiring- all of the points of

	view, otherwise you will get feedback limited to the (then and there)

	politically correct --point-- of view.

	

	      Good luck, and have fun!

	

	Michael

	

	Professor Michael J. O'Hara, J.D., Ph.D.

	Finance, Banking, & Law Department        Editor, Journal of Legal

	Economics

	College of Business Administration        (402) 554 - 2014 voice fax (402)

	554 - 3825

	Roskens Hall 502                    www.AAEFE.org

	University of Nebraska at Omaha           www.JournalOfLegalEconomics.com

	Omaha  NE  68182

	[log in to unmask]

	(402) 554 - 2823 voice  fax (402) 554 - 2680

	http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/mohara/web/ohara.htm