CHINA DAILY USA Friday-Sunday, March 6-8, 2015 Education special 11

By ZHU LIXINzhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, based in Tampa, Flor-

ida, on Feb 18 announced the latest eight institutions to earn its accreditation in business.

The University of Science and Technology of China is one of three universities from the Chinese mainland to earn the honor, taking the nation’s universities with the accredi-tation to 12. The university’s School of Management won the accreditation.

“As the world’s best-known accreditation for business schools, the AACSB accredita-tion is expected to help us build a truly internationally promi-nent business school”, said Yu Yugang, executive dean of the school at USTC.

Quick responsesA global, nonprofi t member-

ship organization of education-al institutions, businesses, and other entities devoted to the advancement of management education, the AACSB was established in 1916 by business schools of some of the most prominent American universi-ties, including Harvard, Yale and University of California, Berkeley.

Over nearly 100 years, the association has grown into the most renowned organiza-tion for business schools in the world.

So far, there are 727 mem-ber institutions with AACSB accreditation, and 48 countries and territories represented by AACSB-accredited schools, according to the organization’s offi cial website.

About 5 percent of the world’s business schools now

hold AACSB accreditation, but only 1 percent of business schools on the Chinese main-land are accredited, Yu said.

“I believe USTC is already a world-class university. We have an excellent reputation in physi-cal sciences and mathematics, while people may have never heard of USTC’s business school, namely, the school of manage-ment,” said Murray Sherk, a Canadian professor who has worked at USTC for 20 years.

In light of the accreditation’s status, USTC attached great importance to its application. “The leaders of the university and faculty of the school of management spared no eff ort in building the school accord-ing to AACSB’s standards and responded quickly at every stage,” Yu said.

The school offi cially began its application to the AACSB at the end of 2012. Sherk was assigned half-time to help the school apply for the

accreditation, assisted by the school’s entire faculty.

“After less than three years of hard work, we got it eventually, faster than we should have, so I’m very proud of us,” Sherk said.

“The experts from the AAC-SB said the usual process for accreditation may take five to seven years, while we got it done in just three years,” he said, adding that the asso-ciation’s evaluation process is rigorous.

“During this peer-review process, schools must show alignment with 15 global accreditation standards while demonstrating how they achieve success within each of the three pillars on which AACSB accreditation rests—engagement, innovation, and impact,” said Robert D. Reid, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International.

The time in which the USTC school gained accreditation

was the shortest of all the accredited business schools on the Chinese mainland, so it is expected to become an exam-ple for others that want to get accredited in the future.

“Suffi cient preparation and quick responses contributed to our success, while our own strengths in research and edu-cation also counted”, Yu said.

StrengthsThough it is only 20 years

old, USTC’s school of manage-ment has integrated education programs that cover every degree level at international standards, including under-graduate, master’s and PhD programs, and Master of Busi-ness Management, Executive Master of Business Adminis-tration and Executive Develop-ment Programs.

“Catching up with other top-notch business schools, part of our school’s own strength lies in quantitative analysis, through

which we have reached a lot of enlightenment on business administration,” said Yu, add-ing that teachers have pub-lished many quality papers in infl uential journals.

USTC is known for mul-tiple academic excellencies, especially for physical science, where a lot of innovative aca-demic achievements have been made. Many of these are ready to become products.

For example, the university has built the world’s fi rst quan-tum communications network and employs many world-class quantum scientists, including Pan Jianwei, the university’s vice-president.

High-level entrepreneurs and officials from across the country teach about 10 percent of the curriculum alongside cutting-edge scientists from the university.

“By asking scientists to teach some of the courses, we aim to give the students the most

farsighted options for fi nding possibilities to combine invest-ment with the most advanced scientifi c achievements,” said Yu, who is also president of the university’s Association of Young Scholars.

In recent years, the univer-sity, along with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Anhui provincial government and Hefei municipal government have been working to build a Silicon Valley-like high-tech park in Hefei, where the uni-versity is based.

To build such a park requires insight and great eff ort, and the school of management, with abundant alumni resources, is helping raise funds.

That is just a small part of how the school helps the com-munity. Currently in Anhui province, most local medium-sized enterprises and govern-ment departments have senior and intermediate executives and/or offi cials who are alum-ni of the school, according to information submitted to the AACSB.

After 20 years of develop-ment, the school has more than 10,000 alumni around not only the province and the country, but the world, including Wang Yang, China’s vice-premier, and Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier Group, one of the world’s larg-est home appliance makers and top 500 enterprises.

The MissionThe AACSB highlights the

mission of a business school when reviewing its qualifi ca-tions, and USTC’s school of management benefited from its clearly stated mission.

“Our mission is to generate ideas and tools to enrich man-agement theory and practice, to develop talents and leaders to serve China,” said Yu, add-ing that the mission is carefully formulated according to the school’s vision and the motto of USTC, which is “being both ethically sound and profession-ally competent, and integrating theory with practice”.

“We want to show that this school deserves to be in this world-class university”, Sherk said.

The school’s vision, as stat-ed in its application, is “to be nationally and internationally recognized as a fi rst-class busi-ness school in China, both in research and education”.

By ZHU LIXINzhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn

A school accredited by the Association to Advance Col-legiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) is looking to win the attention of more talented international business people.

At the School of Manage-ment of the University of Sci-ence and Technology of China (USTC), the number of inter-national business students has steadily risen since the school was established in 1995.

Currently, 43 international students from more than 10 countries are working towards degrees at the school.

Andrew Stotz, a 50-year-old American is one of them.

Prior to coming to USTC to do his PhD, Stotz was a stock analyst and businessman in Thailand.

After nearly two decades of work, Stotz was awarded the title of the top analyst in the country by Asiamoney maga-zine in 2008 and 2009 and the same in Greenwich Associates’ surveys. The following year he won the award for the second time in a Greenwich Associ-ates survey.

Stotz worked for several renowned securities compa-nies in Thailand, ran his own businesses and worked as a lecturer at more than a dozen Thai universities.

During his career in Thai-land, which spanned more than 20 years, Stotz never considered going to China for business or to study until 2009, when he met Lu Wei, a professor at USTC and Stotz’s

current academic supervisor.Lu recognized Stotz’s tal-

ent and professional achieve-ments and thus invited him to come to USTC to teach entre-preneurship and investment.

“I accepted his invitation after a couple of months. I learned from Lu that the insti-tution was important, while we also have to remember that it is people that attract people. This top Chinese university has so many professors who are engaging and reaching out to the new generation. That really makes a diff erence,” said Stotz.

“I look at my experience in

teaching myself, my objective is also to engage young peo-ple’s curiosity, in learning and in questioning. That’s what I want to help young people think about,” he added.

After a couple of years, Stotz decided to do his PhD at USTC. “Professor Lu told me that I had been doing really good research but I still needed some academic guid-ance and practice to make my papers more rigorous”, said Stotz, who has written sev-eral papers, mostly on stock analysis.

Patrick Woock, from Chi-cago, had a similar experience when he decided to study at the school, although he had a completely diff erent business background.

Born in 1969, Woock started in the insurance business in the United States at the age of 26 after he graduated from the University of Mississippi and bought his father’s company.

“Running a business is not easy and sometimes too diffi -cult at the beginning, but over time, it improves and slowly you get to know how to do better and eventually become very good at business and enjoy it,” said Woock, who ran the insurance fi rm for several years before selling it.

In 2002, when China joined the World Trade Organization, Woock decid-ed to embark on a new journey, which he thought would bring him more opportunities.

He founded an invest-ment company in China and invested in the country’s residential real estate sector.

He said this brought him returns of 1000 percent dur-ing the past 10 years. He also invested in a logistics compa-ny between 2005 and 2007, which expanded its sales to $5 million a year.

In 2009 Woock got involved in water recycling projects.

“In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, water resourc-es seem very limited and the expenses are often very high for large offi ce buildings or

hotels,” said Woock, who is optimistic about the recy-cling projects.

Woock’s company buys recycling equipment from China and Singapore and installs it for clients, who pay no money for the equipment but hand over a share of the money they save because of it.

“Woock has very good academic performance and he is also very successful at

running a businesses,” said Lu, who was in touch with Woock for some years before he invited him to come to study for his PhD at USTC in 2012.

As well as studying at USTC, Woock also works as an international entrepre-neurship teacher for younger graduates and undergradu-ate students, who speak high-ly of his willingness to share his skills.

“China’s international sta-tus, the universities’ academ-ic authority and the univer-sity’s seriousness in attracting international talents are the reason behind our success,” said Lu, academic supervisor to both Stotz and Woock.

“As well as improving mutual-trust and communi-cation, we are working hard to provide students with better added-value and job opportunities.”

The University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province provides top facilities for the students. PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Students dance under cherry trees at the University of Science and Technology of China. YANG XIAOPING / FOR CHINA DAILY

Business school attracts global candidates, welcomes more

This top Chinese university has so many professors who are engaging and reaching out to the new genera-tion.”Andrew Stotz, A PhD candidate at USTC

The AACSB ac-creditation is expected to help us build a truly internationally prominent busi-ness school.”Yu Yugang Executive Dean of school of management at USTC

AACSB accredi-tation expected to help school of management develop opportu-nities, Zhu Lixin reports from He-fei, Anhui province

USTC earns global business endorsement