Business Graduate Programs Focused on International Exposure

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Tiếng Việt

Business Graduate Programs Focused on International Exposure

Students enrolled in RMIT Vietnam’s graduate business programs can expect many opportunities to broaden their educational experience through international professors and courses.

Associate Professor David Robinson, Head of Post Graduate Programs, says the programs are building on their base of Vietnamese post-graduate students to bring in more overseas students.

“That’s a huge benefit for local students as well when they start mixing with internationals in the classroom,” he says.

A major aspect of the internationalisation of the MBA, as well as the Executive MBA (EMBA) and Master in International Business (MIB) programs, are lecturers from overseas.

“They come and they bring their experience from America, New Zealand, Australia, the UK and South Africa, and the students really enjoy that,” Robinson says.

The concept of visiting professors was new to RMIT Vietnam when the postgraduate business programs first introduced it two years ago.

“There were all sorts of obstacles to overcome, but since we cracked that formula it’s been great,” Robinson says.

“By the end of 2016 we had 51 courses taught by visiting professors.”

Three different overseas study programs also offer international experience to students in the three business tracks. One is a partnership with IPADA Business School in Mexico City, a prominent university built on the Harvard model.

Robinson explains that “this happens twice a year for one week and we give our students the opportunity to apply for that. If they go there’s no course fee…that’s very popular, and we’re now on our fourth visit.”

In the second semester of each school year students can also apply for a trip to study the economy of a selected country and compare it to Vietnam, or their home country. In 2015 the trip took students to Israel, while last year featured South Korea and this year will likely cover South Africa.

RMIT Vietnam Business Postgraduate students were on a study tour to South Korea in July 2016.

The third overseas study option involves students going abroad to take a subject at one of RMIT Vietnam’s partner universities.

Dr Trung Nguyen, MIB Programme Manager, emphasises the university’s efforts to involve business students in both the local and international business arenas.

“We’ve been engaging a lot more with just the business community here,” he shares.

“We’ve been presenting our research at conferences and our students have gone around the world to work with other international partners on study tours and things like that.”

The ultimate goal, Robinson and Dr Nguyen agree, is to create a business program for more than just Vietnam.

“We want to expand to a truly Asian graduate program,” Dr Nguyen says.

Story: Michael Tatarski

Business and management

03 March 2017