The Western dean of a business school in Shanghai

Interesting article on Chinese efforts to acquire "education software" from western universities. Their efforts will be limited by reason of their desire to limit " freedom of speech and freedom of thought in graduates taught by western professors, unless the professors bow to Communist "guardians". Interesting to see what happens.

An honorable effort on the part of China Europe International Business School and Mr. Quelch in international business management should not be ridiculed. It's not done.

So if someone from China becomes a dean in the western business school, what does that mean?

Oops, does that happen? Hmm...

What's he going to teach that the Chinese won't like? The Chinese government is not some collection of Soviet apparatchiks insisting that their economy is the best in the world while people line up for shoes. They run a business friendly environment and he's a business friendly guy.

Of course, he's going to have a Chinese co dean if for no other reason than he can't speak Mandarin. Jiao Tong University was established by missionaries in the imperial era and is state run because all universities in China are state run. The way they use these facts to imply secret Chinese government puppeteering is laughable.

Unless one of those case studies is a mandarin language treatise on Tibetan freedom, the government will ignore him while he does his job.

I thought Confuscious knew everything about human society, including how to make a quick hard buck. Don't we have all these Confucius Institutes now teaching the rest of us how to appreciate the depth of ancient Chinese wisdom? Who cares about "fuzzy MBA degrees with soft skills"!

There is no end to improving and educating oneself by taking in the best practices from any part of the world.

It is debatable that the Chinese can learn too much from the West in relation to business. The US-centric nature of management education, as illustrated by "Executive" MBA programs has been plunged into disrepute in recent years. The GFC has demonstrated that western corporate management and its systems are feckless and lacking a moral compass. The involvement of Rupert Murdoch in this tale only serves to reinforce any skepticism that one might harbor towards this venture.

Is it a kind of subtle comment to use a picture of Alexander the Great at the head of this piece? Because according to the fine BBC 'history of the world in 100 objects' this particular image was used not on Alexander's own coins but on one minted long after his death! Something about the power of brands even after death?!

@livefromCA2

Look to the University of Notre Dame's business school with Dean Woo.

This article reads like a press release. Also, "The Western dean of a business school in Shanghai" makes it sound unique. If the economist did its homework it would recognize that the last dean of CEIBS was a westerner, as was the dean before that, and the dean before that. .. What is so special about the situation now that the "western-ness" of the dean is relevant?

Shoddy reporting 10 years behind.

Would someone please inform me what the Macedonian coin with Alexander the Great's head signifies posted next to the title on "Teaching case studies in China" in the print edition? The question transcends the current article as I have seen it many times in other articles of the print edition. As a minimum could I at least know who might be able to inform me?

@Hellene
It the badge for our "Face Value" series, which are profiles of interesting business people