With all the depressing news on the global economic front, there might not be a better time to start an MBA on the mainland. Or at least that's the word from students enrolled in International MBA programmes at Tsinghua and Peking universities in Beijing.
Many, like Jeff Chien, 25, a first-year student in the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, are betting on an economic upturn.
'The rules are going to be entirely different two years from now,' said Mr Chien, a Taiwan-born, California-raised student who comes to the MBA with a background in finance. 'Here we can brainstorm how these new frameworks will operate and how we'll play the game under these new rules. I feel like during every crisis there's an opportunity.'
Raymond Cheng, 29, a first-year student on the International MBA programme at Tsinghua University who worked in finance in New York, has similar thoughts. 'I consider myself lucky to kind of take myself out of that environment,' said Mr Cheng. 'I feel a bit more secluded here.'
But the foreign MBA students in Beijing really aren't there to dodge the economic tsunami. They are there because they see the importance of China as a major economic power and they want to better understand how to do business in China first-hand. Some are fresh off the plane and others already have some China experience.
In 2003, Michael Frechette, a 37-year-old second-year student on the Tsinghua MBA programme, went to the mainland thinking he might stay one year. Five years later, he's married to a Chinese native and fully set on making his life there.
