Students at the Lingnan College at Zhongshan University in southern China will be able to receive executive MBA degrees from the University thanks to a joint-degree program set to begin in 2001.
David Kidwell, Carlson School of Management dean, signed an agreement in Guangzhou on Thursday, establishing the program to train Chinese students to become middle- and upper-level managers.
“There’s a lot of excitement about this in China,” said Mary Kosir, associate director of international programs at the Carlson School. “The Carlson School, as a result of its partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe, is really looked upon as a leader in working in countries in transition.”
The Lingnan program is the third Carlson-sponsored executive MBA program abroad. The management school already has programs with the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland and the Vienna University of Business and Economics in Austria.
Like the Warsaw program, the Lingnan program will be team-taught. All courses will be instructed in English.
About 15 Carlson School faculty will travel to China to help teach the courses. Chinese faculty will receive training in the United States before the program begins.
The two-year program will comprise 15 three-credit courses and two one-and-a-half credit courses. One course will require students to live outside China.
“The curriculum is actually the same as our Carlson executive MBA program,” Kosir said.
Courses will include financial accounting, business strategy, marketing management and ethics and leadership.
Chinese students wishing to participate in the program must meet the following requirements:
ù hold a bachelor’s degree;
ùpass the Graduate Management Admission Test and Test of English as a Foreign Language;
ù have at least five years of professional management or other significant experience;
ù present a resume, write a personal essay, take a personal admission examination and interview with the administrators.
Kidwell and professor Mahmood Zaidi are representing the Carlson School during University President Mark Yudof’s 16-day-visit to China that began June 19.

Robert Koch welcomes comments at [email protected].