Guided by Higher Education Division of Gansu Provincial Education Department, hosted by Association of MBAs (AMBA) and Silk-Road Entrepreneurship Education Network (SREEN) and co-hosted by School of Management, Lanzhou University (LUSM), the Business Graduates Association (BGA) Pilot Meeting of Economic and Management Schools/Universities in Gansu Province was held in room 204 of LUSM on April 13th. Professor Zhongming Wang, chief of AMBA in China, senior professor of Zhejiang University, Mr. George Iliev, Director of Emerging Markets of AMBA, Xiaodong Zhang, director of Higher Education Division of Gansu Provincial Education Department attended the meeting together with 18 delegates. Delegates are from Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, Northwest Minzu University, Gansu Agricultural University and Gansu Political Science and Law Institute. Professor Zhongming WANG hosted the meeting.

Professor Guoxian Bao, honorary dean of LUSM pointed out in his speech at the meeting that internationalization is of great importance in helping schools to achieve rapid growth, leapfrog development and sustained progress in western China, which is closely related to the construction of the "World-class Universities and World-class Disciplines" proposed by the Ministry of Education. LUSM actively engaged in international accreditation, it has the obligation and experience to support and promote the BGA accreditation on economic and management schools/universities in Gansu Province. What’s more, as one of the bases of SREEN, LUSM will play a vital role of exploring, innovating and leading to improve the quality of education and teaching in the operation and exploration of the demonstration base. With the measures taken, LUSM will make contributions to strengthening exchanges, communication and discussion with Economic and Management Schools/Universities, improving the quality of education and teaching, promoting the economic development and rising the quality of corporate management in Gansu Province.

In his speech, Professor Zhongming Wang emphasized that BGA pays attention to students’ capacity building and will focus on social skills training. Then, Professor Zhongming Wang started with the establishment and development of BGA, introduced BGA pilot plan and accreditation process mainly around the future  development trends of “how can accreditation drives innovation”, “building global business school education network”, “how can MBA meets employer’s expectations”, and “MBA entrepreneurship education”. What’s more, Professor Wang also invited delegates to participate the seminar themed “Silk Road Entrepreneurship 2050” which will be held at the end of April. Professor Wang pointed out that the pilot will strengthen international and domestic cooperation and exchanges for economic and management schools/universities based on the platform of international entrepreneurship education provided by AMBA and BGA, and will comprehensively improve the quality of entrepreneurship education in Gansu Province.

Mr. George Iliev, director of Emerging Markets of AMBA, said that AMBA’s mission is to help business schools improve their education quality. At present, the trend of global business has seen great changes and 226 schools in more than 70 countries were accredited by AMBA. Mr. Iliev pointed out that BGA is a membership organization, economic and management schools/universities should clear their development direction, root deeply in local and vigorously strengthen their discipline and specialty. Secondly, with the vigorous development of AI, “soft skills” have become more and more important, business schools should pay more attention to the cultivation of students’ abilities on leadership, communication and problem solving, etc. In addition, AMBA encourages business schools clarify their own uniqueness, make it thrive, and achieve resource sharing and cooperation on the platform of international accreditation.

During discussion session, all the participants exchanged their ideas on the relationship between BGA and AMBA, the scope and criteria of accreditation and the requirements that BGA placed on school’s construction. Deans and directors from 6 universities introduced the preparations for the meeting and plans and arrangements for the future work.

Xiaodong Zhang, director of Higher Education Division of Gansu Provincial Education Department, pointed out in his concluding remark that Gansu Provincial Education Department will strongly support the cooperation between universities, especially at the school level, and will encourage schools to gather strength to carry out discussion on school-running methods, personnel training and discipline development. International accreditation is a new trend advocated by our nation and participated by schools. It is also a dynamic process to improve schools’ quality and level through process management. It is hoped that by participating in accreditation, we can conform to the international trend and promote the management discipline heading to international. Universities and schools in Gansu Province should mobilize enthusiasm from all aspects to support and ensure the effectiveness of accreditation, so as to improve the level of school management. In addition, it is suggested that to establish the Management Education and Instruction Commission and Alliance Economic and Management Schools/Universities in Gansu Province to explore the reform and development of education and teaching, and to form a mutual credit selection and recognition agreement. It is hoped that under the leading of Lanzhou University and the participation of relevant universities and schools, new breakthroughs will be made in management education , teaching, personnel training and discipline construction in Gansu Province.

The holding of BGA Pilot Meeting will build a platform for the internationalization of Economic and Management Schools/Universities in Gansu Province, and will help our work on discipline construction, curriculum upgrading, international exchange and cooperative research in our province.

1-Discussion

2-Speech delivered by Prof. Guoxian Bao 

3-Speech delivered by Prof. Zhongming Wang

4-Speech delivered by Mr. George Ilev

5-Speech delivered by Director Xiaodong Zhang

6-Group photo