The Fuqua School of Business is expanding its Cross-Continent MBA program to include an Asian component through a wide-ranging partnership with Seoul National University.
The Asian partnership marks one of the most visible developments in the two-year tenure of Dean Douglas Breeden and represents a continued emphasis on global education at Fuqua.
The agreement, for which a letter of intent was signed last week, will include Seoul National's College of Business Administration in the Cross-Continent program, allow for up to four Seoul MBA students to transfer to Fuqua's daytime MBA program, permit two Seoul doctoral students to study at Duke and create a role for customized executive education for Korean-based firms through Duke Corporate Education.
"It's going to make the Cross-Continent program much stronger and it will make it much more like our [Global Executive MBA] program," Breeden said, referring to the program aimed at senior executives that covers four different continents. "This will take it more in that flavor and give a more truly global education to the Cross-Continent program."
The alliance marks a shift in international strategy for Fuqua. When the business school launched its Frankfurt, Germany campus in 1999, it did so on its own, without a partner university in Europe.
The 20-month Cross-Continent MBA program, which Fuqua also initiated in 1999, attracts students who attend eight weekly sessions in both Durham and in Frankfurt, Germany, at Fuqua's European campus. Students, who remain in their jobs during the program, fulfill the rest of the course of study through distance learning via the Internet.
Currently, two sections of the program are based in Durham and on the Frankfurt campus, which admits students from Germany and the rest of Europe. Breeden said the partnership will create another section for 2003 that will admit about 30 to 35 Asian students and that starting for next year's classes, will include Seoul in all of the other sections.
"It opens up all kind of possibilities," said Michael Lawless, associate professor of the practice of management, who has taught courses in the Cross-Continent program. "I don't know the depth of the current student body or future Fuqua students in the Pacific Rim, but I would say this is a really important time to be gaining a knowledge base about what's going on over there."
In another aspect of the agreement, Blair Sheppard, CEO of Duke Corporate Education, said that the for-profit, customized executive education Fuqua spin-off business would help both Seoul National set up an executive program of its own in Korea, and be able to provide resources to Korean businesses with interests in the United States. Furthermore, Sheppard added that if Duke CE has a base in Asia, it can not only attract Korean clients of its own but become more attractive to U.S. and other clients with Asian interests.
"We have a set of clients who need the depth and expertise in Asian-related issues, so we've been looking for a place to work with for a while. We have clients located in Asia and so we need a place to do that."
Sheppard added that the new revenue from Asia could boost the company's by between 5 to 10 percent.
A release on the new partnership added that discussions are under way concerning expansion of the Seoul-based program into a joint- or dual-degree program, but noted that administrators had not yet reached an agreement.
Breeden did not rule out the possibility of further expansion in the future, and pointed to ongoing discussions with Peking University in China. He cautioned, however, that any major additional international expansion would not come this year, or likely even next year. Next week, however, Breeden is traveling to Latin America-the first such trip for a Fuqua dean, he said.
"But I think this is all for right now," he said. "We feel like we're really getting things going in Asia. I could see in three or four years, we could want to go to Latin America or work with a school in Europe."
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