Sharing the emerging educational market in China: Cross‐border EMBA programmes in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose

During the past two decades, China has been rapidly rising in nearly every aspect. With the growing prominence of economic prosperity in China, numerous multinational corporations and companies across the globe have entered this vast market in order to benefit from this enlarging economy. This development also creates an emerging market in China to educate senior managers of these transnational firms in the form of cross‐border partnerships among regional universities. The EMBA programme, a more internationally oriented educational product, is thriving in the Greater China Area. This study aims to examine how universities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are partnering with other institutions in order to deliver collaborative EMBA programmes for this educational market.

Design/methodology/approach

The article uses case study as research approach by selecting ten famous cross‐border EMBA programs from elite universities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan for analysis.

Findings

The result shows that distinctive patterns of organisational behaviour are present in terms of how selective universities in Greater China organise their cross‐border EMBA programmes. By combining abundant academic resources with their partners, Chinese institutions aim to enhance their programme reputation and mainly serve the territorial needs of executive managers within China. Hong Kong, serving a bridging role, is inclined to cooperate with leading universities in Western countries and attract all kinds of students across the globe, including Chinese ones. Alternatively, Taiwanese universities cooperate with major universities or institutions in China in order to serve the needs of Taiwanese businessmen in China instead of Chinese nationals or foreign students. These different approaches indicate a labour division among universities in these three societies, with China targeting primarily the domestic market, Hong Kong aiming at the global market, and Taiwan seeking to serve its country's population.

Originality/value

The different approaches employed by universities reveal how neighbouring societies react to the rise of China respectively. The uneven division of universities among these three societies might to some extent reflect the concepts of “centre” and “periphery” developed by Philip G. Altbach.

Citation

Chan, S. and Chang, F. (2013), "Sharing the emerging educational market in China: Cross‐border EMBA programmes in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan", Asian Education and Development Studies, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 112-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/20463161311321402