On May 22, the University of Michigan- Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI) and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business announced the launch of the Michigan Ross Master of Management – Shanghai Cohort Program. A press conference was held at SJTU’s Xuhui campus. Attendees included Michigan Ross’ Dean Alison Davis-Blake and Associate Dean for Global Initiatives M.S. Krishnan, JI’s Dean Peisen Huang, Honorary Dean Jun Ni, Party Secretary Xinwan Li, and Richard Rogel, Chairman of JI’s Development AdvisoryBoard.
The Michigan Ross Master of Management – Shanghai Cohort is a 4+1 program targeting recent JI engineering graduates. The program begins in July, where students take business prerequisite courses at JI before joining Michigan Ross’ Master of Management (MM) Program for nine months in Ann Arbor. The students will then return to JI to conclude the one-year program with a summer semester of action-packed capstone project, supervised by Ross faculty, at a multinational corporation based in Shanghai. At graduation, students will earn a Ross’ Master degree of Management, having learned management skills on top of a solid engineering foundation.
As a model of international education, JI has been engaged in broadening students’ global vision. JI has had international exchange with an extensive network of universities, such as UM, University of Maryland, Erlangen – Nuremberg University in Germany, Johannes Kepler University of Linz in Austria, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. The new partnership with UM Ross, based on a track record of JI-UM collaboration, is a new territory on the pursuit.
Dean Peisen Huang is enthusiastic about the new program. “The Michigan Ross and JI partnership is not only international but also interdisciplinary, a pilot training model crossing engineering and business. It is an innovative exploration on cultivating multinational and multidisciplinary talents. Both parties are confident in the success of our collaboration.”
Dean Alison Davis-Blake emphasized the significance of the new partnership. “As a global business school, partnerships such as this are key to providing a world-class business education and giving our students direct experience in the global economy. This new partnership will benefit Michigan Ross and SJTU by broadening international engagement for our students and faculty and providing a truly unique, cross-disciplinary educational experience for the JI students to leverage their engineering experience with business fundamentals.”
University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is one of America’s top business schools, prestigious in the academics of business and management. Ross Business School is distinguished for her revolutionary management philosophy, overall academic strengths, and “teamwork, combat-oriented” high-impact teaching model. It has been ranked as one of the ten best business schools in the United States by Business Week and US News & World Report for many years. It scores the highest by the Business Week in their MBAs’ “analytical skills,” “teamwork skills,” and “global vision.” According to the 2015 US News & World Report, the UM Ross School of Business is ranked the fourth among all American management schools.
There has been a long history of collaboration between the Joint Institute and the University of Michigan. JI is Ross School of Business’ first Chinese university partner. This new partnership is a step up based on the ten-year Strategic Collaboration Agreement signed between JI and UM, aiming to promote interdisciplinary training of global innovative talents with engineering and management background.
Since the recruitment for this new program kicked off in March, four JI students have been admitted and will go to UM in September to start the Master of Management (MM) program.
