Dean Wang Fan丨Innovation and Integration, Breaking the Homogeneity of Traditional Business Education

At present, artificial intelligence, 5G and big data have played a huge role in transforming the traditional business environment and business decision-making. Therefore, MBA programs need to integrate with technology, humanities, finance, economy and other disciplines in different dimensions, which is also the trend. In this regard, MBAChina and Manager Magazines recently had joint interview with Professor Wang Fan, Dean of our school.

No Fear of Competition, Stick to the Brand Differentiation

The past has been remarkable, yet the future is especially promising. As the Dean, Wang Fan has made careful thinking about the future development direction of the school. In his view, how to make the MBA better adapt to China's future development is the biggest challenge in school thinking." The differences between universities and school, the differences between domestic MBA and other countries and regions are both worth exploring and thinking about."

Dean Wang Fan believes, “We need to make some new attempts in terms of faculty, program setting, cultivation links, etc., in order to complete the new reform of differentiation between schools, regions and even countries."

Integrate Business Education with Multiple Disciplines

The School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University has made many attempts to "integrate" and made changes in the programs, So that students can better adapt to social development. Under such a program system, every MBA student can follow his/her own interests and career planning to discover and select one or two helpful programs to focus on, so that he/she can be more adaptable to future development.

Dean Wang Fan explained that the ultimate goal of the school is to carry out a series of targeted reforms and innovations from multiple dimensions, such as from the program setting to the entire cultivation method and system.

Re-exploring the "Teaching and Learning" of MBA under the Epidemic

Dean Wang Fan and his team have made great efforts to explore how to make online teaching better than traditional teaching, instead of simply being supplement or substitute. With online teaching, their classes have realized online interaction and topic discussion between students and faculties, which's convenient for students to communicate with each other and for faculties to observe students at any time. During this process, the management of school has also gained a lot: "We found that many young and middle-aged faculties are very good at teaching on the Internet, and the school will vigorously cultivate them in this area to gradually become the new backbone of MBA teaching."

The Future "Has Risen and Is Taking Shape"

"The development and positioning of the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University is closely related to this. It is necessary to give full play to the innovative development advantages established by the country since the reform and opening up." Dean Wang Fan believes that the school still needs to innovate and try in many aspects, invest in new elements, and create new brand labels, "More resources will be invested in brand building in the future."

Dean Wang Fan assumes that the mainstream, emerging and exploration directions will constitute the development characteristics of the school's MBA. For the future, the momentum has risen and is taking shape.

"To innovate, to subvert, to help peers and partners to grow together in collaboration." Looking forward, Dean Wang Fan hopes to help more MBA projects grow, realize the healthy development of the entire MBA market, and to enable the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University to take advantage of the innovation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to play a greater role in global business education.