Melbourne Business School opens headquarters in Malaysia
THE Melbourne Business School sets up its first international headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of a bid to strengthen ties between the school and its Asian partners. Stephen Clarke reports.
The prestigious tertiary institution Melbourne Business School (MBS) has opened its first international headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this year.
MBS, which celebrates its 50th anniversary of its graduate programs this year, is repeatedly ranked in the top one per cent of Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs worldwide, while also consistently topping the ranking of MBA and Executive Education provider in Australia.
The headquarters’ opening – which Professor Zeger Degraeve, the Dean of MBS, described as a “new chapter in our future” – is a strengthening of ties between the school and its Asian partners, where 12 per cent of the school’s total client base comes from.
“We already have a strong Asian student base but we are expecting it to grow in tandem with the region’s economic expansion and activity,” Professor Degraeve said.
“MBS has witnessed the growing need for talent in Asia that can think strategically, execute strategy and effectively analyse opportunities and threats.”
Nearly 25 per cent of the MBS faculty and 20 per cent of its students come from Asia.
MBS has already been working with and delivering Executive Education programs for key partners in the region for two decades. Their partners include Malaysian clients Petronas and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
With China expected to become the world’s largest economy by 2020 and India rising up the global economic scale, the need for educated business leaders who can think on a global scale is increasingly called for in the Asia-Pacific region.
With the impending signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement this year, which aims to eliminate tariffs and others barriers to trade and investment in the region, the future of business in Asia looks to be one of an upward trend.