Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 42

Second International Symposium on Business Corporation and Development in South-East and South Asia under B&R Initiative (ISBCD 2017)

Research on the Characteristics of Overseas Schools

Run by Chinese Universities in the Background of
"the Belt and Road"
—Take Bangkok Business School of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics as an
Example

Li Zhifei
Li Hongmin* International Cooperation & Exchange Office
Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, YUFE
International Cooperation & Exchange Office
Kunming, China
Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, YUFE
lizhifei1115@126.com
Kunming, China
bizlynn@hotmail.com

Abstract—Overseas education of colleges and universities is a and universities.

new creator when the internationalization of high education in
one country reaches a certain level. In China, it is an important The concept of "overseas school-running activities" as
form of the "going out" policy in higher education, and one of the mentioned in this paper refers to such a scenario that colleges
important ways to enhance the level of internationalization as and universities take mainland China as the boundary, set up
well. As a school innovation product in the internationalization of educational institutions with overseas citizens as main target
China's higher education in the new period of running, the most students or take other forms to implement education and
important problems to be solved by overseas educational teaching activities, and carry out higher education, degree
institutions include how to deal with the fast speed of higher education or non-academic higher education independently or
education internationalization trend, how to deal with the new through cooperation with overseas educational institutions or
situation that participating in competition among international other social organizations possessing the status of a legal
universities and colleges, and how to make efforts to innovate and person and accredited by the government of the countries
develop, show the characteristics, and take the road of (regions) where they are located [5]. As of July 2016, Chinese
sustainable development. Taking Bangkok Business School of universities have established a total of five overseas
Yunnan University of Finance and Economics as an example, on educational institutions and 98 programs distributed within 14
the basis of the analysis of the main methods of cultivating countries and regions [7]. Generally, China's overseas school-
characteristics of running schools, the paper analyzes the main
running activity is still in infantile stage. Either the number or
practical problems facing by such overseas institutions when
the scale of the exsiting institutions and programs is small, and
creating its own competive school-running characteristics, and
then discusses the routing selections. the overall development level is reletively low. There are
many development issues remain to be solved.
Keywords—overseas school running; school characteristics; On April 16, 2013, Yunnan University of Finance and
practical problems; routing selection; Bangkok Business School Economics (YUFE) signed a cooperation agreement with
Rangsit University, Thailand, and decided to team up for the
I. INTRODUCTION establishment of Bangkok Business School (BBS), YUFE in
With the development of the world economic globalization, Bangkok, Thailand. Approved by the China Ministry of
internationalization of higer education becomes a key trend. It Education on December 31, 2013, BBS has become China’s
is significant that a country or a region expands its educational third overseas education institution and also the unique
opening-up and strenthen its educational international education institution with record of formal schooling and
communication and exchange under such a circumstance. academic degree approved for establishment in Thailand. By
China's overseas school-running activities can be dated back relying on the campus and the existing hardware facilities of
to the late part of the twentieth century. Along with China's Rangsit University as the program base, principals from both
growing comprehensive national power and sustained universities attended the inauguration ceremony for BBS at
deepening and expanding of education internationalization, Rangsit University in July 2014, symbolizing the formal
higher education in China has quickened the pace of "going establishment of this school and commencement of enrollment.
global", while continuing to get done with the "inviting in" By the end of 2016, a total of 110 non-Chinese undergraduate
strategy, the enthusiasm of carrying out overseas school- students had been enrolled[8]. After nearly three years of
running activities is significantly improved among colleges development since its inception, BBS takes the construction
of characteristics as its work centrolity and the strategic way
* Corresponding author .

Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 172
 Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 42

to improve the competitiveness of the institution. Now it estate, equipment and other large fixed assets during the
becomes a typical case in the cooperation in school-running construction process, Rangsit University, the Thailand partner,
between domestic and foreign universities and plays a certain was relied on in terms of utilizing its existing school-running
positive role in promoting international exchanges of Chinese conditions and advantages in source of students, sharing
higher education and opening wider to the outside world under relevant school-running facilities, and rapid entry into the
the Belt & Road Initiave. Based on the BBS’s experience, this implementation stage of school-running program through
paper analyzes the problems facing by such overseas integration of resources and aversion of risks. In this way, the
institutions when creating their own competive school-running "YUFE model" of overseas school-running activity was
characteristics. And several suggestions for the improvement successfully explored.
of overseas school-running activities and reinforcement of
school-running characteristics are proposed. B. Disciplines and specialties
Discipline and specialty construction with characteristics is
II. MAIN PRACTICES OF BBS TO FOSTER ITS SCHOOL not only the key to the development of a university, but also
CHARACTERISTICS an index to measure the quality and level of one. We can say,
School characteristics refers to " the distinct characteristics the preponderant discipline of a university is where its
formed in the institutions of higher education in the long comparative characteristic lies.
process of running which adapt to the social and economic At present, such problems as small school-running scale,
development, conforms to the education law of development, relatively single disciplines and specialties exist in the
and benefit its own survival and development[2]. Cultivating overseas school-running programs of Chinese colleges and
school characteristics is an important part of educational universities and most disciplines and specialties do not meet
development and the main embodiment of education's high the highest international levels except that traditional Chinese
quality development[6]. It is believed in the Scheme for the medicine & acupuncture, Chinese language & culture, martial
Assessment on Undergraduate Teaching of Higher- arts & sports and other traditional disciplines and specialties
Educational Universities/Colleges (Trial) issued by the China possessing obvious advantages that can not be replaced by
Ministry of Education that the characteristics of a other countries. The setup of discipline serves as an important
university/college are embodied in the following four levels: link that realizes the docking of overseas school-running
(1) the general principle of management, the idea and theme of institutions with the socio-economic development of targeted
running; (2) features on education, the education model, the countries of prospective students and ensures the personnel
talent feature; (3) the characteristics of teaching -- the course training to meet the social needs of such countries. At the time
system, the teaching method and the solution of important of establishing overseas institutions, whether it is possible to
questions in teaching reform; (4) the characteristics of insist on the demand-led principle, focus a keen sight on
teaching management -- scientific and advanced teaching overseas market, actively adapt to the demands of overseas
management system and operation mechanism, etc. market, create famous disciplines with innovative thinking,
As prescribed by the definition of MOE China, BBS had create disciplines having zero distance with the market and
made attempts and practices as follow: highlight the advantages and characteristics of their own is
directional matters of determining whether such institutions
can meet the social needs.
A. School-running pattern
Different to the establishment of branch schools in other During the initial planning of BBS, full considerations are
regions within Mainland China, colleges and universities have given to the actual conditions of economic and social
to undertake high financial risks in the process of setting up development in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
overseas institutions. It is expressly stipulated in China's Positioning at the cultivation of international professionals (for
current fiscal policy that public colleges and universities are students from Southeast Asia and South Asia countries and
not allowed to invest in running schools in foreign regions & regions) in finance, law and other fields with the possibility of
countries. Most of the funding required for running schools in obtaining undergraduate and master's degrees of China, and
foreign regions & countries depends on the collection of social satisfaction of the needs of Thailand and other South Asia and
funds. In this case, if the school funding can not be guaranteed, Southeast Asian countries for highly qualified business
colleges and universities are likely to be faced with huge professionals, YUFE's outstanding disciplines of finance &
losses, and even forced to terminate overseas school-running investment and ASEAN international trade law are optimized
programs. Foreign counterparts have experienced a lot of such as the first batches of pilot disciplines, by which source of
lessons. For example, the branch school of UNSW (University students in southeast and South Asian countries are absorbed,
of New South Wales) in Singapore only lasted for two months, and the dilemma of cross-border enrollment are quickly
and a total loss of US$38 million was caused. The branch surmounted.
school of MSU (Michigan State University) in Dubai has lost
several millions of U.S. dollars and stopped enrolling C. Teaching staffs
undergraduates since 2010. It remains uncertain whether this It is crutial for running a university to have a batch of
school will continue to operate[7]. Based on the above teachers of high quality. The characteristics of disciplines and
conditions and experiences, ideas and methods complying specialties are mostly formed by the features of their teachers.
with the actual situation of YUFE were adopted in the Awaring this, BBS gets the utmost out of the teachers from
construction of BBS. That is, instead of investing in land, real two parties. Relying on its 17-year international school-

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running experiences and 6 Sino-foreign cooperatively-run guaranteed the operation and management of the institution,
education programs, YUFE has created a team proficient in and provided important conditions for the exploration of
English teaching, international negotiation, program planning, management mechanism featured with Sino-foreign
operation & management and other aspects, and staffs in this integration. In the school management committee, there are
team possess a solid professional foundation and rich practical three members from YUFE, and the remaining three come
experiences, which enables the teaching staffs of BBS to from Rangsit University. All these staffs are senior
possess obvious internationalization characteristics, and management personnel from their respective universities and
guarantee the accomplishment of overseas school running with preside over teaching and foreign affairs. The director of the
quality assured in terms of teaching and management activities. management committee is assumed by a member appointed by
the Chinese side, and the deputy director is assumed by a
D. Teaching and assessment member appointed by the Thailand side. The management
First of all, students enrolled by BBS are strictly managed committee holds a conference at least once a year. In addition
according to the requirements of YUFE and Rangsit to summarizing the previous work and progress of the school,
University. After enrollment, students have to register at both it also organizes discussions about major adjustments and
universities at the same time and their information will be plans of the school and also makes arrangements for the next
entered into China Higher-education Student Information phase of work.
(chsi.com.cn) for students' registration management. Through In addition, the two universities have revised the talent
the double registration, students may choose to study in training program and implementation plan for various
Bangkok during the entire studies, or go to the headquarters of specialties, determined the curriculum setting, implementation
YUFE for 1-3 academic years as exchange students and the plan, teaching plan and teaching program, drafted the teaching
credit transfer can be easily realized. quality monitoring system for teacher selection & recruitment,
Secondly, the training program, teaching outline, teaching classroom teaching assessment, teaching process supervision,
plan and curriculum system for various majors at BBS are teaching effect assessment and other requirements for overseas
jointly formulated by teachers from both sides, and graduation school-running activities, prepared the teaching manuals for
theses are also jointly instructed and reviewed by teachers overseas students, and laid down the credit swaps, reciprocal
from both sides. Core curriculums are taught and assessed by exchange programs for teachers and other operation &
YUFE's teachers accredited to Bangkok, while the qualified management mechanisms, so as to ensure the smooth
teachers for remaining curriculums are determined by both implementation of the school-running program.
sides. The establishment of the management committee and
Third, BBS actively explores the orderly quality assurance corresponding operating mechanisms has provided important
mechanism under the premise that there is no complete system institutional mechanisms for the exertion of respective
for assessing the overseas school-running quality. Until now, advantages and integrated innovation on both sides. Based on
it has established the teaching quality monitoring system for the exertion of hardware resources and daily management
teacher selection & recruitment, classroom teaching advantages in Thailand, the Chinese side is bold enough to
assessment, teaching process supervision and teaching effect realize the outputs of YUFE's advanced specialties, teaching
assessment, conducted quality self-assessments of the BBS resources and teaching staffs, and further promote the
program according to the respective internal assessment realization of such strategic objective as enabling BBS to
systems, and strengthened the internal supervision. At the become a high-level university of finance & economy with
same time, BBS is also annually reviewed by the Ministry of certain educational influence and competitiveness in South
Education of Thailand. Following the establishment of and Southeast Asia.
overseas school-running quality assessment system formulated
by the Ministry of Education of the People ’ s Republic of III. MAIN PROBLEMS FOR OVERSEAS INSTITUTIONS CREATING
China, the Chinese-side will also receive corresponding CHARACTERISTICS
assessment, so as to ensure the teaching quality. In terms of the present state of development of BBS,
creating characteristics is facing many difficulties and
E. Management and operation mechanism problems, which is mainly reflected in professional disciplines,
Based on the full integration of management experiences faculty, the school system and mechanism, etc.
and wisdom of YUFE and Thailand Rangsit University, and
under the supervision of the management committee jointly A. Disciplines
established by both sides, BBS has established the training At present, the discipline construction and professional
mode, management method, communication & consultation setting of BBS are mainly based on the schools of the parent
and assessment mechanism for the cooperative program, and university. Some of YUFE ’ s existing advantagous subjects
one department head has been respectively designated from and majors are selected. This is the pillar of the school and its
both China and Thailand for the organization and inevitable choice in the initial stage. But in the long run, the
implementation. The establishment of the management "copy" model is not conducive to formation of the school’s
committee has effectively avoided such unfavorable situations own characteristic subjects and majors, which is even likely to
as lack of coordination and relatively scattered in the previous
cause the imbalance in the supply and demand of teachers and
programs of cooperative running of schools, effectively talents.

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B. Faculty participation. All the work should be developed harmoniously,

BBS has not yet established a relatively stable full-time e.g. to engage in various forms of cooperation and
faculty but is entirely dependent on its parent university. Due communication with countries along the line and focus on
to the lack of its own stable characteristic faculty, many major perfecting the modern university system, innovative talent
events related to the construction of the school only relies on training mode, improve the overseas students’ quality, and
the parent university, e.g. the construction of disciplines and optimize the foreign cooperation in running schools[4]. That
majors, and the revise of personnel cultivating program, etc. same year when the Ministry of Education formulated the
The teaching content, teaching method, the examination “Action Pushing forward the Joint Construction of the ‘Belt &
method and so on also do not get rid of the passive situation of Road”, the Ministry of Education signed a memorandum of
copying the parent university, which greatly restricts the international cooperation with eight provinces (areas), Gansu,
implementation and the formation of characteristics in the Ningxia, Fujian, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan,
overseas institution. Xinjiang, thus the education opening to the outside world is
the focus of the "the Belt and Road" strategy and the 13th
C. School-running system Five-year plan. Through the practical experience of BBS, we
believe that the establishment of a overseas institution should
So far, although organically combining with partner conform to the needs of the state and local economic and
Thailand Rangsit University, the school system and social development, and actively serve the national
mechanism of the Bangkok Business School is basically the development strategy and the "Going Out" strategy of Chinese
direct extension of school system and mechanism in Yunnan enterprises and combine with the national "the Belt and Road"
University of Finance and Economics. In addition, the initiative. Combining with advantages of location and
decision-making system and mechanism of the management disciplines, on the basis of consolidating the existing finance
committee are not yet fully developed, which is restricted by and international business majors, we are trying to create
domestic policies and regulations concerning finance, assets international specialty subjects and majors that adapt to the
and personnel flows. The financial budget, asset management needs of foreign students.
and personnel flow management system of BBS as an
overseas school entity have not been effectively established. B. Based on the development requirement of the specialty
Under such a system, foreign schools lack the effective
subjects, make full efforts to create an international faculty
institutional guarantee to adapt to overseas markets and create
the characteristics of running schools. with reasonable structure, high level and excellent quality
Faculty with reasonable structure, high level and excellent
D. Other external factors quality is the driving force of the sustainable development of
schools abroad. According to the situation of BBS, the
At present, Confucius institutes and Confucius classrooms
following work should be done well:
are strongly supported by the Office of Chinese Language
Council International and China Scholarship Council, etc., and A reasonable and relatively stable faculty should be
international students in China are also receiving scholarships established as soon as possible. In order to meet the actual
from different levels. But from the practical experience of needs of the teaching management of overseas schools, the
BBS, as one main carrier of national education export and plan should combine the specialties of the subjects, the
important way for developing foreign students, there is still a characteristics of the students and the scale of the school.
shortage of funds from the State "going out" policy to run Measures should be taken to prevent the formation of such
schools abroad. No scholarship application channels is situation that the faculty of the overseas school is to digest or
available. In the absence of policy and funding support, the relocate the redundant personnel from their parent university
development and reform of overseas schools is in the and prevent high mobility of teaching managers. Otherwise, it
"spontaneous" stage to a certain extent, completely lying in the will seriously damage the management efficiency, image and
market-driven competition of higher education. Due to the reputation of the school.
lack of driving force, the development of the overseas school
and the target orientation are compulsorily transfered, which To establish and improve the institutional environment and
cause more difficulties for these overseas institutions to form encourage the formation of special teachers. The school
their characteristics. should make full use of advantages of flexible mechanisms of
overseas schools, establish and perfect a set of suitable
employing system and incentive system for their own
IV. ROUTINGS TO ESTABLISH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF development as soon as possible which is different from the
OVERSEAS INSTITUTIONS parent university according to the goal of creating school
characteristics. The rules are to be set up on demand, hired on
A. To comply with the needs of economic and social duty, paid for work and contract management, to gradually
development nationally and locally, and construct subjects optimize the overall structure of teachers, improve the overall
with distinct international characteristics quality and level of teachers, and finally to form an
In July 2016, the Ministry of Education formulated the international faculty with high level as soon as possible.
“ Action Pushing forward the Joint Construction of the‛Belt &
Road‛” to make it clear that institutions of higher education
should participate in the "The Belt and Road" program based
on their respective development strategies and regional

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C. To optimize the training mode of international specialty universities and foreign universities, scientific research
talents and cultivate the international talents with high- institutions, enterprises and government agencies, etc. and
level build a stable international cultural exchange hub by taking the
The cultivation of talents with international characteristics overseas school as an exchange platform; to cultivate the
is inseparable from the international training mode. When the students study in the overseas school to be international
overseas school selects the training mode for talents, it is cultural exchange ambassadors by applying an international
important to understand the characteristics of international education mode, so as to fully improve the school’s image in
students. On the other hand, the demand for talents in the the education receiving countries and regions, and even in the
international market should be studied and to build and word and help the export of the educational characteristics,
optimize the curriculum based on international market demand. culture and national soft power.
On the adjustment of the curriculum structure, it is also
necessary to cut and restructure the content of teaching in
accordance with the requirements of the profession, and pay ACKNOWLEDGMENT
attention to the combination of knowledge and skill. Upon the completion of this paper, I would like to show
my deepest gratitude to my colleagues and all those who,
D. To set up a high level interdisciplinary international directly or indirectly, have given me their valuable advice and
research and exchange platform generous support to help me work out problems during the
To rely on overseas educational institutions fully arouse course of the present paper.
the Chinese and foreign teachers' scientific research
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