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Rise of Chinese business schools a sign of the times
As the biggest contributor to the world economy, it's no surprise that China is experiencing its latest boom in business schools. This year 15 Asian universities, seven of them Chinese, have made the latest Financial Times MBA rankings published last week.To get more news about top mba colleges in China, you can visit acem.sjtu.edu.cn official website.
A decade ago, the FT ranked only four Asian universities in the top 100, while US schools dominated more than half the list. Go back another five years, and that number is reduced to two.
The China Europe International Business School (Ceibs), based in Shanghai, leads the way in Asia, moving up three positions to eighth place and returning to the top 10 for the first time since 2009. Meanwhile, Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University enters the list at 49 as the highest of four newly ranked MBA programmes.
These developments reflect Asia's transformation into a hotbed for global business activity in the last decade, said Pavida Pananond, an associate professor of International Business at Thammasat University.
"If you are sitting in London or Boston, you might not really feel the action as much as if you were sitting in Shanghai to see how business is growing in China. So one of the first advantages of these Asian schools is that you are located where the action is," she told Asia Focus.
"The second would be the opportunity to build networks of alumni and friends in Asia. As we all know, Asian countries are normally countries that rely a lot on networks."
Although MBA courses are generally delivered in English, networking in the broader business world may often hinge on expatriates being able to speak the language of the host country. While 85% of respondents in last year's Expat Insider survey noted the difficulties of learning Mandarin Chinese -- one of the world's hardest languages -- more than 50% said not knowing the language limited their capacity to settle in and befriend local people.
The number of expats working in China has been rising exponentially since 1978 when Deng Xiaoping opened its economy to the world. According to the most recent available census data from 2010, some 600,000 expats were working or living in cities across the country, one-third of them in Shanghai. Antai College of Economics and Management in Shanghai has 43 foreign students in its MBA courses this year.
With more and more expats choosing Asia as their destination for professional growth, demand for education that offers an Asia-specific context is also on the rise.
The Ceibs MBA, for instance, offers students "a ringside seat from which to observe and experience how business is done in China", Ceibs associate dean Juan Fernandez told the Nikkei Asian Review. "Almost 95% of MBA students who graduated in 2017 accepted job offers received, with a salary increase of over 100%. Among them, 66.2% found jobs through the school's resources and 78.1% of international students are working in the Asia-Pacific region."These substantial figures are in line with China offering the second highest expat salary packages in the region after Japan, according to a survey by ECA International. In another survey, more than half of working expats said they earned more in China than they would at home.
But it's not just China that shows promising potential in the area of business education. Also in contention are Singapore, the financial hub of Southeast Asia, as well as India, a fast-expanding economy set to overtake France and the UK as the world's fifth largest economy this year. Three MBA programmes from Singapore and four from India made this year's FT ranking. Fifteen years ago, no schools from either country featured on the list.
Car finance commission to be banned – how much will you save?
Salespeople are often rewarded in commission for high levels of sales, but the ways the commission is calculated vary and can be complex. An investigation last year by the FCA revealed that when it comes to arranging some types of credit – such as car finance – certain forms of commission have been incentivising sellers to unfairly hike the prices on deals, potentially leaving customers collectively overpaying by hundreds of millions of pounds every year.To get more auto finance news, you can visit shine news official website.
More than nine in 10 new cars were sold using car finance schemes in the past year. Under typical finance deals, you borrow a sum of money towards the cost of the car, which is then repaid monthly – with interest – over a set term. The money is usually lent by a finance company, such as a bank, but the deals themselves are arranged by car dealers or brokers, who are paid commission for setting up the loan. Under some existing models of commission, which the FCA reports to be ‘widespread’, the amount paid to brokers rises in line with the interest rate on the finance deal. Furthermore, under some arrangements, brokers can also control the interest rates set on individual deals. This effectively means they stand to earn more commission by making credit deals more expensive than they need to be for customers.
The FCA is now banning such types of commission – a measure due to come into effect on 28 January 2021. Firms will also have to give customers more information about the commission they are paying when entering into finance deals. An FCA spokesperson commented: ‘By banning this type of commission, where brokers are rewarded for charging consumers higher rates, we will increase competition and protection for consumers.’
The watchdog’s analysis found that where deals are arranged through commission models like this, interest rates are routinely higher. The FCA reckons the ban could save customers £165m a year. With one of the commission models investigated, a typical customer on a four-year finance deal for a £10,000 car would be likely to pay around £1,100 more in interest than if the broker were paid a fixed fee.
The watchdog’s analysis found that where deals are arranged through commission models like this, interest rates are routinely higher. The FCA reckons the ban could save customers £165m a year. With one of the commission models investigated, a typical customer on a four-year finance deal for a £10,000 car would be likely to pay around £1,100 more in interest than if the broker were paid a fixed fee.
China has turned Shanghai into a free trade zone, as it hopes to open up even more to the west. The new economic zone will make it easier for foreigners to invest money. In addition, the Chinese currency, Yuan, can be traded freely within the zone.To get more latest china economy news, you can visit shine news official website.
Banks will profit most from the new trading zone because interest rates will not be controlled by the Chinese government. Other free sectors include shipping, travel, insurance and medicine.
China’s government will lift the restriction on the production of certain items, like video games.Foreign companies are now allowed to manufacture game consoles freely, after a 13-year ban. The government has also promised to allow companies to access web sites that have not been accessible in China.
The new free-trade zone is the most important step towards free-market economy since Deng Xiaoping created special economic zones in China in the 1980s. Chinese leaders want to show that the country is willing to move its economy forward, especially in times when growth has slowed down a bit. Economic experts in China hope that the zone will increase investment and provide a new boost for China’s economy. Government leaders have set up a time frame of three years to see if the new zone succeeds. If so, other free trade areas may follow in other parts of China.
Shanghai, with a population of 20 million, is China’s most important financial centre. The new economic zone is to cover about 30 square kilometres of land around the harbour and the international airport
In the past few months real estate prices have already gone up in the free trade zone. 25 firms have already been allowed to set up operations with more to come. Although Chinese leaders hope to divert business away from Hong Kong, the economy in the former British colony will have nothing to fear. It will remain one of Asia’s biggest financial centres.