Major Agreement for the BBA Program with Chongqing Technology and Business University
July 11, 2011
HEC Montréal recently signed an agreement with major benefits for its Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program with the Chongqing Technology and Business University (CTBU). Under this agreement, HEC Montréal will host students from the CTBU International Business School (IBS) for the final two years of their BBA program, starting in 2014. Upon completing their studies they will receive a double diploma, issued by the two partner institutions.
The unique aspect of this “2 + 2” agreement (two years at the home university and two years abroad) lies in the fact that the Chinese students coming to HEC Montréal will finish with a BBA in three languages: Chinese, French and English. Currently, the IBS offers its students the opportunity of doing their studies in two languages, as part of China-Canada (Chinese and English) and China-France (Chinese and French) programs.
The agreement with HEC Montréal raises the bar even higher, since candidates must now speak three languages to be eligible for the Élite program. The Chinese students selected must meet the same language requirements as HEC Montréal students already enrolled in the bilingual BBA stream, as well as the other eligibility conditions. At the IBS, during the second year of their program, and during their two years at HEC Montréal, they must take at least one-third of their courses in French and one-third in English.
The HEC Montréal BBA has three language streams: regular (French), bilingual (English and French) and trilingual (English, French and Spanish). “Our multilingual approach in the BBA program represents an asset for the School and allows it to position itself on the Chinese market with a niche product that meets the new needs of tomorrow’s Chinese managers,” explains Louise Côté, Director of Academic Programs. HEC Montréal Director Michel Patry adds that “this ‘2 + 2’ agreement has been exceptionally well designed, with an excellent partner, and could in fact serve as a model for other similar partnerships in China or elsewhere in the world.”
The agreement with the IBS is the result of a number of missions to China and a first visit by CTBU officials to HEC Montréal in 2009, which led to the signing of a memorandum of agreement. The agreement signed in Montréal in May was the first co-operative initiative under the MOA. Others remain to be finalized, including the design of a joint executive training program for the CTBU and the establishment of reciprocal exchange programs for French-speaking students and professors. Note that the CTBU has been hosting HEC Montréal BBA students as part of their Campus Abroad course in China since 2009.
This project was initiated by the International Executive Education (IEE) department at HEC Montréal. Under the direction of Hassan Taghvaï, the IEE team worked in close co-operation with IBS authorities and the Academic Programs and BBA Program directors at HEC Montréal to conclude this agreement.
HEC Montréal expects to host about ten Chinese students from the IBS in 2014, with this number eventually increasing to 20.
The CTBU is one of the leading Chinese universities, with over 20 schools, programs from the undergraduate to postgraduate levels and some 24,000 full-time students. The university’s IBS was founded in 2000 on the basis of partnerships allowing its students to do part of their studies in China and part abroad, and now has some 1,300 students.
The CTBU is located in Chongqing, one of the four Chinese direct-controlled municipalities (a specifically Chinese type of administrative division), along with Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin. It is a major inland university, industrial, economic and cultural centre. The city of Chongqing is home to about 8 million people, while the municipality as a whole has about 32 million residents.
Left to right: from HEC Montréal: Réal Jacob, Director of the Office of Research Valorization, Knowledge Transfer and Executive Education, Annie Kouamé and Hassan Taghvaï, respectively Co-ordinator and Director, International Executive Education, Louise Côté, Director of Academic Programs, Gilbert Babin, BBA Director , and Michel Patry, HEC Montréal Director. From the CTBU: Yang Jirui, President, Gou Chaoli, Vice-President, Ding Xuanhao, Dean of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Han Yan, Director of the International Co-operation and Exchange Office, and Zhao Ju, Director of the Personnel Division.