The day before yesterday, after the “flying evaluation”, Pang Eng Fong, Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU, left Xiamen satisfiedly. The purpose of his visit to Xiamen this time was to see the SMU-MAF program jointly launched by SMU and XMU, which was also the first newborn of SMU overseas.
This September, the SMU-MAF program was launched jointly by SMU and XMU. The curriculum provided by SMU for XMU in this program is designed also to meet the CFA examination requirements, which was a brand-new issue in mainland China.
Pang Eng Fong used to be the Ambassador of Singapore in European countries such as U.K. and so on, who is 64-year-old now, went back to Singapore 5 years ago. This Singaporean who can only speak basic Chinese is actually a real son-in-law of Xiamen, as his wife is from Gulang Island. Our reporter did an exclusive interview to this son-in-law of Xiamen.
Lacking of financial talents facilitates MAF
Q: I just heard that this SMUMAF program was bringing attentions of Financial Times. Why? Is there any special of this program? As we know, there are already finance major offered in many universities nowadays.
Pang Eng Fong: With the development of Chinese economy, the industry of Chinese finance is expanding dramatically. However, financial talents are comparatively scarce. Finance is developing rapidly over the world, but the education on finance in Mainland China still remains in a traditional model and thus it needs to be innovated, and economical development will meet its choke point in case finance doesn’t get improvement. As we often say, manufacture is just like a tree, of which industry is the root and finance is the leaves. Without the leaves, the tree is unable to conduct photosynthesis, and then there will be something wrong with the tree sooner or later.
Q: what’s CFA, then? They told me it is a brand-new issue in mainland China to provide curriculum meeting the CFA examination requirements in XMU.
Pang Eng Fong: The specialty of this program is that the students will not only get the master degree of Applied Finance, but they will also receive courses which meet the CFA examination requirements for those pursuing their CFA designation. CFA is a certification admitted proverbially in the worldwide financial industry. SMU has built up a reputation from its existing MAF program offered in Singapore. On average, 90% of our students passed the CFA Level 1 examination, and 78% of them passed the CFA Level 2 examination, while the overall average pass ratio is 50%.
Establishing Chinese training base in XMU
Q: to be honest, I was surprised when I heard that this program was jointly held by SMU and XMU and those students would get the MAF degree of SMU. As we had heard, it was quite difficult to be admitted by SMU, and someone even described that it was a little “abnormally” strict.
Pang Eng Fong: This is the first time that SMU recruits masters in cooperation with other universities, as well as the first MAF program that SMU starts overseas. We are not selling degrees. It doesn’t mean that you can get a degree as long as you pay for it. What we focus on is quality, not quantity, which is quite different from some other joint programs by China and other countries. Howard Hunter, President of SMU, has only one command for this program, and it is quality. We are serious to this program. The study period of this program is two years, which is longer than MAF in Singapore.
We hope that we can cultivate more applied financial talents for China, but we are not busy chasing the quantity. XMU is, in some sense, our laboratory and we prepare to establish here the training base in China.
Q: Why do you choose to cooperate with XMU?
Pang Eng Fong: There are many reasons accounting for cooperating with XMU-- Many Singaporeans are immigrants form Fujian Province, and secondly, the biggest donation for SMU is from the Lee Funds, which donated S$50 million-- 1 S$ equals about 5 RMB--to SMU. The owner of Lee Funds is Lee Kong Chian, son-in-law of Tan Kah Kee. Besides, we have many things in common with WISE.
Q: Could you talk something about the cooperation between you?
Pang Eng Fong: Yes. Before this program our professors has been cooperating with Yongmiao HONG, dean of WISE. Hong is a tenured professor in Cornell University, USA. He treats quality seriously, too. As we know, the assessment for WISE faculty is closely connected with their levels of teaching and research, which is fully the advantage of American competition. We are both very happy to cooperate.
WISE faculty will go to Singapore to share their teaching experience with SMU faculty next February. We have started to prepare helping the students get internships in the top-ranking financial institutions when they come to Singapore. In a word, we will not only help them obtain degrees, more importantly, we will also help them become sales figures on the job market.
Our classrooms are different
Q: SMU was established in 2000. Although she is young, she has already been well known. There are generally several job opportunities waiting for each graduate, and most of the job opportunities are in famous industries. So what’s the secret?
Pang Eng Fong: Have you ever been to SMU? Our classrooms, which are different from others’, are rounded trapezoidal and students are surrounded by blackboards, and there are only about twenty students in a class…
Q: Sorry to interrupt you. Is it so important how the classrooms are arranged?
Pang Eng Fong: One of the advantages of such arrangement is that obstacles before each student are removed so that the teachers can walk around, which is convenient for teachers to get students’ feedback-- do they really understand or not? -- And also convenient for their discussion. Your question is very interesting. Well, such an arrangement is based on our unique teaching philosophy. We train our students based on two points, the first is self-confidence, and the second is the ability to solve problems.
On the other words, the purpose of our education is to encourage students to get a successful life which they can cope with challenges of the new economic world, rather than just to help them to pass exams.
reported by SHE Zheng, Xiamen Daily, Nov.27th, the original tittle as:Pang Eng Fong, Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU: There are blackboards surrounding our classrooms
