The Rankings of International Business Programmes in China

Research interest in international business education in China have grown widely in the world. Thanopoulos[1] gave an overview on international business curricula internationally, but China had not been recruited by academicians as a candidate for detailed discussion. Siu and Chan[2,3] only provided a fragmentary description of China's international business education. This article examines international business education in China in more depth by investigating the rankings of its international business programmes. A sampling frame was constructed from three directories, namely The China Higher Education Directory[4], Introduction to China's Higher Educational Institutes[5], and Directory of Higher Educational Institutes, Advanced Adult Educational Institutes and Middle Vocational Institutes in China[6]. A total of 28 higher educational institutes offering a bachelor level degree programme with specialization in international business or related subjects were selected as sampling units. Questionnaires soliciting information on courses offered, student number, faculty strength, rankings on best international business programme in China and the criteria adopted were sent to the deans and/or department heads. Eight sets of course documents have been received. A total of eight usable questionnaires (29 per cent response rate) were returned.