JAIMS execs in town

Dr. Odo and Vice President Uchida came to the FCS office today to pay a courtesy call to my supervisor and the intern coordinator. On one level, the visit was about how I did as an intern and about maintaining the reputation of the program.

On another level, though, I think it was because JAIMS will be starting a new program and really wants to keep good relationships with the companies it has already worked with. The two institutions’ CHEMBA program ends after this next class; after 2007, the University of Hawaii will work with Guangdong province’s Zhongshan University in its new CHIMBA program, and JAIMS will develop a new program of its own.

While CHEMBA is a 15-month program (one year in Hawaii and a three month internship in China), CHIMBA will also include a second year at Z.U. before the internship, making it a 27-month program.

JAIMS is mulling replacing CHEMBA with a certificate program, more-or-less cutting the generic courses but keeping the language, China-specific courses, and the internship. That seems smart – as a business major, most of the classes I took were pretty much repeats, and although it’s not the same as having the letters MBA after your name, I’m sure it will still look good on a resume.

Although the University of Hawaii will remain strategic partners with JAIMS in the Japan MBA program (JEMBA), it will be rivals in the China programs. And since it’s not really clear where CHIMBA interns will be placed (Guangdong would make sense, but most people speak Cantonese; Shanghai speaks Mandarin, but is far from the school) it would seem JAIMS is out to secure its contacts in Shanghai.

Interesting developments….