Just over a decade ago, leading US and European business schools identified the need to establish a foothold in China by working jointly with Chinese universities.

Many opted for joint EMBA programmes, but it has not all been plain sailing.

Cass Business School at City University in London, for example, has suspended its EMBA, which it ran in Shanghai, after enrolling just two classes. The school is unable to get money out of China, says Henrietta Royle, chief operating officer. "What the law says is that you must not make a profit out of education."

This has not put the school off working in the country. "China is probably Cass's most important market," says Ms Royle.Cass hopes to resolve the finance issue soon and restart the programme.

The story is eerily similar at the Smith school at the University of Maryland, which has shelved its EMBA in Beijing this year, though it plans to reintroduce the programme in future and is continuing to run its programme in Shanghai.

In contrast, Insead's joint EMBA with Tsinghua University is thriving, according to Edward Buckingham, associate director of the EMBA at Insead. With 50 per cent of the classes taught on Tsinghua's Beijing campus and 50 per cent at Insead in Singapore, the programme has attracted 25 per cent of its students from China.

Insead has bypassed the fees issue by being paid outside China in dollars. Mr Buckingham says that, like the corporates before them, business schools wanting to operate in China are often learning the hard way that they need to know the market.

For Ceibs in Shanghai, the doyen of western-style management education in China, the market seems to be growing, with 630 students on the Ceibs EMBA programme this year and 780 next.

就在10年前，美欧领先的商学院认识到有必要通过与中国的大学合作，在中国建立一个立足点。

许多院校选择了联合开办高级管理人员工商管理硕士(EMBA)项目，但这个过程并非一帆风顺。

例如，由于报名人数只有两个班，伦敦城市大学(City University)的卡斯商学院(Cass Business School)已暂停了在上海的EMBA项目。该校首席运营官亨利埃塔•罗伊尔(Henrietta Royle)表示，卡斯商学院无法从中国赚钱。“这里的法律规定，你不能从教育中赢利。”

这并没有让卡斯商学院从中国退出。罗伊尔表示：“中国可能是卡斯商学院最重要的市场。”卡斯商学院希望很快就能解决财务问题，重新开办这个项目。

卡斯商学院的情况与马里兰大学史密斯商学院(Smith school)惊人地相似。史密斯商学院今年取消了在北京的EMBA项目，不过计划将来重新引入这个项目，并将继续开办在上海的项目。

与此相反，欧洲工商管理学院(Insead) EMBA课程副主任爱德华•白金汉(Edward Buckingham)表示，该校与清华大学联合开办的EMBA项目则在蓬勃发展。该项目有一半的课程在清华大学的北京校区内教授，另一半在欧洲工商管理学院新加坡校区教授。该项目25%的学员来自中国。

由于学费在海外以美元支付，欧洲工商管理学院绕过了收费问题。白金汉表示，与之前的很多企业一样，希望在中国开课的商学院通常都在经历痛苦之后，才明白它们需要了解这个市场。

对于中国西式管理教育的老前辈、上海的中欧国际工商学院(Ceibs)而言，市场似乎在不断增长——中欧国际工商学院的EMBA项目今年招收了630名学员，明年将有780名学员。

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