The Daily Pennsylvanian is a student-run nonprofit.

Please support us by disabling your ad blocker on our site.

Wharton School officials are practicing what they preach. Demonstrating Wharton's emphasis on a global outlook, the school announced a partnership Monday with the Singapore Institute of Management to establish a private business university in Singapore. The school, which will be named the Singapore Management University, is scheduled to open in the year 2000 and will offer both undergraduate and graduate programs. It will initially enroll 1,400 students, eventually expanding to 13,000. Wharton is primarily helping to develop SMU's four-year undergraduate business curriculum, which will offer a bachelor's degree in management, Wharton Vice Dean Richard Herring said. Herring, the driving force behind the agreement, noted that "several elements of [the Wharton] curriculum will certainly have echoes" in SMU's academic program. The details of which academic fields SMU will offer, however, have not yet been discussed, he added. Last year, government officials in Singapore decided to create a new professional university in an effort to establish the country as an academic stronghold in Southeast Asia. A successful venture would add to the country's reputation as a regional commercial and economic hub. Two universities are currently located in Singapore. Both, however, are vestiges of the British colonial period and offer academic programs based on European curriculums. SMU, on the other hand, will follow an American educational model and will accept Scholastic Assessment Test scores from prospective students. Singapore Institute officials chose Wharton to help create the new institution after conducting a survey of America's premier business schools. Herring said the officials decided to enlist Wharton's help because "they liked the creativity that takes place in this kind of structure." Describing the arrangement between the two schools as unique and complex, Herring said Wharton will probably not undertake a similar venture in the near future. He added that Wharton's "wide alumni network" in Singapore helped develop the agreement. The partnership is a sign of Wharton's increased involvement in Southeast Asia. Wharton-sponsored executive education programs have already been implemented in several Asian countries, including Japan, Malaysia and China. Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity praised the joint effort for providing "a terrific opportunity for our faculty to be exposed to emerging economies in Southeast Asia." He added that he was "sure student exchange programs will blossom out of this." Like Gerrity, Herring emphasized that the partnership signifies a promising future for both Wharton and the Singapore Institute. "We all feel good about helping," he said. "We were persuaded that it has a high chance of succeeding."

Comments powered by Disqus

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.