Singapore, world class MBA in the

European business school providing post graduate business education, has been
Asia, both in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, where the school began it campus
respectively. The Brunei Times recently visited the Singapore campus to catch a
store for Bruneians who might want to pursue their further studies amongst the
best of the best from within Southeast Asia (SEA).

Schools
the
recognition,

identifying them as the leading schools in

their region: Harvard and Stanford (North
America), INSEAD France and London Business School (Europe), and INSEAD Singapore
(Asia Pacific).
And among the 33 leading institutions to
make QS Reports Elite Global category, only
two are from Asia, one is Indian Institute of
Management in Ahmedabad, and no points
for guessing the other.
The latest rankings by the Financial Times
published recently had INSEAD ranked fifth
in the world in 2014 among education institutes offering MBA, sixth in 2013 and 2012,
and fourth in 2011.
Another popular course, the INSEAD/Tsinghua University Executive MBA
programme was ranked second in the world
in 2013, just behind the Kellogg/Hong Kong
UST Business School programme.
But as they say, ranking only shows that
much about a school, and to be in business, it
also means bringing your products nearer to
your customers, and INSEAD did just that for
Southeast Asia in 2000 by bringing their
school right to our doorstep.
INSEAD Singapore began operation in
January 2000, and in October the same year,
the Bouna Vista campus was inaugurated by
none other than the founder of modern
Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.
During the 1990s when INSEAD was planning for an Asia campus, Hong Kong and
Kuala Lumpur were also in the running to be
the site for their Asian foothold.
Singapore eventually won the race to bring
the top notch French graduate school to town
at the expense of its counterparts.
One suspect that part of the reasons for
Singapore getting the final nod from INSEAD
was probably due to the Lion Citys famed
reputation of offering huge financial support
for elite schools to set camp on the island
state.

The INSEAD courses

INSEAD is the only school that offers MBA,
EMBA and Executive Development programmes across three fully integrated campuses: Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and
the Middle East (Abu Dhabi).
In the Singapore campus, the four key programmes are the MBA (10 months), Global
Executive MBA (14-18 months), Master in
Finance (20 months), and Executive Master
in Consulting and Coaching for Change (18
months).
In addition, the Singapore campus also delivers a dynamic portfolio of Open Programme for executives at all stages of their
careers.
The MBA is the only full time programme,
while the latter are all modular (part-time).
MBA participants has the opportunity to
select the campus during the course of 10month programme.
They have the opportunity to spend at least
eight weeks on the other campuses, and they
may also choose to spend eight weeks at one
of INSEADs partner schools (Wharton, Kellogg and China Europe International Business School).
Cost of top class MBAs are seldom economical in absolute numbers, though most will
agree that value for money is all that matters.
Top money for top dogs.
The fees for an INSEAD MBA is currently
priced at 62,500 euros ($110,200) for the
graduating classes of 2015.
Fees for the Global Executive MBA Asia Section 2014 intake is at $166,000 (includes
seven per cent Singapore Goods and Services
Tax).
The Master in Finance is priced at $75,000,
while the Executive Master in Consulting and
Coaching for Change is $75,600.
Figures above does not include minimal
admin or insurance charges.

Continuous expansion
According to Aileen Huang, Assistant Director for Media Relations INSEAD Asia, expansion of their Bouna Vista campus has been
ongoing.
Back when Singapores then Senior Minister Lee (Kuan Yew) first opened INSEAD
Singapore, the campus was already at 13,000
square metres (Phase One), and in 2005, the
completed phase two added another 6,000
square metres to the land area to the school
site.
And by the end of this year (2014), phase
three would have been completed to increase
the overall campus size to 30,000 square
metres.
Expansions for phases four, five and six
had already been mapped out, but the
school was unable to confirm the
scheduled for these projects.
INSEADs Pivot to Asia
The focus on Asia among
top
class
universities
around the world was
evident with so many
schools setting up their
Asia campuses, with
Singapore being mentioned with regular
occurrences.

However, the island state was last year

dealt a few blows by the University of Chicago
and others.
University of Chicago announced the relocation of its award winning business school
(Booth School of Business) to Hong Kong in
2014, and the announcements by New York
Universitys Tisch School of Arts and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) of plans
to close their Singapore campuses in the next
two years added to the gloom.
University of Chicago cited a need to be
closer to China, the worlds second largest
economy, but reports say a huge listed
building in one of Hong Kongs most upmarket areas in Mount Davis, has been
offered to Chicago Booth at a one-off
premium of HK$1,000 ($164). It is thought
the deal will last at least 10 years.
Singapore will however take comfort in the
fact that other top schools like Duke University, James Cook University, Digipen Institute of Technology and SP Jain School of
Global Management continue their presence
in Singapore.
And INSEAD firmly laid down its commitment to Singapore, not just by going ahead
with its planned expansions, but a step further by doing something unprecedented.
In October 2013, INSEAD made history by
appointing the schools Dean in Singapore,
instead of Fontainebleau, France.
The official appointment of Professor Ilian
Mihov as Dean of the school marks the first
time in INSEADs history that the Dean is not
based in the main campus in France.

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