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Western Education in Japan

Published: 1 February 2012

Executives are often looking to upgrade their qualifications, especially with an MBA. However, many professional people are not able to find time for classes during their busy work-week. Montreal's McGill University has a solution: a weekend MBA program. The prestigious Canadian university offers a unique program in Japan where students can earn a full MBA by attending classes on Saturday and Sunday. Best of all, again, the McGill program is significantly less expensive than similar programs.

"We charge 4,800,000 yen for the whole program," says Philip O'Neill, Director of the McGill MBA Japan Program. "That is about 94,000 yen per credit."

"It includes all the materials, coffee, books, access to materials, etc. At the moment, this is quite a bit less than the cost at the home campus."

O'Neill says the strength of the McGill program is that it brings in professors from its Canadian campus. McGill was recently named the 17th best university in the world in the QS World University Rankings, meaning it is not only the top-rated university in Canada, but one of the best universities in the world (Tokyo University ranked 25th).

"Our professors are at the forefront of research and teaching in their areas," says O'Neill. "So, we think this is important for the students' learning experience."

"We also have very stringent entrance requirements for our students, because they need to be able to perform at a very high level, and very intensively, during our program. Our program really caters to students who want to have a very intense and rigorous program."

O'Neill says McGill's Japan MBA program has proven popular with not only Japanese, but students from all over the world.

"Historically, about 40 or 45% of (our) students are Japanese. We also have students from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, the US, Europe, South American and sometimes from Africa."

"This is probably one of the most diverse groups of students anywhere."

Read full article: American Chamber of Commerce in Japan Journal, February 1, 2012

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