Interviewed by China Daily about being a PhD Candidate at University of Science and Technology of China.

1. CHINA DAILY USA Friday-Sunday, March 6-8, 2015 Education special 11
By ZHU LIXIN
zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn
T
he Association to
Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business,
based in Tampa, Flor-
ida, on Feb 18 announced the
latest eight institutions to earn
its accreditation in business.
The University of Science
and Technology of China is
one of three universities from
the Chinese mainland to earn
the honor, taking the nation’s
universities with the accredi-
tation to 12. The university’s
School of Management won
the accreditation.
“As the world’s best-known
accreditation for business
schools, the AACSB accredita-
tionisexpectedtohelpusbuild
a truly internationally promi-
nent business school”, said Yu
Yugang, executive dean of the
school at USTC.
Quick responses
A global, nonprofit member-
shiporganizationofeducation-
al institutions, businesses, and
other entities devoted to the
advancement of management
education, the AACSB was
established in 1916 by business
schools of some of the most
prominent American universi-
ties, including Harvard, Yale
and University of California,
Berkeley.
Over nearly 100 years, the
association has grown into
the most renowned organiza-
tion for business schools in the
world.
So far, there are 727 mem-
ber institutions with AACSB
accreditation, and 48 countries
and territories represented by
AACSB-accredited schools,
according to the organization’s
official website.
About 5 percent of the
world’s business schools now
hold AACSB accreditation,
but only 1 percent of business
schools on the Chinese main-
land are accredited, Yu said.
“I believe USTC is already a
world-class university. We have
anexcellentreputationinphysi-
cal sciences and mathematics,
while people may have never
heardofUSTC’sbusinessschool,
namely, the school of manage-
ment,” said Murray Sherk, a
Canadian professor who has
worked at USTC for 20 years.
In light of the accreditation’s
status, USTC attached great
importance to its application.
“The leaders of the university
and faculty of the school of
management spared no effort
in building the school accord-
ing to AACSB’s standards and
responded quickly at every
stage,” Yu said.
The school officially began
its application to the AACSB
at the end of 2012. Sherk
was assigned half-time to
help the school apply for the
accreditation, assisted by the
school’s entire faculty.
“After less than three years of
hard work, we got it eventually,
faster than we should have, so
I’mveryproudofus,”Sherksaid.
“The experts from the AAC-
SB said the usual process for
accreditation may take five
to seven years, while we got
it done in just three years,”
he said, adding that the asso-
ciation’s evaluation process is
rigorous.
“During this peer-review
process, schools must show
alignment with 15 global
accreditation standards while
demonstrating how they
achieve success within each
of the three pillars on which
AACSB accreditation rests—
engagement, innovation, and
impact,” said Robert D. Reid,
executive vice president and
chief accreditation officer of
AACSB International.
The time in which the USTC
school gained accreditation
was the shortest of all the
accredited business schools on
the Chinese mainland, so it is
expected to become an exam-
ple for others that want to get
accredited in the future.
“Sufficient preparation and
quick responses contributed
to our success, while our own
strengths in research and edu-
cation also counted”, Yu said.
Strengths
Though it is only 20 years
old, USTC’s school of manage-
ment has integrated education
programs that cover every
degree level at international
standards, including under-
graduate, master’s and PhD
programs, and Master of Busi-
ness Management, Executive
Master of Business Adminis-
tration and Executive Develop-
ment Programs.
“Catching up with other top-
notch business schools, part of
ourschool’sownstrengthliesin
quantitative analysis, through
which we have reached a lot
of enlightenment on business
administration,” said Yu, add-
ing that teachers have pub-
lished many quality papers in
influential journals.
USTC is known for mul-
tiple academic excellencies,
especially for physical science,
where a lot of innovative aca-
demicachievementshavebeen
made. Many of these are ready
to become products.
For example, the university
has built the world’s first quan-
tum communications network
and employs many world-class
quantum scientists, including
Pan Jianwei, the university’s
vice-president.
High-level entrepreneurs
and officials from across the
country teach about 10 percent
of the curriculum alongside
cutting-edge scientists from
the university.
“By asking scientists to teach
some of the courses, we aim
to give the students the most
farsighted options for finding
possibilities to combine invest-
ment with the most advanced
scientific achievements,” said
Yu, who is also president of
the university’s Association of
Young Scholars.
In recent years, the univer-
sity, along with the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Anhui
provincial government and
Hefei municipal government
have been working to build a
Silicon Valley-like high-tech
park in Hefei, where the uni-
versity is based.
Tobuildsuchaparkrequires
insightandgreateffort,andthe
school of management, with
abundant alumni resources, is
helping raise funds.
That is just a small part of
how the school helps the com-
munity. Currently in Anhui
province, most local medium-
sized enterprises and govern-
ment departments have senior
and intermediate executives
and/or officials who are alum-
ni of the school, according to
information submitted to the
AACSB.
After 20 years of develop-
ment,theschoolhasmorethan
10,000 alumni around not only
the province and the country,
but the world, including Wang
Yang,China’svice-premier,and
Zhang Ruimin, CEO of Haier
Group, one of the world’s larg-
est home appliance makers
and top 500 enterprises.
The Mission
The AACSB highlights the
mission of a business school
when reviewing its qualifica-
tions, and USTC’s school of
management benefited from
its clearly stated mission.
“Our mission is to generate
ideas and tools to enrich man-
agement theory and practice,
to develop talents and leaders
to serve China,” said Yu, add-
ingthatthemissioniscarefully
formulated according to the
school’s vision and the motto
of USTC, which is “being both
ethicallysoundandprofession-
allycompetent,andintegrating
theory with practice”.
“We want to show that this
school deserves to be in this
world-class university”, Sherk
said.
The school’s vision, as stat-
ed in its application, is “to be
nationally and internationally
recognized as a first-class busi-
ness school in China, both in
research and education”.
By ZHU LIXIN
zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn
A school accredited by the
Association to Advance Col-
legiate Schools of Business
(AACSB International) is
looking to win the attention
of more talented international
business people.
At the School of Manage-
ment of the University of Sci-
ence and Technology of China
(USTC), the number of inter-
national business students has
steadily risen since the school
was established in 1995.
Currently, 43 international
students from more than 10
countries are working towards
degrees at the school.
Andrew Stotz, a 50-year-old
American is one of them.
Prior to coming to USTC to
do his PhD, Stotz was a stock
analyst and businessman in
Thailand.
After nearly two decades of
work, Stotz was awarded the
title of the top analyst in the
country by Asiamoney maga-
zine in 2008 and 2009 and the
same in Greenwich Associates’
surveys. The following year he
won the award for the second
time in a Greenwich Associ-
ates survey.
Stotz worked for several
renowned securities compa-
nies in Thailand, ran his own
businesses and worked as a
lecturer at more than a dozen
Thai universities.
During his career in Thai-
land, which spanned more
than 20 years, Stotz never
considered going to China
for business or to study until
2009, when he met Lu Wei, a
professor at USTC and Stotz’s
current academic supervisor.
Lu recognized Stotz’s tal-
ent and professional achieve-
ments and thus invited him to
come to USTC to teach entre-
preneurship and investment.
“I accepted his invitation
after a couple of months. I
learned from Lu that the insti-
tution was important, while
we also have to remember that
it is people that attract people.
This top Chinese university
has so many professors who
are engaging and reaching out
to the new generation. That
really makes a difference,” said
Stotz.
“I look at my experience in
teaching myself, my objective
is also to engage young peo-
ple’s curiosity, in learning and
in questioning. That’s what
I want to help young people
think about,” he added.
After a couple of years,
Stotz decided to do his PhD
at USTC. “Professor Lu told
me that I had been doing
really good research but I still
needed some academic guid-
ance and practice to make my
papers more rigorous”, said
Stotz, who has written sev-
eral papers, mostly on stock
analysis.
Patrick Woock, from Chi-
cago, had a similar experience
when he decided to study at
the school, although he had a
completely different business
background.
Born in 1969, Woock started
in the insurance business in
the United States at the age of
26 after he graduated from the
University of Mississippi and
bought his father’s company.
“Running a business is not
easy and sometimes too diffi-
cult at the beginning, but over
time, it improves and slowly
you get to know how to do
better and eventually become
very good at business and
enjoy it,” said Woock, who ran
the insurance firm for several
years before selling it.
In 2002, when China
joined the World Trade
Organization, Woock decid-
ed to embark on a new
journey, which he thought
would bring him more
opportunities.
He founded an invest-
ment company in China and
invested in the country’s
residential real estate sector.
He said this brought him
returns of 1000 percent dur-
ing the past 10 years. He also
invested in a logistics compa-
ny between 2005 and 2007,
which expanded its sales to
$5 million a year.
In 2009 Woock got involved
in water recycling projects.
“In cities such as Beijing
and Shanghai, water resourc-
es seem very limited and the
expenses are often very high
for large office buildings or
hotels,” said Woock, who is
optimistic about the recy-
cling projects.
Woock’s company buys
recycling equipment from
China and Singapore and
installs it for clients, who pay
no money for the equipment
but hand over a share of the
money they save because of
it.
“Woock has very good
academic performance and
he is also very successful at
running a businesses,” said
Lu, who was in touch with
Woock for some years before
he invited him to come to
study for his PhD at USTC
in 2012.
As well as studying at
USTC, Woock also works as
an international entrepre-
neurship teacher for younger
graduates and undergradu-
ate students, who speak high-
ly of his willingness to share
his skills.
“China’s international sta-
tus, the universities’ academ-
ic authority and the univer-
sity’s seriousness in attracting
international talents are the
reason behind our success,”
said Lu, academic supervisor
to both Stotz and Woock.
“As well as improving
mutual-trust and communi-
cation, we are working hard
to provide students with
better added-value and job
opportunities.”
The University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei,Anhui province provides top facilities for the students. PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Students dance under cherry trees at the University of Science and Technology of China. YANG XIAOPING / FOR CHINA DAILY
Business school attracts global candidates,welcomes more
This top Chinese
university has so
many professors
who are engaging
and reaching out
to the new genera-
tion.”
Andrew Stotz,
A PhD candidate at USTC
The AACSB ac-
creditation is
expected to help
us build a truly
internationally
prominent busi-
ness school.”
Yu Yugang
Executive Dean of school of
management at USTC
AACSB accredi-
tation expected
to help school
of management
develop opportu-
nities, Zhu Lixin
reports from He-
fei,Anhui
province
USTC earns global business endorsement