Facing the trend of global business education transforming towards practice, excellent MBA programs at home and abroad are all exploring practical action learning and experiential learning. Since 2012, the MBA program at Xi“an Jiaotong University has initiated with an innovative practical teaching system, regarding practical elective courses as an important part of the training system. The practical elective courses have innovatively created a quality assurance mechanism of “diverse curriculum settings - strict process management - scientific result evaluation“. In terms of systematicity and integrity, it is at the leading level in China. Students have won three consecutive championships of the National MBA Entrepreneurship Competition, the championship of the National Management Case Elite Competition, and the first prize of the National Business Simulation Competition, highlighting the remarkable achievements of the practical training of the MBA program at Xi“an Jiaotong University.

As the second classroom for MBA students, practical elective courses integrate knowledge from different disciplines into actual projects. Through experiential learning and integrated application, they enhance students“ soft skills and comprehensive capabilities. Students can cultivate their cross-disciplinary problem-solving abilities, deepen their understanding of theoretical knowledge in practice, and comprehensively improve their practical abilities and comprehensive qualities through simulating business environments and operating diverse real projects.

At the moment, the 11th Entrepreneurship Competition of the School of Management at Xi“an Jiaotong University kicks off. Meanwhile, the new training plan is fully implemented. The MBA program of the School of Management officially launches practical elective courses for the class of 2024. The aim is to build a broader practical platform for students, helping them forge ahead in the business journey and grow into the pillars of the business world in the new era.

Dual-track parallel to build a practical innovation matrix

The new training plan builds a practical innovation matrix in two major directions: event operation and practical application. With “enterprise real combat + innovation empowerment“ as the core, it covers multiple dimensions such as strategic decision-making, enterprise diagnosis, and business innovation:

Event-driven

Practical expansion

It is particularly worth noting that in the new training plan, the MBA program at Xi“an Jiaotong University has included the [Business Simulation Competition] and the [Business Analysis and Intelligent Application Competition] in the MBA practical elective courses, aiming to improve students“ dynamic management abilities, enhance their quick decision-making and adaptability. By using the current highly concerned big data and artificial intelligence technologies, it enhances the ability to solve practical problems.

Three characteristics highlight the highlights of curriculum design

The practical training is closely in line with the national innovation-driven development strategy and has distinct characteristics of Xi“an Jiaotong University:

Deep school-enterprise collaboration:

Courses such as enterprise diagnosis and case writing introduce resources from cooperative enterprises. Students will conduct in-depth research at the front line, and some excellent plans can be directly transformed into references for enterprise decision-making.

Integrating Competitions and Education throughout the Training Process:

Courses such as entrepreneurship competitions, case competitions, and business simulation competitions are associated with top international and domestic events. Outstanding teams will be recommended to participate in authoritative events such as the China MBA Entrepreneurship Competition and the National Management Case Elite Competition.

Driven by digital innovation:

Courses such as the Business Analysis and Intelligent Application Competition help students to master data analysis tools and meet the needs of the digital economy era.

Deepen the integration of industry and education to jointly cultivate innovative talents. The in-depth development of practical elective courses creates opportunities for students to effectively transform what they have learned in the classroom into practice, from “knowing“ to “doing“, and allows students to re-examine their own deficiencies, from “doing“ back to “knowing“. In the future, the MBA and EMBA centers will further expand the training path of “curriculum - competition - incubation“ to help students grow into business leaders with both a global vision and innovative capabilities.