As much as professors would like it, students rarely say “we need more hours.”
Yet, that was one person’s reaction to a recent Inbound Study Tour, offered through Executive and Professional Education (EPE) in the College of Business at Florida International University (FIU). These short-term non-credit study modules have attracted students from around the world.
Early in the winter of 2013, the first Inbound Study Tour for graduate students from Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), Kuwait, took place. It drew 21 MBA students from GUST which is a partner institution in the Chapman Graduate School’s Dual Degree network. The university’s MBA director accompanied the group, which included bankers, teachers and members of family businesses.
The popular and intense residencies focus on different topics, and combine classroom experiences and company tours. The GUST program centered on real estate and international marketing.
Agenda provides depth and breadth.
The agenda included a number of presentations by faculty members, including William Hardin, director of the college’s Hollo School of Real Estate, and Ken H. Johnson, associate professor and Tibor and Sheila Hollo Research Fellow as well as local experts in real estate.
Twenty-five sessions examined an array of industry issues, from ways capital flows to real estate to the unique attributes of the real estate sector. In-depth information on marketing techniques—such as social media for entrepreneurs and benchmarking—conveyed uniquely American and international content.
One participant noted that the curriculum “helped [me] in knowing the state policy and structures,” while another praised the “great lectures and great subjects.”
Group members also had the opportunity to take three-hour walking and bus tours of retail, office and residential properties in Miami, Florida as well as pay company visits to Royal Caribbean and MasterCard.
