The College of Business at Eastern Michigan University
has signed an agreement with the University of Management
and Technology (UMT), a private university in Lahore,
Pakistan, that offers undergraduate, master's and doctoral
degrees in business.
"This agreement provides an excellent opportunity for
UMT graduate students to complete an EMU graduate certificate
in a discipline not currently offered at their university," said
David Mielke, dean of EMU's College of Business. "For
example, UMT does not offer many courses in supply chain
management. The students will enroll here, earn a
supply chain management graduate certificate and then transfer
these courses back to UMT to fulfill requirements for their
MBA."
EMU's COB offers five-course graduate certificates in
10 areas: business administration, computer information
systems, E-business, entrepreneurship, finance, human resource
management, international business, marketing management,
organizational development and supply chain management.
It is expected that Pakistani graduate and undergraduate
students will study at EMU for a semester or a year starting
as early as January 2008, said Mielke.
"We are encouraging interaction with UMT faculty and students
by having our faculty serve on "virtual" doctoral committees
for their students. This is an exciting addition to the
agreement which can foster joint research and collaboration," Mielke
said.
UMT has modeled its business curriculum after U.S. business
schools.
A current EMU graduate student, who received his bachelor's
degree at UMT, first proposed the agreement. The
student made a connection with Rashid Kausar, director
of international programs at UMT, who studied in Michigan
for 10 years.
"We were very interested in developing a partnership with
EMU. I was very familiar with the quality of their
business programs from my time spent in the state," said
Kausar. "It is very important for the education of
our business students to study in the U.S. EMU is
the perfect partner because of their emphasis on international
agreements."
Lahore, where UMT is based, is considered the educational
center of Pakistan.
This partnership marks the fourth international agreement
for the COB, which has agreements in Korea, India and China.
