Cheung Kong School's EMBA programme: a well-kept secret available only to officials, entrepreneurs and celebrities.
Cheung Kong Graduate Business School is by far China’s most expensive and exclusive business school. However, the 650,000 yuan ($104,000) tuition fee is a drop in the ocean for its illustrious alumni. The rate of admission is low as only one in every 15 applicants gain a place at the school and even those must be either a government official, a millionaire entrepreneur or a television celebrity.
Over and above the syllabus, the school offers students a chance to hobnob, play golf and socialise with each other. Graduates of the program include Fu Chengyu, Chairman of Sinopec Group; Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group; and Wang Shi, head of China’s largest real estate development group Vanke, who recently sparked controversy in a high-profile affair with fellow classmate and renowned actress Tian Pujun.
The school, funded in part by Asia’s richest man Li Ka Shing, spares no expense educating its students. The first commencement of its EMBA class is held in the Great Hall of the People, the fourth CEO class was held in the Forbidden City and even the cloakrooms for its graduates are plush suites at five-star hotels.
For the busy CEO or hard-working celebrity, composing a defence and thesis can be time-consuming and difficult - a problem Cheung Kong is all to happy to address. In a bid to attract higher-profile figures, the school promised Zhang Quanling, a prominent TV broadcaster, she would be guaranteed a degree regardless of whether or not she actually took classes.
In China, there is a time-honoured maxim “knowledge changes fate”, but perhaps for Cheung Kong it is more who you know, not what you know that really counts.