The University of Chicago Booth School of Business will relocate its Asia Executive MBA (EMBA) Program from Singapore to Hong Kong in an effort to attract more of the Chinese market, the school announced last week. It will continue to have a presence in Singapore after the new Hong Kong location opens in 2014.
“Expanding into Hong Kong allows us to have impact on future leaders in business and build new corporate relationships in North Asia as well, complementing our activities,” Chicago Booth Dean Sunil Kumar said in a statement, noting that the successful Singapore campus has helped the school build great momentum in South Asia over the past 13 years.
According to a Financial Times report on the planned relocation, Chicago Booth expects to pay $30 million for the new Hong Kong site, which will be in the upmarket Mount Davis district on Hong Kong Island, in a building that was a former detention center for political prisoners. The school won access to the land as part of a land grant competition organized by the Hong Kong government, according to the FT report. Chicago Booth noted in a statement that the final land grant is still subject to local accreditation, town planning and preservation approval.
Chicago Booth hopes the new Hong Kong location will be open for business in 2016. The EMBA class that began its 21-month program in 2013 in Singapore will finish out the program there, but the 2014 cohort will enroll in a temporary location in Hong Kong until the permanent campus is complete. Kumar told the FT that intake for the first two years in Hong Kong may be slightly lower than the usual 80 to 90.
Learn more about Chicago Booth’s planned relocation of its EMBA Program from Singapore to Hong Kong.
