AN SA-US academic link-up focusing on international marketing has made its entry on the local training calendar.
This innovative joint course teams up Wits University BCom students with fellows at the Ohio State University (OSU) in multinational business planning with both teams communicating through teleconference and Internet links.
On the ground, the two universities also share their professorial talents, with Steve Burgess of Wits and Steve Hills of OSU interchanging roles as guest lecturers at each other's institutions.
This programme at Wits, said Rose Blatch of ITRISA (International Trade Institute of Southern Africa), is highly innovative, and is a good sign that SA universities are getting more involved in international trade education.
And, from a tertiary point-of-view, Professor Burgess is quite happy that SA is up to speed in training for international marketing. We have an extremely good reputation in that field, he told FTW.
Indeed, his SA-aligned book, The New Marketing is one of the bibles on the subject, and is currently being globalised in its content for international distribution.
The joint Wits/OSU training scheme is a world first - and an initiator towards an eight-university link-up planned to go on-line soon. Wits will be an essential part of this ambitious project by OSU, said Burgess.
Hills, meantime, also has an impressive CV. He is an expert in international trade in emerging economies, with extensive experience in China, the Pacific Rim and Latin America - and an impressive publication record.
The interaction between the two bodies of students was at a high level, Hills said, talking about the joint-course, and the classes learned a lot from each other.
We have agreed with Wits to repeat the course next year,
And the funding - coming from Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) via Fisher College of Business at OSU - has been confirmed for next year, according to Burgess. We have also received generous support from the US Department of Commerce, he told FTW.
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