Comparing the higher education between vnu is and kingston business school a focus on the ba international business programme

International Conference Internationalization o f H igher Education: North-South Perspectives COMPARING THE HIGHER EDUCATION BETWEEN VNU-IS AND KINGSTON BUSINESS SCHOOL -A FOCUS ON THE BA INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PROGRAMME Mai Ngọc Anh, MA In te rn a tio n a l S c h o o l - V N U H anoi, V ietnam Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse the learning outcomes, and therefore the educational quality, o f the programme 'BA International Business' between the International School-Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-IS) and Kingston Business School, London According to the research findings, Kingston Business School provides higher-quality education than VNU-IS However, although VNU-IS is still in its process o f becoming a modern, high-quality higher education system at international standard; this paper states that VNU-IS is pursuing the appropriate strategy for its internationalisation of higher education INTRODUCTION The aim o f this paper is to investigate and compare between the educational systems of Vietnam and the United Kingdom Especially, this paper focuses on the International School-Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-IS) and Kingston Business School which is part of Kingston University, London The particular programme to be scrutinised is called ‘BA International Business’ which is offered by both universities; hence it will be easier to analyse the quality of education between them In order to compare the educational quality between two Business Schools, it is reasonable to compare the learning outcomes of ‘BA International Business’ between VNU-IS and Kingston Business School The logic behind this research is that in order to compare the learning outcomes - hence the educational quality - between two universities, it is necessary to first examine the services and facilities that both universities offer; as well as the course content in BA International Business of both Business Schools For this reason, the paper will at first scrutinise the services and facilities that the Kingston Business School and VNU-IS provide for their students Afterwards, the course content of BA International Business at both universities will be analysed which will then lead to an evaluation and critical analysis o f both courses in section of this paper The research of this paper is based on sources from the relevant universities’ websites and personal study and working experience that has been gained in both universities 187 International Conference Internationalization o f H igher Education: North-South Perspectives KINGSTON BUSINESS SCHOOL 2.1 General facts about the Kingston Business School The Kingston Business School is located on Kingston Hill Campus, London, UK It is surrounded by a green environment which gives students a very pleasant atmosphere to study The first Kingston Business School opened in 1985 (Kingston Business School, 2012a) A remarkable fact is that a new Business School Building, called The Big Build, has just been opened in April 2012 The Big Build contains modern facilities such as work spaces and IT facilities for undergraduate- as well as postgraduate students, a business research hub which will include the Small Business Research Centre and research student offices, a 150-seat high-spec tiered lecture room, five computer rooms, universal Wi-Fi access and network systems in the main lecture theatre for streaming of lectures and video conferencing facilities (Kingston Business School, 2012b) The mission of Kingston’s Business faculty is to equip students to make effective contributions to society and the economy (Kingston Business School, 2012c) In order to achieve this objective, the faculty invests immensely in modern facilities and it recruits international- as well as national lecturers with high reputation and excellent teaching skills As it can be seen, Kingston University invested in total £26 million on the Big Build which now stands at the very front with some of the best facilities for business teaching in the country Moreover, Kingston Business School has been awarded an ‘excellent’ rating for its teaching by the Higher Education Funding Council, which reflects its excellent quality teaching (Kingston Business School, 2012d) In terms of international recognition and ranking, it is most remarkable that Kingston Business School is the first and one of only three business schools that acquire triple Association of MBA’s (AMBA) accrediation (MBA, Masters in Business Management and DBA) Additionally, it belongs to one of only 24 Business Schools in the UK with accrediation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Last but not least, Kingston Business School graduates rank in the top 10 starting salaries-in-the-UK; - 2.2 Services offered at Kingston Business School The Learning Resources Centre (LRC) The Learning Resources Centre (LRC), or also called as the Nightingale Centre, is the library at Kingston Hill campus (Kingston Business School, 2012e) It holds a wide collection of business textbooks, journals, market research reports and newspapers which provides excellent opportunities for business students to profound research for their assignments or team projects Besides, the LRC provides quiet individual study zones as well as bookable group study rooms The LRC is a building on its own with three floors whereby there is good wireless connection throughout the whole building Another remarkable fact to mention is that students have 24-hour access to the LRC during term time This is the reason why many Kingston Business students regard the LRC as their second home because o f the comfortable study environment and the services it provides 188 International Conference Internationalization o f H igher Education: North-South Perspectives Library catalogue iCat Besides the LRC, Kingston Business School also offers students to attain access to online resources through iCat which is an online library catalogue The iCat can be accessed on-campus, as well as offcampus so that students can still search for online academic articles while they are studying at home The iCat offers business journals, market research reports and financial databases from popular and reliable online sources, such as Mintel, EBSCO, Emerald, Springerlink, Jstor etc Business and Law Academ ic Skills Centre (BLASC) In addition to the wide range of academic resources that the Kingston Business School provides, BLASC is a service which offers Kingston students support on improving their academic skills (Kingston Business School, 2012f) BLASC's services include support for academic- and research skills, such as structuring students’ assignments, referencing and plagiarism; as well as improvement on English language skills for foreign students If students need help on either of these issues, they can easily arrange meetings with the staff working at BLASC which will take place in the LRC Many students often address a staff at BLASC when they have finished working on their assignments and need support on improving their academic writing style before submitting their assignments StudySpace StudySpace is an online learning tool which provides access to course materials, e.g lecture notes, audio-visual lectures, tutorials and previous exams (Kingston Business School, 2012g) Moreover, students can use StudySpace as a means of interacting with staff and other students in online chatrooms In other words, StudySpace is a web-based learning management system which assists students with their daily studies BA INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AT KINGSTON BUSINESS SCHOOL 3.1 General information Studying full-time BA International Business at Kingston University usually takes three years (Kingston Business School, 2012h) In this course students will gain a thorough understanding o f the basic key business disciplines; thereby focusing on international and global issues Students in BA International Business will be equipped with the fundamental knowledge and skills which prepare them to work in an international business environment Besides studying the main business- and management modules, the course also puts strong emphasize on equipping students with the relevant IT skills Last but not least, it is also remarkable to note that the programme considers the cultural aspects and -difficulties that occur when operating in International Business For this reason, Kingston business students will gain knowledge in at least one foreign language, e.g Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian or Spanish; and learn cross-cultural communication and behaviour 3.2, Course structure All undergraduate degree programmes in Kingston Business School share the same modules in their first year (Kingston Business School, 2012h) This allows students to first gain a thorough understanding of the basic business and management fields and then to transfer to a different course in their second year if they want to change their business field of interest 189 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives In their first year, all business students at Kingston University will gain a thorough knowledge and skills in business and management (Kingston Business School, 2012i) Thereby, the compulsory courses include: - Financial Accounting for Non-Specialists - Business Environment - Information Technology for Business - Managing Yourself and o thers - Quantitative Methods or Mathematics for Business In addition to that, students need to take at least one of the following modules, depending on their business programme: - Foreign Language - Law - Management Accounting - Marketing - Software Development and Computing Laboratory In their second year (Kingston Business School, 2012h), students will focus their study on courses relevant to International Business, including: - International Business and Institutions - Culture and International Business - Marketing.Management _ - Operations Management - Human Resource Management - Accounting for Business Performance - Intermediate language studies The third year is composed of strategic Management, and other internationally-focused business option modules The study programme then terminates with the submission of the student's dissertation on a business-related field The option modules that are offered during the second- and third year o f studies enable students to tailor their degree according to their own interest and career goals 190 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives Besides taking part on the three-year degree programme, students in BA International Business also have the option o f a 12-month international exchange or work placement in Europe, the United States or Hong Kong In case o f deciding for a work placement, the Placement Office at Kingston Business School has links to many reputational industries So far, students had opportunities to gain personal experience and gain professional skills in international companies, such as Toyota, The W alt Disney Company, British Airways, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lloyds TSB, Volkswagen, IBM etc 3.3 Learning outcomes BA International Business at Kingston University equips students with the relevant managerial- and cultural skills and competencies to work in an international business environment Students who are graduating from BA International Business course are guaranteed an Associate Membership of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which is a leading professional institution for managers (Kingston Business School, 2012j) With this membership students gain professional recognition and support services which help them to advance in their future career as a manager and in their proceeding studies The programme BA International Business at Kingston Business School is one of only a few numbers of schools which are accredited by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) In other words, the course BA International Business is of high educational standard which is an excellent foundation for the student's development in business life As already mentioned, graduates at Kingston Business School rank in the top 10 starting salaries in the UK The majority of students graduating from BA International Business continue their studies for postgraduate degrees However, graduates that choose to pursue a job position after their studies in BA International Business got recruited e.g as account executive, government officer, marketing co-ordinatior or operations manager Thereby, their employers include e.g JP Morgan, Swedish Embassy, Logic, Blue Pen etc (Kingston Business School, 2012k) As it can be seen, since BA International Business teaches a wide range of business fields, students graduating from this course therefore gain career opportunities across a wide range of business disciplines and sectors INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL - VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (VNUSS) 4.1 General facts about the VNU-IS The International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-IS) was established in July 2002, and it belongs to one of the first higher education institutions in Vietnam which offers joint international training programmes (VNU-IS, 2012a) VNU-IS is located in Hacinco student Village which offers students both an excellent study environment, as well as recreation environment containing football fields, badmintonand volleyball courts (VNU-IS, 2012b) The International School puts strong emphasize on cooperating with reputational foreign international universities VNU-IS has links to more than 30 partner universities from all over the world, e.g HELP University College (Malaysia), Queensland University (Australia), Thompson River University (Canada) etc (VNU-IS, 2012c) So far, the number of joint international 191 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives undergraduate study programmes are taught in English, Russian, French and Chinese As it is stated in the IS’s mission statement, the school aims at becoming a modern, high-educational institutions in order to equip students with the relevant business competencies to foster the country’s socio-economic development (VNU-IS, 2012d) Thereby, the vision of VNU-IS is clearly to become an independent international university It is important to note that for the education of international business, VNU-IS not only regards scientific knowledge, but it also includes foreign languages in its course structure as learning a foreign language is a vital basis for understanding and trading with international partners Another positive point to mention about the joint training programmes with international universities is that VNU-IS adopts the curricula and syllabi from its international partner universities; however, it still adapts the study programmes according to Vietnam ’s cultural and socio-economic conditions Last but not least, VNU-IS’s slogan is “Study and Create with the World" (VNU-IS, 2012e) Hence, VNU-IS welcomes students who have a big vision and are keen on preparing for a successful international business career in order to contribute to the country’s economic development 4.2 Services offered at VNU-1S Physical facilities VNU-IS provides a wireless system throughout the whole school building so that students can have access to the Internet for research- and education purposes (VNU-IS, 2012f) Furthermore, the International School possesses separate computer rooms with high-speed PCs In order to ensure goodquality teaching, the classrooms at VNU-IS contain a high-quality sound-system, Internet-connected PCs, projectors, slide screens, as well as other audio-visual aids VNU-IS Learning Resources The VNU-IS library is situated within the first two floors o f the International School building In total, it contains nearly 11.000 books in foreign languages; textbooks in Economics, Management, Science and Technology; as well as other reference books (VNU-IS, 2012c) Besides, there are also computers available so that students can research without having to bring their own laptops Moreover, HELP University College (Malaysia) supplies IS students with 'Proquest Online' which is an online database of 125 billion electronic pages In addition to that, other international partner universities such as Keuka College (USA) and University o f Paris Sud 11 (France) also provide IS students with relevant electronic books, text books and other reference resources Teaching staff at VNU-IS Since the objective o f VNU-IS is to create an international course scheme with high-educational standards, most of the teachers and guest lecturers are either foreign teachers or Native Vietnamese people who have pursued their postgraduate studies abroad In total, VNU-IS recruits 197 Vietnameseand foreign lecturers, amongst whom 58 belong to VNU, 77 outside VNU and 62 foreign lecturers (VNUIS, 2012g) Dividing the teaching staff according to their degrees; there are 20 professors, 12 associate professors, doctors o f science and 107 doctorates who are contributing to VNU-IS’s high-education system 192 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives BA INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AT VNU-IS 5.1 General information BA International Business at VNU-IS is an international joint programme in partnership with Illinois state University (United States) whereby VNU (Hanoi) is the degree issuer (VNU-IS, 2012h) The duration of this course amounts four years, i.e eight semesters Since it is an international study programme, all courses are taught in English language, except for courses that support the Vietnamese ideology such as National Defence and the Principles of Marxism-Leninism An advantage of studying BA International Business at VNU-IS is that students can choose their minor in their studies between Accounting, Finance and Marketing Hence students have the freedom to tailor their course according to their own career focus and business interests All books that are utilised in this course stem from entrusting publishing houses (e.g Prentice-Hall, McGraw-Hill) that are also commonly implemented in international Business Schools, which therefore guarantees students a high education based on international standards 5.2 Course structure The first and second year of studying BA International Business serve to equip students with the general knowledge of traditional business and international business (VNU-IS, 2012h) During the third and fourth year the focal point will be laid on international business, as it can be seen in the outline given below Year 1: - Principles of Marxism-Leninism and Year 2: - Ho-Chi-Minh’s Ideology - Advanced English and - Mathematics for Economics - English for Specific Purposes and - Macroeconomic - Fundamental Informatics - Principles of Accounting - Advanced Mathematics - Principles of Marketing - English Writing Skills -Physical Education - Probability and Statistics - Introduction to Law - Revolutionary Line of Vietnam Communist Party - Microeconomics - Managerial Accounting - Physical Education - Introduction to International Business - Military Education 1, and Year 3: Year 4: - Corporate Finance - Global Supply Chain Management - Business Organization and Management - International Human Resource 193 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives - Operation Management Management - Organizational strategy - International Management - Information Systems in Organizations - International Business Internship - International Business Law - International Trade Management - International Accounting - International Finance - International Marketing Besides the compulsory subjects, students also have to choose among elective courses depending on their minor of interest from their second study year onwards At the end of the course, students are required to work on a graduation project and write a dissertation on either “Business in Multicultural Environment” or “Multinational Enterprises Management” 5.3 Learning outcomes The benefit of studying BA International Business is to acquire fundamental skills and competencies in International Business; especially in market analysis, decision-making, planning, organising, controlling and managing business activities in the international environment (VNU-IS, 2012h) Besides the professional knowledge, students also learn to improve on their writing techniques, communication- and presentation skills, computer skills, self-study and research, as well as on team work These £.ompMe.acie.s_are_highly_appr_e.ciated.b_y_enterpris.es.; henc.e_VN.U-LS_s.tud.ents_can_gain_a competitive advantage over other graduates in the recruiting process In addition to that, as students in BA International Business take English courses extensively and as all their business courses are taught in English, their English skills will be much better than from those students who not study in an international program Therefore, graduates in BA International Business will have a big advantage in getting recruited, especially in international companies Last but not least, VNU-IS also stresses to educate its students on their attitude and moral discipline Therefore, after completing courses in Principles of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s Ideology, National Defence and Military Education students will have a better attitude towards professional ethics, sense of serving people, building and defending the country and cooperative spirit with colleagues The learning outcomes mentioned above help students to successfully advance in their business career It is proven that VNU-IS’s students are highly appreciated by the Vietnamese- and foreign labour market (VNU-IS, 2012e) Students graduating from BA International Business meet the requirements to work in a wide range of business fields, such as policy makers in state management bodies, trade representatives, international trade executives, investment consultants, accountants, international marketing staff etc (VNU-IS, 2012h) 194 International Conference Internationalization o f H igher Education: North-South Perspectives EVALUATION & CONCLUSION In this paper it is believed that the services and facilities that the university provides, and the course structure have a tremendous impact on the students’ learning outcomes Hence, in order to compare the learning outcomes between the BA International Business courses of Kingston Business School and VNU-IS, it is at first essential to analyse the services and course schemes that are offered at each Business School In general, both Kingston Business School and VNU-IS offer the same basic services, such as wirelessnetwork within the School building, computer rooms, as well as classrooms with sound-systems and beamers Concerning the library standard at each institution, Kingston Business School owns the Learning Resource Building which provides students 24-hour access; whereas VNU-IS’s library is situated in its IS School Building Since Kingston’s LRC has its own building, it is bigger and provides more study space and literature on business for students than VNU-IS Moreover, in Kingston’s LRC there are separate computer rooms on each floor; and the quality of wireless is also better than in the library of VNU-IS Even within the International School building it is sometimes difficult for students to get connected to the school’s wireless-network Taken from empirical investigation, the teaching environment at both Kingston Business School and VNUIS is perceived to be very friendly The student-lecturer relationships in both schools are very close students are more than welcome to ask questions or give their own opinion during the lectures, and they can ask the lecturers about their assignment or other educational issues by dropping an email Moreover, lecturers are willing to answer students’ questions in the lecturers' office during their office hours However, the difference between the lecturers at VNU-IS and Kingston Business School is that lecturers at VNU-IS offer students the option to call on their private number if any need o f educational assistance may arise The option o f calling lecturers outside their official working hours may designate that lecturers at VNU-IS are more reachable and more dedicated in supporting their students than the lecturers at Kingston Business School As it has been observed, VNU-IS does not offer the necessary online learning services Unlike Kingston Business School, VNU-IS students studying BA International Business not have an online library service in order to download academic papers online By surveying IS-students pursuing the BA International Business programme, it has been found out that in writing assignments students basically look for information on the website www.google.com This severely affects students' assignment quality, as well as their understanding of researching and referencing properly In fact, whereas students at VNUIS use www.wikipedia.org and blog entries as their references, it is seriously prohibited to cite those websites at Kingston Business School to the extent that the student's assignment is very probable to get failed Thinking in the medium-term, if IS-students graduating from their BA International Business programme decide to study abroad, they may have a hard time on referencing properly in their assignments which in turn affects their grades Moreover, IS-students studying BA International Business not have an online service where they can download lecture slides and discuss online with teaching staff or other students etc., like it is provided by Kingston’s StudySpace website On the contrary, the lecturers at VNU-IS have opened a yahoo account for BA International Business students to access lecture slide online StudySpace is more convenient than creating a yahoo account for the whole class, since at Kingston Business School every student can go on 195 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives his or her own StudySpace website by entering their own Kingston University number and password; hence on StudySpace students can control their study arrangements and online tools individually Moreover, on StudySpace students can view their own grades online and choose their own elective courses; whereas these tools are impossible to arrange in a yahoo email group account Concerning the course schemes of BA international Business at both Kingston Business School and VNU-IS, one can shortly state that the courses are quite similar in their contents because of three main reasons Firstly, the course structure at VNU-IS is fundamentally adopted from Western educational institutions Secondly, the lecturers at both universities mainly use books for their teaching that are from internationally recognised publishing companies like McGraw-Hill and Prentice Hall Thirdly, since the lecturers at VNU-IS had studied abroad, they have also picked up the teaching techniques of their corresponding lecturers This advantage helps Vietnamese lecturers to adopt the dynamic and precise teaching style o f W estern countries, but still adapting their teaching technique to the Vietnamese culture The only difference between the course structures offered at both universities is that VNU-IS’s study programme still includes course modules that emphasize the Vietnamese ideology such as Ho-Chi-Minh’s Ideology, National Defence and the Principles of Marxism-Leninism In order to conclude, the infrastructure at Kingston Business School - including the building, library and classroom facilities - is o f higher quality than at VNU-IS With respect to education, VNU-IS (like many other universities in Vietnam) is still in its developing stage For this reason, VNU-IS is adopting course programmes from international well-recognised Business universities in order to achieve the educational standards of an international university To mention it again, the main objective of VNU-IS is to become an international university On the contrary, Kingston Business School already has the recognition of being an international institution with high-educational standards Particularly, BA International Business at Kingston Business School is one of only a few numbers o f schools which is accredited by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) In general, Vietnam and the United Kingdom are at different educational stages, particularly with respect to higher education For this reason, VNU-ÍS and Kingston Business School each focus their investment -p ro je c ts -o n d iffe re n t-a re a s —V N tH S is H n v e s tin g -o n -th e n n te rn a tio n a lisa tio n -o M ts_ highereducationprogrammes with the aim of creating a high-quality international learning environment On the contrary, as Kingston Business School - as well as many other Business Schools in the Western world - is already at the educational stage where VNU-IS is striving to be, Kingston Business School can now focus on investing in the School’s infrastructure This may partly be a reason why the building and classrooms at VNU-IS are not yet as well equipped as at Kingston Business School Although Kingston Business School provides better facilities and online learning services than VNU-IS, this does not necessarily mean that their teaching quality is also better than at VNU-IS In fact, the lecturers at VNU-IS are more reachable than those lecturers at Kingston Business School In addition to that, the majority of lecturers at VNU-IS have an international educational background, i.e at least their Master’s or PhD degree have been attained from a Western country which is mostly the UK, France and USA To sum up, VNU-IS is still in its process of reaching the international educational level and recognition where other internationally-recognised universities, such as Kingston Business School, are already standing now For this reason, Kingston Business School possesses a more stable course programme with international standard, more lecturers with teaching experience at international universities and better 196 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives facilities As a result, students graduating from BA International Business at Kingston Business School gain more learning outcomes and therefore have a brighter career prospective than those students graduating from VNU-IS Obviously, most graduates will not stop their studies at Bachelor’s level but will continue with their Master’s degree However, it is still essential for Business Schools to equip Bachelor's students with as many professional skills and knowledge as possible since this will be a better springboard for students to advance in their career in international business later on In the short-term, it is necessary for VNU-IS to provide students pursuing BA International Business access to electronic databases for research; such as Mintel, Emerald, Jstor, Springerlink etc in order to write academic papers based on reliable resources and to give them the opportunity to find more profound information on their research field Moreover, it is advisable if VNU-IS would provide the service of an online learning resource (such as StudySpace) so that students get information on their own courses and grades, and navigate their own study programme In the long-term perspective, it is hoped that VNU-IS can also invest in its building and interior facilities in order to closer match to the standards of an international business institution However, one must also mention that although VNU-IS is still in its emerging process, it is already highly developed in terms of its educational standard compared to other Vietnamese universities that are run by the state Last but not least, VNU-IS adopts a suitable strategy ill its education’s internationalisation process As it has been observed, the course structure of BA International Business at VNU-IS is similar to internationally-recognised universities However, VNU-IS does not fully copy and implement the structure of other international universities in its own educational system, but it still adapts to its own culture which can be seen in the course structure and teaching style at VNU-IS As it has been practised by VNU-IS, one should note that the internationalisation process of higher education is to implement the global structure, but still, to arrange the university’s educational courses based on the local system in order to respond to national needs REFERENCES VNU-IS (2012a) About us Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/1 (Accessed: 15 June VNU-IS (2012b) Facilities supporting students'life Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/255 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) VNU-IS (2012c) Library Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/254 (Accessed: 15 June 2012 ) 2012) VNU-IS (2012d) Vision & Mission Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/239 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) VNU-IS (2012e) Message from the Rector Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/235 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) VNU-IS (2012f) Physical Facilities Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/242 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) VNU-IS (2012g) About us: Statistics Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/243 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) VNU-IS (2012h) International Business (with minors in Accounting, Finance, Marketing) Available at: http://www.khoaquocte.vn/Article/lndex/270 (Accessed: 15 June 2012) Kingston Business School (2012a) Our History Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/aboutus/our-history (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 197 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives 10 Kingston Business School (2012b) Kingston Business School building Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/about-us/kingston-hill-campus/kingston-business-school-building (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 11 Kingston Business School (2012c) W elcome from the Dean Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/about-us/welcome-from-the-dean (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 12 Kingston Business School (2012d) W hat sets us apart Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/about-us/what-sets-us-apart (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 13 Kingston Business School (2012e) The Nightingale Centre: the Learning Resources Centre at Kingston Hill Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/about-us/kingston-hill-campus/nightingalecentre (Accessed: 15 Jiine 2012) 14 Kingston Business School (2012f) Business and Law Academic Skills Centre (BLASC) Available at: http://business.kingston.ac.uk/about-us/kingston-hill-campus/business-and-law-academic-skills-centre (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 15 Kingston Business School (2012g) StudySpace Available at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate/why-choose-kingston-university/innovation/studyspace/ (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 16 Kingston Business School (2012h) International Business BA(Hons) Available at: http://w w w kingston.ac.Uk/undergraduate-course/international-business-2013/#m odulelist (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 17 Kingston Business School (2012i) International Business BA(Hons): Business School First Year Available at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate-course/international-business-2013/sharedfirst-year.html (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 18 Kingston Business School (2012j) International Business BA(Hons): Professional recognition Available at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate-course/international-business2013/professional-recognition.html (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 19 Kingston Business School (2012k) International Business BA(Hons): After you graduate Available at: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate-course/intemational-business-2013/after-you-graduate.html (Accessed: 15 June 2012) 198 ... 192 International Conference Internationalization o f Higher Education: North-South Perspectives BA INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AT VNU- IS 5.1 General information BA International Business at VNU- IS is... of international recognition and ranking, it is most remarkable that Kingston Business School is the first and one of only three business schools that acquire triple Association of MBA’s (AMBA)... International Management - Information Systems in Organizations - International Business Internship - International Business Law - International Trade Management - International Accounting - International