CEMS celebrates the 25th anniversary
CEMS, one of the most appreciated projects of international cooperation among universities and international companies, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its establishment at the annual conference held in Barcelona on 28 – 30 November 2013. On this occasion, the University of Economics, Prague commemorates the 15th anniversary of its membership in the CEMS alliance.
The CEMS Global Alliance – formerly Community of European Management Schools and International Companies – was established in 1988 by four Western universities, which started to provide what was probably the first common (joint degree) M.A. program – Master in International Management. Close cooperation with corporate partners has been a specific feature of the program, which has differentiated it from other programs since its very beginning. The long-term corporate partners of VSE are Škoda Auto and Plzeňský Prazdroj.
In the second half of the 1990s, three universities from Central Europe – University of Economics, Prague, Corvinius University of Budapest from Hungary and Warsaw School of Economics from Poland – joined the strategic alliance of CEMS. As a reaction to globalization, the CEMS alliance has expanded to mainly non-European universities from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Canada, Russia, Singapore and Turkey. Their membership was acknowledged at the annual meeting in 2008 in Paris. Thus CEMS has become a global project, including 28 universities from around the world and more than 70 multinational companies (in Barcelona Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez from Chile will be admitted). Because of the enlargement of new members, the name of the community has been changed to: CEMS – The Global Alliance in Management Education.
At the annual conference, which will be held in Barcelona, a meeting of the Executive Committee will take place. VSE will be represented by Vice-Rector Prof. Machková, CEMS Academic Director Doc. Hnilica, CEMS Project Manager Ing. Böhmová and PR Coordinator Ing. Fischerová. Former VSE Rector Prof Durčáková will also participate as a special guest; she was responsible not only for VSE entering CEMS, but also the development of the whole alliance.
During the annual meeting all the important decisions are approved including the budget; the best teachers of the CEMS MIM program and the most successful projects are also awarded at this time. The highlight of the celebration will be Saturday’s graduation ceremony, which will be attended by a total of 694 students from all member schools, including 30 students of the University of Economics, Prague.
Beside the common M.A. program (CEMS MIM), which was in 2013 evaluated by the Financial Times magazine as the 7th best program in management education worldwide, the universities cooperate on various other projects. The cooperation includes traditional programs of student exchange, participation of professors in Interfaculty Groups, hosting of professors at the partner universities, realization of common publications and cooperation on research and Ph.D. studies as well as support of humanitarian projects.
Applications to the CEMS MIM master’s program for academic year 2014/2015, which is carried out by the Faculty of Business Administration at VSE, have to be submitted by 28.2.2014. More information can be found at: http://cemsmim.vse.cz/