“Without the offshore EMBA classes offered by National Taiwan University and Fudan University, I doubt that I would ever have undertaken an EMBA,” admits Sally Chen, president of ELTA Technology.

In 2012, ELTA became a household name when it beat other Taiwanese cable and free-to-air TV networks to win exclusive rights to local coverage of the London Olympic Games with a record bid of US$5 million.

In 2010, to prepare for a business move into mainland China—and because Chen herself was feeling she had reached a career impasse after more than a decade at ELTA—she decided to embark on further study. So she enrolled in the inaugural NTU–Fu­dan University offshore EMBA program.

For four days a month, she left behind her busy office to fly to Shanghai to attend classes at Fu­dan University. Comparing the styles of students from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, she notes that the Taiwanese tended to be more active in expressing their opinions in class, whereas mainland students took longer to overcome their reticence—but after a few classes together, they got to know each other well. “Through this very selective learning platform, I was able to make lifelong friends and contacts that will be beneficial for my future business activities.”

In the mergers and acquisitions class, students of the EMBA program at NTU listen attentively to a lecture on business strategy delivered by Du Ying-tzyong, vice chairman of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.

Designed as further education for senior managers, the EMBA was introduced from overseas to Taiwanese universities over 16 years ago. Back then, EMBA programs provided by National Taiwan University and National Cheng­chi University opened up a new route for local entrepreneurs to deepen their managerial skills.

NTU College of Management began the first EMBA program in Taiwan in 1997, and to date it boasts around 2000 alumni. The first class attracted nearly 1000 applicants, but only 44 were admitted, a selection rate of less than 5%—more competitive, in fact, than the university entrance exam.

A decade ago, most EMBA candidates were company owners or CEOs, but today the EMBA course has lost some of its gloss. A fall in candidate numbers and a rise in admission rates have become major issues for EMBA programs.

There were only 40 universities running EMBA courses in Taiwan eight years ago, but currently there are about 90. Each university expects to recruit around 40 to 225 students annually, with a total of 7000-plus spots offered by EMBA programs across Taiwan each year.

But despite the number of universities now running these programs, enrolments at NTU haven’t been seriously impacted, with 600-plus candidates applying for admission in recent years. In 2007, however, NTU reduced its classes from three to two in order to maintain an admission rate of around 25%—ensuring that the program is able to recruit top-tier students.

Changes to student composition in EMBA programs are strongly related to the fact that many Taiwanese industries are moving offshore. The director of the EMBA program at NTU, ­Huang ­Chung-­hsing, explains that in the early days many EMBA candidates were senior managers from foreign companies operating in Taiwan. But after 2004, many of these high-level executives moved to either mainland China or Hong Kong, so the number of students from foreign companies has fallen.

It’s not all classroom toil. EMBA students from NTU traveled to mainland China to put their resolve to the test in the Gobi Challenge.

“The number of local business owners and CEOs taking the course is not great, and the younger generation doesn’t count for many either. So the student base of NTU’s EMBA program has become one in which middle and senior managers have taken over as the main force,” says ­Huang.

In the light of this trend, the EMBA program at NTU has redirected its recruitment focus from CEOs and more experienced business leaders toward the younger business elite, the rising stars who show strong CEO potential.

Entry used to be limited to candidates from the three major sectors of technology, finance, and manufacturing. But today you are more likely to see candidates with professional skills, such as accountants, lawyers and physicians. Some students graduating from the program have quickly gone on to become successful entrepreneurs.

Keen Chang, founder of ez66.com.tw, whose customers tend to be older people, was inspired by the EMBA program to change careers and begin his own business venture.

In 2003, Chang, who was then the CEO of Uni­Miner, a data mining company, was starting to feel his lack of management skills, so he enrolled in the EMBA program at NTU. In the design and strategic marketing course, he was inspired by a classmate’s analysis of the prospects of the senior-oriented market in Japan. As a direct result of that experience, Chang decided to start his own business.

Chang’s company ez66 has established five brick-and-mortar stores across Taiwan with turnover increasing by nearly 30% per year over the past five years. Chang is just one of a number of students from his year of the EMBA program to begin new business ventures.

The inaugural graduation ceremony for students of the NTU–Fudan University joint EMBA program was held in late June 2013, marking a milestone for cross-strait EMBA education.

“Taiwan’s EMBA programs are following in the steps of similar developments that have occurred in undergraduate education, increasing enrollment rates. Faculty qualifications and course design are the keys to the growth of Taiwan’s EMBA programs. If we can’t keep up to date, it’s impossible to stand out in an area with such fierce competition,” says Lee Ji-ren, associate dean at the NTU College of Management.

In response to the practical needs of the students—mainly senior managers from industry—NTU has adjusted the structure of its EMBA program. Lee notes that in the early years, the program tended to follow the model of American MBA courses, with teaching separated into single subjects like human resources, finance, and marketing. But in order to meet the urgent needs of local students, the program began to emphasize multidisciplinary skills and problem solving.

In 2005, NTU introduced the case study teaching method from Harvard Business School, helping students solve business­ problems through case analysis. Currently about half of NTU’s EMBA courses are taught by case study, with a maximum of seven to eight cases studied in each subject.

EMBA courses aimed at senior management, a concept introduced from overseas, have attracted many business managers to return to study to update their skills.

As well as adjusting the program structure, NTU also targeted the overseas market by setting up offshore classes. The Ministry of Education announced a policy allowing Taiwan’s universities to set up special classes offshore in February 2010. So NTU immediately submitted an application for their EMBA program, which was quickly approved. NTU is cooperating with Fudan University in Shanghai to run a double-degree program—the NTU–Fudan EMBA. Students who complete 36 credits and submit a thesis are able to obtain a double degree from the two universities.

With the added value of cross-strait cooperation, NTU’s EMBA program has become even more significant. Unfortunately however, it’s turning out to be a little one-sided. It seems that businesspeople from Taiwan are more enthusiastic about enrolling than those from the mainland. ­Huang explains that most applicants from Taiwan are hoping to make contact with students from the mainland to build relationships which will help them explore the mainland market. Senior managers from the mainland, however, don’t seem to have the same purpose, so it’s perhaps natural that they don’t have a strong desire to study in the joint program.

“Taiwan is not their target market, so why would they want Taiwanese as their classmates?” ­Huang notes that under the current joint program, each university must recruit its own students. So all that NTU can do is to continue to improve and optimize its program to attract the more outstanding senior managers from Taiwan, in the hope that this will also encourage more mainland candidates to enroll in the joint course.

Although the joint setup is three times more expensive than NTU’s normal EMBA program staged in Tai­pei, it is creating great excitement and enthusiasm throughout the business community.

A number of company chairpersons and CEOs have returned to study in the joint EMBA program. Tony Ho, chairman of the Test Rite Group, ­Huang Kuan-hua, executive director of New Wide Enterprise, Edward Po, general manager of Royal Philips Taiwan and Sally Chen, president of ELTA, have all participated in the inaugural program.

At the end of June 2013, Sally Chen made a highly acclaimed speech at the graduation ceremony on behalf of her classmates. “The special NTU–Fudan EMBA class is a place where there are ‘crouching tigers and hidden dragons’ at every turn—every student is brilliant. One has to battle the masters in every lesson.”

As Taiwan’s most prestigious university, NTU has transformed its EMBA program, a revolution which will hopefully lead the way for many other education providers in Taiwan to break the bonds of tradition.