APPENDIX 11
Memorandum submitted by Professor David
Bennett, Technology Management and Co-ordinator of International
Development, Aston Business School, Birmingham
Thank you for your invitation to submit evidence
in relation to the above enquiry. I am replying on behalf of the
Head of Aston Business School.
Aston Business School is one of Aston University's
four schools of study. It has around 70 full-time academic staff
and 1,700 students (almost 30 per cent of the university's total
student complement). It is a "full range" school offering
undergraduate, postgraduate and management development education.
It also has a large research and doctoral programme. The school
as a whole is accredited by EQUIS (the European Quality Improvement
System) and the MBA programme, in all its modes of study, has
accreditation from ABMA (the Association of MBAs).
The opening-up of the People's Republic of China
has had a significant impact on our school in recent years, across
all our areas of activity. For example there has been a dramatic
increase in the number of applications received and students admitted
from China on our postgraduate programme. In the five-year period
between 1993 and 1997 there were altogether 13 Chinese students
enrolled on the programme. In 1998 alone there were 19 and in
1999 there were 21 (note, approximately 15 per cent of applicants
from China are accepted on to the programme). This now makes Chinese
nationals the single largest foreign group on the postgraduate
programme. In addition it should be noted that there are only
slightly fewer students enrolled from Hong Kong SAR and a similar
number from Taiwan. On our undergraduate programme, which is much
larger, the number of Chinese students enrolled is currently about
12 to 15 per year. The majority of Chinese students on our taught
programmes are privately funded and their families often appear
to be among China's "nouveau riche". When they return
to China it is usually to commercial organisations and companies
rather than state enterprises and government bodies. In many cases
these companies will be foreign funded, ie joint ventures or wholly
foreign-owned subsidiaries.
Although the impact on our management development
programme has not as yet been widely felt it is notable that discussions
are currently underway with a large Chinese chemical corporation
with a view to providing some management training both in the
UK and within the company's facilities in China.
The other big area of impact from China has
been our research and doctoral programme. We have recently undertaken
a large number of projects relating to China, several of which
have been conducted in collaboration with Chinese institutions.
Members of staff of our school have visited China on a regular
basis to undertake research investigations. Our collaborators
have included educational institutions such as Renmin (People's)
University in Beijing, Tianjn University and Fudan University
in Shanghai. We have also collaborated with bodies such as the
China Society for Research on Economic System Reform and the State
Science and Technology Commission. These projects have mainly
addressed issues and questions relating to the formation and operation
of foreign funded enterprises and the transfer of science and
technology. Beneficiaries of the research are usually British
companies and organisations that wish to establish operations
in China or want to improve their knowledge of the Chinese situation.
In undertaking our investigations we have worked with a large
number of British companies in, for example, the machine tools
and electronics industries. Funding for our research has been
from various sources including the British Council, the UK Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council and the European Union.
One particularly relevant research assignment we have carried
out recently is for the European Commission Directorate General
1 titled "China and European Economic Security: Study on
medium to long term impact of technology transfer to China"
which assessed the potential impact on EU competitiveness, over
the medium to long term, of the transfer to China of European
advanced technology (including R&D capacity). Our report to
the Commission recommended that firms themselves, rather than
the EU or national governments, are in the best position to make
decisions on technology transfer and collaborations in China to
enable them to best access the Chinese market and to use China
as a base for research and development activities and production.
On our doctoral programme there has, as on our
taught programmes, been a significant increase in applications
from China. In the last five years or so about 15 Chinese students
have graduated with a PhD and about five with an MSc by research.
This represents about 20 per cent of the total number of graduates
from the programme. Often their research is related to management
issues in China and they conduct their investigations into Chinese
companies and institutions. Like those on the taught programmes
the research students from China are mainly funded privately.
The Chinese government appears normally to only fund overseas
postdoctoral research for limited periods. In part this is probably
because of earlier experiences of students failing to return to
China at the end of their PhD studies.
A particularly important development arising
out of our research in China, and elsewhere in the region, has
been the establishment of the "Aston Centre for Asian Business
and Management". Sixteen members of staff of the school are
attached to this centre, which is now the focal point of our research
on Central and East Asia. Two of these staff are Chinese nationals
specialising in economics. The centre also acts as the host organisation
for visiting scholars from Asia. We have received approximately
10 scholars from China in recent years for periods of between
one month and one year and the number of applications is increasing
rapidly. They are usually academic staff from universities or
from research institutes (eg under the industry ministries or
the Chinese Academy of Sciences). Their funding is very limited
and typically only covers travel and subsistence. They can bring
benefit to our school by collaborating with our own staff but
do create pressure on our resources. For this reason we have introduced
a "bench fee" similar to that charged by university
science departments.
In summary, the Aston Business School is actively
engaged with China through all its taught programmes and its research
activities. In most cases students are privately funded and return
to China to work with commercial firms, many of which will be
foreign funded and sometimes British (eg one of our Chinese PhD
graduates was subsequently employed by ICI in Beijing and is now
the General Manager of a Norwegian company in China). The beneficiaries
of our research in China are British companies and organisations
that are seeking to undertake business in China through foreign
direct investment and need information on how to do this most
efficiently and with least economic risk. Our research on technology
transfer has established that most firms are aware of the techno-economic
security risks associated with investing in China and are taking
appropriate measures to protect their proprietary know-how and
hence their competitiveness.
I hope this evidence is of use to the Committee.
Please contact me again if you require further information or
clarification on any of the points I have mentioned.
| 
