USF Business Has Grand Global Vision

Published: Jun 25, 2007

The University of South Florida's College of Business has entered the global marketplace in a big way with the launch of a program to deliver business degrees in Singapore. In developing the program, USF demonstrated the kind of gumption and innovation it tries to instill in its business students.

USF is partnering with the Center for American Education, a private company based in Singapore, which has been working with Broward Community College for the past 10 years to provide associate of arts degrees to business students. USF completes the picture and will now allow those students to earn a bachelor's degree.

USF will provide instruction to about 20 students in Singapore and allow another dozen students from Tampa to travel to Singapore for study-abroad programs lasting several weeks.

Singapore is a natural place for USF to be. It is the United States' ninth largest export market and our 15th largest trading partner, the U.S. Commerce Department reports. It is the easiest place to do business in Asia with a market most similar to that of the United States. Some financial analysts consider it the most competitive place to do business in the world, and it's also a convenient middle-ground for Chinese students wanting to study in the United States who cannot get visas.

The relationship comes without expense to the Tampa campus, says College of Business Dean Bob Forsythe. The costs of the effort are borne by the Center for American Education and USF has reorganized the class schedules for USF professors traveling to Singapore so that they can teach there for three weeks and still complete a full semester of their courses here in Tampa.

USF's College of Business is clearly on a track to establish an international presence. Forsythe says the school is close to completing an agreement to be the first public American university to provide an MBA program in Romania. Its presence in these emerging markets is key, not only to USF's stature among business colleges but in giving its students the kind of education that will give them an edge in today's global economy.

By entering these bold new partnerships, USF's business school is, in essence, practicing what it teaches.