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The Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF ) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has earned the accreditation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) less than seven years after it was founded, thus becoming one of the youngest business schools in the world to be accredited. Founded in 1916, the business association is the oldest and one of the most prestigious global accrediting bodies for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees in business and accounting. Less than five percent of the world's business schools have earned its recognition, which is often considered as a hallmark of excellence in business education. On average, the accreditation process takes 5-7 years to finish. "SAIF confirmed alignment with 15 global accreditation standards, while demonstrating how it achieves success within each of the three pillars on which AACSB accreditation rests — engagement, innovation and impact," Robert D. Reid, AACSB's executive vice president and chief accreditation officer, said in an announcement of the accreditation. Built in 2009 by the Shanghai municipal government to assist its goal of turning the largest city of China into a global finance hub and to satisfy the urgent developing needs of the city and country's financial industry, SAIF is known for its world-class faculty composed of mostly professors recruited through a rigorous process from internationally-renowned business schools in North America and Europe. SAIF officially kicked off its application for accreditation in early 2013 and completed the process in about three years. “The AACSB accreditation affirms the operational model of our institute and the achievements we have made so far,” said Chun Chang, Executive Dean of SAIF. Currently, SAIF offers the most comprehensive portfolio of business education programs specialized in finance in China, including the Master of Finance (MF), MBA, EMBA, DBA (Doctor of Business Administration), Ph.D. and EDP (Executive Development Program) programs. “We benchmark ourselves against leading finance departments and business schools. The AACSB accreditation represents a milestone as we enter a new chapter of development and internationalization,” Chang said, adding that SAIF’s goal is to become a world-class institute of advanced learning, research and think tank in finance and management in the long run.

SAIF Annual Faculty Retreat 2016 was held in Shanghai on July 18th and 19th. Full-time professors, special-term professors, management team and representatives from relevant departments attended the two-day retreat. Presentations given by deans and program heads focused on the School’s achievements in institution building and AACSB Accreditation, and programs’ progress in admission and teaching respectively. Participants had discussions on a broad range of topics in teaching, learning and research, including international collaboration, teaching innovation, China related research, faculty development, etc. The goals for the faculty retreat are to build a shared picture of the School’s strategic directions and challenges, to share innovative ideas and suggestions to enhance teaching and learning, to develop collaboration across departments, and to strengthen ties among full-time professors and special-term professors.

Editor's Note: Brendan Kelly, a 2nd year MBA student at Notre Dame, has become a pioneer in the school's relationship with SAIF. Brendan shared his experience of studying and life in Shanghai through a blog post.Two QuestionsTwo months ago, my fiancée and I arrived in Shanghai with four suitcases, a couple of guidebooks, and maybe a dozen useful phrases in Mandarin. We had no place to live, no working Chinese cell phone, and only a rudimentary understanding of the layout of the city. Our friends back home were split into two camps, defined by two very different questions, “Why are you moving to China?” versus “When can we come visit?” The answer to the second question was easy: as soon as we sign a lease. The first question is more profound and requires further introspection, but our instinctive response was “Because we can.”The OpportunityIn March of 2012, Notre Dame announced a new partnership with the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The new partnership opened up an exchange program where Notre Dame MBA students would have the opportunity to take classes at SAIF and live in Shanghai from August to January. My fiancée and I talked about the program, what implications it could have on our futures, and ultimately decided that the opportunity to live and study in a city as dynamic as Shanghai was too good to pass up. When we eventually received word that I was accepted into the program we were elated but anxious. We love Notre Dame and cherish the Mendoza community that first led me to believe that Notre Dame was the right place to further my business acumen. We would be loath to leave our friends and family more than 7,000 miles away. However, the more we considered the opportunity, we realized that spending six months in Shanghai was more than just a chance to study abroad, it was the best way to follow one of my favorite dictum’s from Mark Twain, to “never let my schooling interfere with my education.”The ProgramSAIF's MBA program focuses almost exclusively on finance so my seven elective courses run the gamut from Private Equity in Practice to Corporate Governance in China. While I often miss my classmates and professors from Notre Dame, my new colleagues at SAIF have all proven friendly, intellectually curious, and thoughtful. The bulk of my classmates are Chinese Part-Time MBA students. The insight that they provide to our classes after working full-time in many of China’s leading financial companies has been invaluable to my education. My fellow foreign exchange students, a mix of Danish, German, Canadian, Thai, Icelandic, and British graduate students have further emphasized the international make-up of Shanghai and have been a great support system as we navigate the waters of Shanghai together.The ExperienceDuring our first few days, we were truly overwhelmed by the size and pace of Shanghai. Skyscrapers dominate the business districts on either side of the Huangpu River and towering apartment buildings are as numerous as neighborhood noodle shops. The noise on the street is an endless cacophony of shouted conversations, continuous construction work, and thousands upon thousands of bleating car and motorized-bike horns. However as we spent more time here, became more acquainted with the labyrinthine streets, and delved into the rich cultural milieu of our new city we have grown to love it here. We have both been taking Mandarin classes and have learned enough that we can have brief conversations with friends, order off of almost any menu, and even read a few dozen Chinese characters.While we occasionally miss some of the comforts of America, Shanghai is beginning to feel like home. And thanks to the Notre Dame Club of Shanghai, we have even been able to catch most of the Notre Dame Football games. It has made the world feel very small and interconnected to cheer on the Fighting Irish knowing that our friends and family are doing the same thing half a world away. Perhaps that’s been the most immediate lesson of my education so far: the world is staggeringly large, but the networks we create and the communities we become involved can help connect us, even 7,000 miles away.

SAIF MF program is always devoted to establishing the strategic cooperation relation with the financial industry and providing more high-quality industrial resources for students accordingly, allowing them to closely keep pace with the demand and development of the industry either in classroom learning, skills training or personal career development. The cooperation of SAIF with the industry not only rests on school and each teaching projectlevel, but also covers every student deeply. To help every student develop better and broadenstudents’ industrial vision, SAIF recruits nearly 100 senior administrative personnel with richindustrial experience and successful experience from the famous enterprises and institutes infinancial industry as the industrial mentors of the students. Each industrial mentor only coach oneto two students on average. SAIF organizes the exchange meeting for industrial mentors and students. However, the communicationefficiency and contact degree between mentors and students more depend on the students’sociability. These industrial mentors will not only become the students’ good teachers in careerdevelopment, but also may become good friends of students in life, which is a great help to thefuture development of SAIF MF students.

China Academy of Financial Research (CAFR) is the open research platform and high-end think tank with international level founded relying on Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF). CAFR in SAIF is to help all sectors of society solve major financial problems and challenges by applying modern financial economic theory and practice experience and provide the innovative thoughts, programs, products and technologies meeting the needs of market and policy to the construction and development of China’s modern financial market.SAIF CAFR has an international first-rate research team composed of more than 50 famous financial scholars, senior government officers and officials of financing institutions home and abroad in total at present. This team not only has the global vision and has a good knowledge of the financial theory and practice, but also deeply understands Chinese market. In the just two years since SAIF CAFR was founded, it has obtained rich achievements: publishing more than 20 articles in international top magazines; completing 14 researches on major financial problems involved with the international, national and regional level; “Chinese Summer Institute of Finance” founded by it has become the most influential academic communication platform for finance in China; “Shanghai Finance Forum” organized by it has become the high-end communication platform for Shanghai to construct the international financial center.SAIF CAFR attaches great importance to the long-term cooperation with all sectors of society. At present, the financial institutes we have established the cooperation relations with include: Shanghai headquarter of People's Bank of China, Wind Information, Shanghai Municipal Development & Reform Commission, Financial Service Office of Shanghai City, and Shanghai Financial Association. In the future, CAFR will carry out the wide and deep cooperation with all sectors of society continuously.

Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) founded in 2013 is a high-end advisory board to gather the industrial excellent entrepreneurs’ idea bank and give advice and suggestions to the long-term development of MF program. Each adviser of IAB is the leader in financial industry. They have very rich industry experience and leadership recognized in the industry. They all have great impact on their respective field of financial industry.Moreover, they are also devoted to the education cause, making contribution to the future of financial industry in China through becoming the industrial adviser of SAIF MF program. The course setting of SAIF MF program is developed by the senior professors of IAB and SAIF together, to ensure the knowledge we teach to students is closed connected to the need of industrial development. We invite members of IAB to the MF classroom to ask them to comment on our teaching, and invite them to communicate with students face to face, helping MF students better understand financial industry.The IAB members are:Mr. Jeffrey Chen, General Manager and a board member of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.Mr. Xiaosheng Chen, Chief Strategy Officer, GM of Institutional Client Division of SWS Co. LTDMr. Hiroki Miyazato, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Haitong Securities., LTDMr. Andrew Kuo, Senior Advisor of Blackstone Private EquityMr. Xinjun Liang, Vice Chairman and CEO of Fosun GroupMr. Xinyi Liu, Executive vice president and CFO of Shanghai Pudong Development BankMr. Victor Yan, Managing Director, Head of Market Risk and Basel Director China, Standard Chartered BankMr. Lijun Lin, President of China Universal Asset Management

CFA Institute, an organization whose members are global investment professionals, is responsible for holding the examination “Chartered Financial Analyst” and “Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement” around the world, and publishes research result, carry out career development project and formulate the voluntary report standard for profession and investment performance based on ethics. CFA institute has about more than 100,000 members in 133 countries and regions as well as 136 member associations in 57 countries and regions.CFA courses and examinations held by CFA institute is considered as the strictest examinations in global investment profession, formulating the global standard in investment knowledge, professional standard and code of ethics. CFA certificate holders can show their customers, employers and colleagues that they have studied a set of rigorous professional courses with the knowledge covering wide investment field, and commit to abide by the highest code of professional ethics. Thus, CFA is considered as the “Golden Standard” in the investment industry. The investors also hope to find those professionals with CFA certificates, for this qualification is considered as the commitment with professional skills in the field of investment.As a CFA program partner, the curricula of SAIF MF is highly recognized by CFA. CFA institute provides several scholarships and other assistance in study to SAIF MF every year. CFA China also keeps good cooperation with SAIF MF program and we have held several large competitions across the whole country together.

Title:How to Make a Profound Impression to the Employers in Interview?Time:Thu, 2014-09-11 07:31 - 07:31On April 10, 2014, the lecture on job hunting was carried out at the classroom of SAIF MF program, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Concerning various problems the students meet in the interview for job hunting, Norman, the employment lecturer, shared with students about successful and efficient interview experience and skills through explanation and examples.Norman Yan, the lecturer, has worked in the financial industry in China, Asia and North America for over twenty years and had remarkable accomplishments. Now, he serves as the global CEO and director of Xinhua Index in FTSE (Financial Times and London Stock Exchange).Norman provided the employment guidance to the students from the following aspects:What kind of people does the employer want? Norman summarized the general thought of employers from his own interview experience: “Employers want to know how you think.”In the interview, employers will ask various strange questions. Tesla Motors once asked such a question: “You are on a raft which is in a tank filled with water. Will the water level in the tank rise or decline when you anchor out of the raft?” Do not just answer rise or decline. Actually, there is no standard answer for such question. The rising and declining of water level depends on many factors. For example, is the anchor in or outside the tank? Will the raft flow on the water surface or sink underwater? All these will affect the final results. In fact, employers don’t need you to give an answer like the teaching book.What they expect is the creative thought you have showed in such process and your personality traits.Therefore, to make a profound impression to the employer in the interview, you shall think what he wants, and what aspects he wants to know from you in his view at first. In this way, you can half the work with double results.For finding a job, you can win only after knowing yourself and your opponent. Therefore, of course knowing the employer is important, and knowing yourself is also necessary. Each one should have a clear understanding about himself. Such understanding is reflected in three aspects:ability, enthusiasm and your value to the employer.First of all, starting from the view of ability, you should have the needed hard power suitable to the industry of the employer, including the professional skills and special occupational skills. Hard skills are the threshold of ability. Meanwhile, you should also have your own soft power which includes richer content and is a necessary skill for getting along with people, such as communication ability. The active and effective communications are considered as the key to win the employer’s trust. At last, an important factor of judgment ability is acknowledgement and judgment. To make the most reasonable decision and judgment when many factors are not assured is also just the quintessence of case analysis for anchoring result of Tesla Motors.On the basis that knowing your own ability, you shall know your inner heart. What’s your interest and enthusiasm? Only a job bringing you joy and income may be permanent and grants you with better development opportunity. So, the best way to ask your inner heart is “supposed you were given with one million yuan, what would you do”. The answer is in your heart. After you know your ability and interest, you shall think what value you can create for others, think what you can use your own advantages to do for others and how to overcome your own shortcomings to prove your own value and practice your own value. All in all, the other side of success is sufficient preparation and timely opportunity, and opportunities usually are left to the ones with preparation.After the lecture is finished, the students still asked questions actively and conducted the deep exchange with the lecturer concerning the problems which may be met in many job hunting cases, and Norman also made the explanation patiently. The students all felt they could not only learn the professional knowledge of finance, but also improve the soft skills at the classroom of SAIF MF. All these make people enjoy the lifetime benefits.

Title:Lecture of SAIF MF - Communication Skills in InterviewTime:Thu, 2014-09-11 07:36 - 07:36On May 15, 2014, a lecture on communication skills and interview skills was carried out at the classroom of MF program, SAIF, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The career lecturer Mr. Norman shared with the students on how to position yourself correctly in job hunting, how to effectively communicate with interviewers and display yourself in the interviews through vivid explanation.Norman Yan, the lecturer, has worked in the financial industry in China, Asia and North America for over twenty years and had remarkable accomplishments. Now, he serves as the global CEO and director of Xinhua Index in FTSE (Financial Times and London Stock Exchange).In the lecture, Mr. Norman explained to us that it’s very important to clearly position yourself in the job hunting process. Before the interview, the interviewees shall try to collect the information related to the position, and know what kind of ability and knowledge are needed for such position, what your advantage and shortcoming are. In addition, in the interview process, the interviewee shall express his own understanding for the position to the interviewer. Other than boast, you shall express yourself comprehensively. The interviewer hopes interviewees to act appropriately to the situation. So you shall talk about what your core competitiveness for this position.To let students better understand, Mr. Norman grouped the students on site and mutually discussed a common interview problem: Please describe an achievement you are proud of. Enlightened by him, the students on site carried out the heated discussion. He also invited a student to share his achievement with the audience, and analyzed how the student should combine the achievement and interviewed position starting from the position pursued by this student. The discussions and comments bring profound inspiration to students.In the end, Mr. Norman invited students to participate in some interesting mini-games, making a profound impression to the students. Through the screen, he showed many pictures to students and asked the students to make the corresponding description. The students found what they saw was often different from the most direct actions and reality, and this also indicates that people’s thoughts are limited, especially in facing the complicated problems, so they can’t make the correct judgment. This also enlightens us that the simple principle shall be followed in communication with people as far as possible. The complicated problem is expressed simply, so that it can avoid misunderstanding, improving the communication efficiency.Through lots of experience and skills shared by Mr. Norman with students, students had known how to better express and prove themselves in interview, to better give play to the knowledge and ability accumulated on ordinary days and to be recognized by the employer accordingly to pursue their own ideal careers.

During the monthly Coffee Hour on May 24th, 2015, Vice Dean of SAIF and Professor of Finance Tan Wang and Professor Qianqian Du shared with students their experiences and ideas in the industry.Professor Tan Wang once worked as a Guest Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. From 2003 to 2005, he was a visiting scholar for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the International Monetary Fund. Professor Qianqian Du obtained a Ph.D. degree in Strategy and Business Economics from the University of British Columbia School of Business. Her major fields of study include private equity, stock analysis, social networking and corporate governance.During the coffee hour, Professor Tan Wang discussed the importance of studying hard during the school years. He agreed that participating in internships under the current severe employment situation is beneficial for short-term goals, but the postgraduate stage is the only period for "getting down to academic pursuits”. He encouraged the students to take advantage of this stage to make preparations for long-term targets, reserve knowledge and develop dialectical thinking skills. Drawing on his experience in Tai Chi, Professor Tan Wang also interpreted the true meaning of life: “There is a knack, but the application of that knack depends on continuous accumulation day after day.”Professor Qianqian Du shared her experiences working in PE in the U.S. and put forward some ideas about investing in the Hong Kong Stock Market. In 2004, she wrote a paper concerning the development prospects of PE/VC in China that emphasized her strict requirements for the importance of asset allocation and industry insight. At that time, PE/VC was just getting started in China. Now, there are countless PE/VC firms in the country, but investment ability and negotiation ability remain uneven.After 80 minutes of communication, the students gained a higher-level understanding of the learning tasks and goals in the postgraduate stage and a more profound understanding of the modes and requirements of the PE/VC industry.