Deep Dive · The Business School — Departments, the EMBA Myth, and the Logic of a "Skip-Grade" Ascent

Beyond the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's image as a university "built on science and technology," its School of Business and Management (SBM, or HKUST Business School) is one of the largest and most international business schools in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific — and long the university's other calling card on the global stage. How did a young university that only opened in 1991 build a business school ranked among the world's best in just over two decades? This article unpacks the answer from five angles: departmental structure, flagship programmes, accreditation, ranking performance, and the logic of a "research-driven" ascent.

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# 1. A Brief History and Positioning of the School

The School of Business and Management was founded in the same year as HKUST itself, in 1991^※. From the very beginning, it committed to the model of a research-led business school, recruiting faculty from leading overseas institutions rather than prioritising teaching alone. From the 1990s onward, the School was among the first to lift its EMBA programme to a globally competitive level, partnering with the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University to launch a joint EMBA in 1998^※, which has since dominated global EMBA rankings for years. The School describes its own mission as "developing principled, visionary business leaders through pioneering business education," advancing teaching, research, and entrepreneurship in parallel.

The founding dean, Chan Yuk-shee — a finance scholar lured in by founding president Woo Chia-wei^※, who had previously taught at Kellogg and the USC Marshall School of Business — began organising the School in 1990 and formally became its founding dean in 1993. The EMBA programme has a specific human backstory: in 1995, Chan recruited Kellogg Class of 1985 alumnus Steven DeKrey at an AACSB conference in Chicago to build the master's programmes^※. At that same conference, Chan (himself a former Kellogg faculty member) approached Kellogg's dean, Don Jacobs, about a collaboration. Jacobs initially favoured a non-degree executive education programme; it was DeKrey who argued for converting it into a joint-degree EMBA. With Woo and Chan's backing, DeKrey became the programme's founding director in 1998 and held the post for 15 years, guided by the philosophy that "quality is always the highest priority; continuous improvement is the strategy." The inaugural cohort numbered 33 senior managers from FedEx Asia-Pacific, HSBC, and a number of investment banks, and a minimum of ten years' work experience was written into the entry requirements from day one.

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# 2. Departmental Structure

The School of Business and Management currently comprises six departments^※:

1. Department of Accounting — positioned by the School as offering "Asia's top accounting programmes," with a professional BBA in Accounting, an MSc in Accounting, and a PhD. Research areas cover financial accounting, auditing, taxation, and managerial accounting.
2. Department of Economics — research spans economic theory, econometrics, and numerous applied economics subfields, with a BBA in Economics, an MSc in Economics, and doctoral programmes.
3. Department of Finance — with a mission of "world-class research with a focus on Asia-Pacific financial market development," offering the BBA in Finance, BSc in Economics and Finance, BSc in Quantitative Finance, MSc in Finance, and the joint HKUST-NYU Stern MSc in Global Finance.
4. Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management (ISOM) — offers undergraduate programmes including the BBA in Information Systems and BBA in Operations Management, plus taught master's programmes such as the MSc in Business Analytics, MSc in Information Systems Management, and MSc in Information and Cyber Security Management. Research focuses on digital business, operations optimisation, and data analytics.
5. Department of Management — offers the BBA in Management and a PhD in Management, with research spanning organisational behaviour, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international management.
6. Department of Marketing — offers the BBA in Marketing and a PhD in Marketing, with research centred on consumer behaviour, brand management, and digital marketing.

The School has over 160 faculty members of more than 25 nationalities^※; more than 3,800 undergraduate students; and a total alumni body of over 37,000^※ spanning more than 100 nationalities, with exchange partnerships at over 145 institutions.

The School also runs a set of cross-departmental research centres^※, ten in total according to the latest list on its website:

Fintech is one of the School's recent priority investment areas: a project led by Professor Kar Yan Tam, funded by the Research Grants Council (RGC) and titled "Advancing Hong Kong as a Global Fintech Hub," spans eight research tasks — blockchain, cybersecurity, risk appetite, robo-advisory, AI/machine learning, systemic risk, financial innovation policy, and human capital development^※. The existence of these centres shows that the School's research investment goes beyond "publishing papers to climb rankings"; it is also steadily aligning with the practical needs of Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area industry in fintech, family business, and supply chains.

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# 3. The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA: A Long-Running "World No. 1" Myth

The School's most widely known achievement is the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA, run jointly with Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. The programme runs for 18 months on a part-time basis^※, with classes held at HKUST's Clear Water Bay campus; it started in 1998^※, and graduates receive a jointly awarded MBA from both institutions. Applicants must have at least roughly 10 years of full-time work experience^※, and the programme targets senior executives and business owners. As of 2024, more than 1,200 executives had graduated from the programme^※; the Class of 2024 comprised 44 participants with an average age of 43 and average 18 years of work experience, coming from 17 nationalities across 16 regions^※.

The programme's very creation embodies HKUST's spirit of "don't copy, create": it pioneered Asia's first intercontinental "dual-campus" EMBA model, with participants studying in both Hong Kong and Chicago and half the teaching delivered by each school's faculty. (The full origin story — how founding dean Mr. Chan recruited Kellogg graduate Mr. DeKrey to build the programme — appears in the lore of HKUST's "firsts"^※.)

In the Financial Times global EMBA ranking, the KH EMBA has compiled an extraordinary record of prolonged dominance. According to HKUST's official release^※ and FT EMBA ranking records, the KH EMBA's results since it first entered the ranking in 2005 are as follows:

In total, it has topped the ranking 12 times^※. According to the 2023 FT ranking data^※, the ranking draws on 16 evaluation criteria — including programme quality, the school's research strength, and alumni achievement — and is subject to random audits by KPMG. Post-graduation salary performance (2023 FT ranking methodology): three years after graduation, average annual salary reached US$652,326 (over HK$5 million), with average salary growth of 89% between before and after the EMBA^※; participant satisfaction averaged 9.64 out of 10^※.

According to publicly available searches, in 2025 the KH EMBA slipped to 4th place in the FT EMBA ranking (the figure is drawn from secondary sources; where discrepancies exist, the FT release prevails). The density of this dominance record is rare in the global history of EMBA education, and it has long been a central pillar of the Business School's recruitment and reputation.

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# 4. Dual Accreditation: One of Asia's Earliest Business Schools to Clear the "Global Threshold"

International business education recognises two systems regarded as the "gold standards": the US-based AACSB and the European EQUIS. Business schools holding both simultaneously (and the UK's AMBA, for the so-called "triple crown") are extremely rare globally.

The HKUST Business School is one of the earliest in Asia to earn EQUIS accreditation, obtaining it as early as 2000^※; it also holds AACSB accreditation^※, conferred in 1999^※. In the university's founding narrative, a business school less than a decade old clearing both the AACSB and EQUIS thresholds in 1999–2000 is a telling footnote to its "international from the outset" positioning: from day one it designed its programmes, faculty, and research systems to the standards of a world-class business school, rather than building a local reputation first and going global later.

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# 5. MBA and Other Taught Programmes

The School of Business and Management offers three MBA formats — full-time, part-time, and the Digital MBA for Global Leaders^※ — alongside the HKUST Bilingual Executive MBA and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA, offered in both regular and bilingual streams).

MBA ranking performance:

• Ranked No. 1 in Asia by Bloomberg Businessweek for two consecutive editions, 2023–2024 and 2024–2025^※
• Entered the world's top 20 in the Financial Times global MBA ranking 13 times (2008–2020)^※
• Ranked 44th globally and No. 1 in Hong Kong in the QS Global MBA Rankings 2026^※
• Ranked 24th globally in the Financial Times 2026 global MBA ranking, maintaining its No. 1 position in Hong Kong^※

Taught master's (MSc) programmes: the School offers 11 MSc specialisations^※: Accounting, Business Analytics, Economics, Family Office and Family Business, Finance, Fintech, Global Operations, Information and Cyber Security Management, Information Systems Management, International Management, and Marketing — plus the joint Global Finance MSc with NYU Stern. Some MSc programmes offer dual-degree options with Yale University and Brazil's FGV EAESP.

Undergraduate programmes: the School offers the BBA (in General Business Management, Global Business, Professional Accounting, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Operations Management, Management, Marketing, and World Business) and the BSc (in Economics and Finance, Quantitative Finance, Sustainable and Green Finance, plus the RMBI, MAEC, and BIBU joint programmes run with other Schools), and maintains joint undergraduate programmes with the University of Southern California (USC), Bocconi University in Italy, and Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan.

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# 6. Global Alliance Networks: CEMS, GNAM, and PIM

Beyond dual accreditation and the School's own ranking record, its internationalisation is also evident in the three business-school alliance networks it has joined:

• CEMS (The Global Alliance in Management Education) — an alliance of around 34 leading business schools worldwide offering master's programmes; HKUST is Hong Kong's only academic member^※. The School was named CEMS "School of the Year," the first Asian school to receive the honour^※; students on its MSc in International Management (MIM) can earn the CEMS joint qualification during their studies.
• GNAM (Global Network for Advanced Management) — a global network of 30 schools for advanced management education, of which HKUST is a member, facilitating cross-school student exchanges and faculty collaboration.
• PIM (Partnership in International Management) — another international business-school alliance, focused on student mobility programmes, faculty cooperation, and the sharing of best practices.

These three networks, layered on top of the 145-plus exchange partner institutions mentioned earlier, constitute the School's "internationalisation beyond the certificates" foundation — the channels for student and faculty mobility across schools are far more central to everyday teaching and research experience than the accreditation documents themselves.

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# 7. A Change of Dean in 2026: Professor Frederik Anseel Takes the Helm

On 1 February 2026, the HKUST Business School welcomed its sixth dean, Professor Frederik Anseel^※. In the interim, Professor Hui Kam-lung had served as Acting Dean since July 2024^※; upon Anseel's arrival, Hui moved to the role of Associate Provost (Academic Development).

Anseel is a scholar of organisational psychology, holding a PhD from Ghent University in Belgium, with research interests in leadership, learning, and organisational feedback; Stanford University statistics rank him among the world's top 2% of most-cited scholars^※. He previously served as Dean of UNSW Business School, where he led the school to the top of Australian business-school rankings for three consecutive years, with its online MBA long ranked in the Financial Times global top ten^※; before that he was Vice Dean at King's College London and Head of Department at Ghent University, and has held visiting professorships at ESSEC in France and Bocconi University in Italy.

On his new role, Anseel said: "It is an honour to join the HKUST Business School at such a pivotal moment. The School has a clear comparative advantage — combining technological excellence with strategic location — which places it in an excellent position as technology reshapes the future of business." His stated direction is to advance academic leadership, expand partnerships, and prepare students for careers in an AI-driven world (original in English, quoted from the official HKUST press release^※). The handover also coincides with the School's increased investment at the intersection of fintech, AI, and business — much like its earlier build-out of the Fintech research centres. Anseel's academic background and HKUST's "technology plus business" positioning echo each other.

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# 8. Notable Alumni: From Investment-Bank Executives to Unicorn Founders

The most widely known business case among the Business School's and the wider university's alumni is Frank Wang, founder of DJI^※ — though his background is in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, his entrepreneurial path cannot be separated from the university's broader engineering and business education ecosystem, making him the emblematic case of HKUST's "innovation plus entrepreneurship" narrative in the drone industry.

The Business School has also produced its own steady lineage of entrepreneurs — for example Bianca Ho (Class of 2011, BBA in Global Business and Economics), co-founder and COO of the chatbot company Clare.AI and the commercial WhatsApp platform Wati^※. According to the university, the School's MBA and EMBA graduates over the years have also been widely distributed across investment banking, private equity, and senior management at multinational corporations — a pattern consistent with the publicly reported average salary of over HK$5 million^※ among Kellogg-HKUST EMBA graduates. For a fuller picture of the alumni network and entrepreneurial ecosystem, see the HKUST notable alumni overview^※.

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# 9. The Underrated Foundation: Research Rankings and Social-Impact Ratings

Beyond the halo of the EMBA and MBA, the Business School has one more achievement that is more "academic" — and more revealing of its underlying strength: research output. According to HKUST, the School has long ranked first in Asia in the UTD (University of Texas at Dallas) Top 100 Worldwide Business School Rankings on Research Contributions (2005–2023)^※.

The UTD ranking uses publication output in top-tier academic journals as its sole indicator, making it a hard measure of a business school's research strength — as opposed to teaching reputation or employment outcomes. The fact that the HKUST Business School has held the top spot in Asia for so long in this ranking shows that its reputation does not rest on the EMBA brand alone; it is built on solid academic research output, echoing the wider university's "research university" positioning.

In addition, the HKUST Business School has reached the highest level of the Positive Impact Rating — the "Pioneering School" tier — and is the only institution in Hong Kong to hold that rating (2023, 2025)^※, reflecting its orientation on business ethics and social responsibility.

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# 10. Summary: The "Skip-Grade" Logic of a Young Business School

Putting the threads together, the logic of the HKUST Business School's rise can be roughly summarised in four points:

1. International from the outset. Marked by AACSB accreditation in 1999 and EQUIS in 2000, it plugged into the standard systems of world-class business schools within its first decade — no gradual "local first, international later" path.
2. Flagship programmes build reputation. Multiple world No. 1 results for the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA served as a reputational lever, establishing recognition in the global executive-education market. The programme's very creation also depended on the specific decisions of Chan Yuk-shee, Woo Chia-wei, and DeKrey in the mid-1990s.
3. Research output forms the foundation. Anchored by the No. 1 position in Asia in the UTD research rankings, the School's reputation rests on sustainable academic output — avoiding the trap of "a signboard with nothing behind it."
4. Alliance networks supply the channels. The three international alliances — CEMS, GNAM, and PIM — together with over 145 exchange partner institutions, turn "internationalisation" from a piece of paper into everyday student and faculty mobility and collaborative research.

These four strands combine into the "skip-grade" ascent of a young university's business school — itself a microcosm, in the business domain, of HKUST's broader "skip-grade rise." The arrival of new dean Frederik Anseel in 2026 is, in a sense, a continuation of that logic: the Business School has again chosen a scholar with experience as dean of a top international business school and a research background closely tied to technology and AI issues, rather than simply riding on existing ranking inertia.

Note: The accreditations, rankings, and years described in this article follow the source pages cited and are time-sensitive; business-school rankings change from year to year, and accreditations must be periodically renewed. Before citing, please refer to the latest official announcements from the HKUST Business School.

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