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What impresses students on the world's most expensive executive MBA programme? Is it Wharton San Francisco's lavish new campus in a landmark building, or the latest interactive technologies in each classroom? The concierge-style service they receive from school staff, the free iPads, the all-inclusive accommodation at the Meridian Hotel or the chauffeur service that drives them the half-mile there?
世界上最貴的EMBA課程的學(xué)員們會(huì)對(duì)什么印象深刻？是沃頓商學(xué)院(Wharton)奢華的舊金山新校區(qū)所在的地標(biāo)性建筑，每間教室里最新的互動(dòng)教學(xué)設(shè)施，學(xué)校教員無微不至的服務(wù)，免費(fèi)的iPad，無所不包的Meridian酒店服務(wù)，還是酒店和半英里外校區(qū)之間的汽車接送服務(wù)？
"It's going to be a great place for watching the America's Cup this fall," says student Peter Eberle, pointing to the panoramic view of 'Frisco Bay and Bay Bridge.
學(xué)員彼得•埃伯利(Peter Eberle)指著眼前一覽無余的舊金山灣(Frisco Bay)和海灣大橋(Bay Bridge)說："在這地方看今年秋天的美洲杯帆船賽(America's Cup)肯定棒極了。"
He is joking (mostly), but the view is as breathtaking as the price tag. Yet executives like Mr Eberle are queueing up to pay $175,678 to enrol at the school. It is as if the recession never happened. Wharton San Francisco has even increased its fees by 1 per cent for the class that began last month. It may be 3,000 miles from home in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania but, after 10 years in California, the Wharton brand has been successful enough at ingesting west coast entrepreneurship and high-tech energy to enable its San Francisco satellite to steer a course through the storm.
這位學(xué)員多半在開玩笑，但那景色確實(shí)令人嘆為觀止，正如那個(gè)課程的價(jià)格。不過，像埃伯利這樣的高管還是愿意排著隊(duì)交175678美元的學(xué)費(fèi)來注冊(cè)這個(gè)課程。就好像衰退根本沒發(fā)生過一樣。沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山校區(qū)甚至將上月開課的課程學(xué)費(fèi)調(diào)高了1%。位于加州的沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山校區(qū)距離位于費(fèi)城賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)(University of Pennsylvania)的主校區(qū)可能有3000英里，但憑借沃頓的品牌、10年的經(jīng)營和高科技教學(xué)手段，該校區(qū)在西海岸的企業(yè)家教育十分成功，足以讓它安然度過風(fēng)暴。
"People still don't think San Francisco when they think Wharton," admits Bernadette Birt, executive director of the programme. "But many students come here with ideas already brewing in their heads and ready to step out as entrepreneurs."
"如今大家仍然不能把舊金山和沃頓商學(xué)院聯(lián)系起來。"該項(xiàng)目執(zhí)行主任貝爾納黛特•伯特(Bernadette Birt)坦承，"但我們的許多學(xué)員在入校之時(shí)就已懷有創(chuàng)業(yè)的想法，打算在畢業(yè)之時(shí)成為企業(yè)家。"
Still, the waters could yet get a little choppy as competition on the west coast increases. The lampposts in San Francisco's financial district that do not carry advertisements for Wharton, carry ones for Babson College, the business school that specialises in entrepreneurship and which launched a fast-track MBA in the city in 2010. Across the bay, UC Berkeley will launch its MBA for executives in 2013, after Berkeley's Haas School of Business and Columbia Business School agreed to wind up the joint EMBA they have run since 2002.
不過，隨著西海岸競爭的加劇，局勢可能變得更加變幻莫測。舊金山金融區(qū)的路燈柱上貼的不是沃頓商學(xué)院的廣告，就是巴布森商學(xué)院(Babson College)的廣告。巴布森的專長是培養(yǎng)企業(yè)家，它從2010年開始在舊金山開設(shè)了一個(gè)速成MBA課程。在舊金山灣對(duì)岸，加州大學(xué)伯克利分校(UC Berkeley)哈斯商學(xué)院(Haas School of Business)與哥倫比亞商學(xué)院(Columbia Business School)同意結(jié)束自2002年起合辦的EMBA項(xiàng)目之后，前者將從2013年開始開設(shè)EMBA課程。
Wharton San Francisco is positioning itself as the intensive, fully-immersive, all-expenses-paid model at the top end of the market – hence the decision to trade its downtown hub for even classier accommodation. At the beginning of the year, the school moved to the sixth floor of a Romanesque revival building once used by Hills Brothers – inventors of vacuum-packing – to roast and pack coffee on the city's Embarcadero (waterfront).
沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山分院定位于高端市場，采取密集型和沉浸式教學(xué)，所有費(fèi)用包含在學(xué)費(fèi)里。因此該校決定從鬧市區(qū)搬到更高檔的地段。今年年初，該校搬到了舊金山Embarcadero（濱水區(qū)）一棟翻新過的羅馬式大樓的6層。真空包裝的發(fā)明者希爾斯兄弟(Hills Brothers)曾經(jīng)在那棟大樓里烘焙和包裝咖啡。
The annual intake on this two-year EMBA is about 95 students – so what do they get for their money?
這個(gè)兩年制EMBA課程每年接收約95名學(xué)員——那么，這些學(xué)員付出的學(xué)費(fèi)會(huì)換回些什么？
The campus – which is used exclusively for the EMBA programme and a handful of executive courses – is flooded with natural light and sustainable woods, walls hung with paintings from local artists. Breakout rooms and mother-and-baby rooms are furnished like airport executive lounges. There are two teaching rooms, each with capacity for 75 students, plus a lecture theatre for 160.
該教學(xué)區(qū)由這個(gè)EMBA項(xiàng)目和幾個(gè)高管課程專享，采光極佳，大量采用可再生木材，墻上掛著當(dāng)?shù)厮囆g(shù)家的畫作。休息室和母嬰室的陳設(shè)好像機(jī)場的行政貴賓室。有兩間教室，每間可容納75名學(xué)生，還有一間演講廳，可容納160名學(xué)生。
Each has the latest audio-visual equipment and cameras for web-conferencing speakers from the east coast and Wall Street. In smaller seminar rooms, students can Skype their east coast counterparts or team members working overseas. And the restaurant serves food prepared by local artisans.
每間教室都配備了最新的視聽設(shè)備和攝像機(jī)，可以與東海岸和華爾街的人開網(wǎng)絡(luò)會(huì)議。在較小的研討教室里，學(xué)員可以在Skype上與東海岸的學(xué)員或在海外工作的團(tuán)隊(duì)伙伴進(jìn)行交流。餐廳供應(yīng)由當(dāng)?shù)貜N師烹制的食物。
While proud of the campus, Ms Birt stresses that this is not the reason students pay big money As in Philadelphia, EMBA students receive more than 700 hours of contact time. "They are getting more for their money – other programmes offer 400 hours and their fees are not much less than ours."
盡管對(duì)校園設(shè)施感到自豪，但伯特強(qiáng)調(diào)，這不是學(xué)員們?cè)敢馓湍敲锤叩膶W(xué)費(fèi)的原因。跟在費(fèi)城校區(qū)一樣，舊金山分院的EMBA學(xué)員面對(duì)面教學(xué)時(shí)間超過700小時(shí)。"我們的課程性價(jià)比更高——其他的EMBA項(xiàng)目只有400小時(shí)，而學(xué)費(fèi)并不比我們的少多少。"
As the global economy recovers it is not too far-fetched to imagine EMBA fees breaking the $200,000 mark soon. But is there a danger that top-end schools might price themselves out of the market?
隨著全球經(jīng)濟(jì)的復(fù)蘇，EMBA學(xué)費(fèi)很快突破20萬美元大關(guān)并非不可想象的事情。但是否存在這樣的危險(xiǎn)：頂級(jí)商學(xué)院的定價(jià)可能脫離市場實(shí)際？
"The market is dictating the price," says Dave Wilson, chief executive of the Graduate Management Admission Council.
管理學(xué)研究生招生理事會(huì)(Graduate Management Admission Council，簡稱GMAC)首席執(zhí)行官戴夫•威爾遜(Dave Wilson)表示："市場決定學(xué)費(fèi)。
"As long as candidates fill seats, the price is not a barrier in the eyes of either the students or the schools. The market is in equilibrium as supply is meeting demand.
"只要申請(qǐng)人數(shù)不低于招生人數(shù)，學(xué)員和學(xué)校都不會(huì)覺得學(xué)費(fèi)是個(gè)障礙。市場是均衡的，因?yàn)楣┙o可以滿足需求。
"The real question is how stable is this equilibrium. Will supply continue to meet demand or will the increasing price drive down demand for the seats?
"真正的問題是這種均衡狀態(tài)有多穩(wěn)定。供給會(huì)持續(xù)滿足需求嗎？抑或不斷上漲的學(xué)費(fèi)會(huì)降低需求？
"But at the moment, the ability to increase the price of a graduate management degree is a testament to the value proposition of the degree."
"但就目前而言，能夠提高一項(xiàng)管理研究生學(xué)位的學(xué)費(fèi)，證明這個(gè)學(xué)位有價(jià)值。"
But John Fernandes, chief executive of accrediting body AACSB believes that there would be resistance from students and their employers to paying $200,000 for an executive programme.
認(rèn)證機(jī)構(gòu)美國管理商學(xué)院聯(lián)合會(huì)(AACSB)首席執(zhí)行官約翰•費(fèi)爾南德斯(John Fernandes)認(rèn)為，如果EMBA學(xué)費(fèi)要20萬美元，學(xué)員和他們的老板可能會(huì)猶豫。
"An EMBA is considered as an investment in the company and the individual and organisations would have to consider very carefully whether they would be willing to pay that amount for an executive MBA programme," he says.
費(fèi)爾南德斯說："企業(yè)認(rèn)為EMBA是一項(xiàng)投資，報(bào)名EMBA的個(gè)人和組織會(huì)仔細(xì)衡量自己是否愿意為一項(xiàng)EMBA課程支付這么多學(xué)費(fèi)。"
Wharton San Francisco has no faculty of its own. The EMBA programmes are sequenced so that faculty can teach one weekend in Philadelphia, then fly to San Francisco the next. The choice of options differs a little, but the core curriculum on both programmes is identical.
沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山分院沒有自己的教員。他們對(duì)EMBA課程進(jìn)行一定的編排，這樣教員可以這個(gè)周末在費(fèi)城授課，下個(gè)周末飛到舊金山授課。兩個(gè)校區(qū)的選修課程略有不同，但核心課程是一樣的。
"We don't want our students to feel the east coast is getting something different," says Ms Birt. If anything, San Francisco students get the better deal from faculty, she adds. "The level of engagement here is different, because faculty don't have family distractions while here. They stay at the same hotel and take the same meals and so it makes for much greater connection with students." Wharton San Francisco attracts people working in high-tech, such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Cisco, as well as executives from the hotels, entertainment and healthcare sectors, attorneys, engineers and people working in product development, R&D and marketing.
伯特說："我們不希望讓我們的學(xué)員覺得東海岸的課程跟西海岸不一樣。"她補(bǔ)充說，要說有所區(qū)別的話，就是舊金山校區(qū)的同學(xué)能與教員有更多接觸。"在這兒的時(shí)候，教員不會(huì)為家庭分心，因此會(huì)給學(xué)生更多關(guān)注。教員和學(xué)生們住同一個(gè)酒店，在同一個(gè)餐廳吃飯，因此與學(xué)生的聯(lián)系也緊密得多。"沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山分院吸引了一些高科技行業(yè)的人士前來就讀，比如谷歌(Google)、Facebook、LinkedIn和思科(Cisco)的高管；也吸引了一些酒店業(yè)、娛樂業(yè)和醫(yī)療行業(yè)的高管，以及律師、工程師、產(chǎn)品開發(fā)人員、研發(fā)人員和營銷人員。
The 30 electives chosen by students tend to lean towards the entrepreneurial, adds Ms Birt, who can now count Mozilla and Gap as neighbours.
伯特補(bǔ)充說，30門選修課大多偏向于創(chuàng)業(yè)方面。如今，該校與Mozilla和Gap比鄰而居。
It is a significant challenge to start a business while holding down a job, juggling family commitments and completing an EMBA.
在工作、照顧家庭、完成EMBA學(xué)位的同時(shí)自己創(chuàng)業(yè)，這是一個(gè)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。
However the biggest pressure comes from students themselves. Only a third of EMBA students at Wharton San Francisco have more than 50 per cent of their fees paid for by their employers. Many pay the entire cost from their own pockets.
不過，最大的壓力來自學(xué)員們本身。沃頓商學(xué)院舊金山分院的EMBA學(xué)員中，只有三分之一由雇主支付一半以上學(xué)費(fèi)。許多學(xué)員完全自掏腰包。
"This is a big investment in their lives and careers," says Ms Birt. "They demand a transformational experience."
"對(duì)學(xué)員們而言，這是對(duì)自己生活和職業(yè)生涯的一筆巨大投資。"伯特說，"他們要求得到一次通過學(xué)習(xí)脫胎換骨的經(jīng)歷。"
