UMaine turns the tables in Chinese economy course
Tackling new markets means thinking in different ways. When James Breece, associate professor of economics at the University of Maine’s School of Economics in Orono, decided to offer a new course, “The Chinese Economy,” last spring, he used a format called the “leveraged flip.” Instead of students reviewing in class what they’d read in books for homework assignments, the classes were designed around expert guest speakers, leveraging what students learned at home with added knowledge from the speakers.
“I was surprised by the number of people in Maine with connections to China,” Breece says of finding speakers.
The class, which he hopes to offer again next year, is part of a recent emphasis by the university system to recruit more international students. In 2009, UMaine’s trustees asked Breece — a former UMaine Machias interim president, among other resume highlights — to start a system of international recruitment to diversify the university, draw in more tuition income and potentially train a future workforce of students who might stay in Maine after graduation.
“I made a number of trips to China and signed agreements with universities there to bring students to Maine,” he says. The UMaine system currently has about 100 Chinese students in various majors.
Even high schools are tapping Asia for students. Thornton Academy in Saco, for example, out of financial necessity launched an international program to attract students from 16 countries. Many are from China, whose burgeoning middle class is eager to learn overseas.
Breece says he offered his course as an experiment to try to get as many students as possible exposed to China. The class of 42 students included undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of majors, including business and economics.
It’s too early to tell the course’s impact, but Breece says more students are showing an interest in traveling to China or possibly working for an international company.
“The course was very dynamic,” he adds. It took a holistic approach to China, including teaching history and culture. Speakers included other academics at UMaine focused on history and political science, experts on China, as well as businesspeople who import and export goods and could tell what strategies do and do not work.
“Many firms that go into China fail,” says Breece. “Others start off bad and then get it right.”
He points to Ikea, which used its U.S. strategy of Big Box stores in the suburbs. The problems: Chinese typically don’t have cars large enough to transport furniture home, and they don’t like to assemble things, Breece says. Also, Chinese people don’t like to travel to the suburbs to shop.
Says Breece, “So they relocated their Big Box stores to downtown areas.”
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