Launched in 2017, the Program in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Global Leadership (PIEGL) is a two-year English-taught master degree program recruiting international students from universities worldwide. The program is academically rigorous whilst incorporating strong practical elements through enriched student learning and experiential education. It places great emphasis on global leadership by integrating the essence of innovation management and entrepreneurship. Via bringing international entrepreneurs with innovators mindset together, the program in the past years has attracted students from more than 45+ different countries around the world!What interests these students to come all the way for this program? Let’s find out the answer in the interview with PIEGL faculty and alumni.

MO Shenjiang

Professor, School of Management, Zhejiang University

Director of PIEGL program

“The program can provide international students with a bridge to come here, not only physically, but psychologically. When the excellent students from different nations, walk together with us, with the professors, entrepreneurs, and Chinese students in ZJU, they will see something quite special and interesting, and find the values in this emerging market. I do believe the program provides excellent opportunities to connect people around the world.”

“We do have an emphasis on diversity, and especially we want to include students not only from the well-established countries, but also marginal markets, like from Asia, from Europe, from Africa. We do believe the platform is pretty important, and we try to provide a strong support for students to communicate with each other and to find global opportunities.”

Sebastien

PIEGL 2020

Entrepreneur

“I think PIEGL gives me a lot of things, like Chinese perspective on how to do business, rather than looking at things from a western perspective. Also, it gives me a precious network of alumni and close friends to whom I can just shoot a message and get answers to any questions. So does the network of professors and mentors who care about me, and I really feel grateful for them.”

Tufan

PIEGL 2020

Corporate innovation specialist

“Almost every week we had different cases. We analyzed different companies, startups, and business models all over the world, from Chinese perspective to European perspectives. Those different perspectives really helped me for being here (Shanghai) in the end, actually.”

Zeliha

PIEGL 2019

Business development manager

“Our class is full of international people all over the world, and our courses are about how to do business internationally, working with different cultures, and how can we manage the cultural conflict. It is really useful for me because I live in Shanghai, China, but I work with Indian people, and also many clients from Europe, which is multi-cultural for me. So, it was very beneficial to see this kind of courses. I feel like I’ve had some experience on how to deal with different cultures and different perspectives, and the program helps me a lot.”

Source: Zhejiang University Official Website

Video credit: School of Management, Zhejiang University