Smith Hosts MBA Students from Australia

For the fifteenth year, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School  of Business hosted 45 MBA students from Australia for a two-week USA  Business & Culture Tour in January 2015. The program is the highlight of an  active collaboration between the Smith School and RMIT University (the  Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), including a vibrant semester  exchange program research connections, and this summer, a two-week BMGT  course taught for Smith students in Melbourne by Mary Harms, clinical  associate professor in marketing at Smith

Smith’s Office of Global Initiatives (OGI) coordinated the academic classes  for the visiting students taught by Smith professors from all departments,  arranged site visits to industry and government agencies (i.e., CapitalOne,  GE Healthcare, Stanley Black & Decker, IMF, SEC, World Bank), cultural  activities (i.e., visits and tours of Annapolis and Washington, D.C.), and  a networking happy hour and dinner with Smith MBA’s at a nearby restaurant. 

The RMIT students said they are eager to host Smith’s undergraduates in  late May during Prof. Harms’ course in Melbourne.  The RMIT cohort  represents a wide range of business experience and will help prepare the  students for their eight-week internships in Sydney that will follow. 

Applications for the nine-credit BMGT summer course in Australia are now  being taken. Details at www.rhsmith.umd.edu/global.  Last summer, 10  undergraduates took part in the course. Accounting major Amy Liang, who  interned with PWC in Sydney, said, “It was the best decision I have ever  made

Dates for RMIT’s 16th annual Business & Culture Tour have already been  set for 2016. 

-- Claudia Donnelly, Office of Global Programs