On March 11, 2023, DSEU held the first information session for enrollment of the inaugural class of the Classic EMBA/MBA program. Geshe Michael Roach, the senior co-founder of DSEU, and Zhou Xiaoping, the founder and president of DSEU, provided answers to the commonly asked questions during the session.

Q: What kind of students is DSEU Jinda cultivating?

The answer to this question should not remain at a vague description, but should establish measurable and trackable goals. It means that a student should be a different person upon entering and graduating from university. I believe that is the goal of a university.

Similar to a raw stone in the hands of Michelangelo, entering DSEU and being sculpted by professors will shape students into successful individuals. In my vision, students graduating from DSEU Jinda with a degree should not only receive a diploma but also become better individuals with outstanding character. That is the goal we strive for in establishing and working towards the university.

Of course, students pay tuition and invest their time, and they should earn their degree through hard work. However, as people who establish and manage the university, as well as teach students, we also do not want to waste time. What we hope to see the most is students entering DSEU Jinda with great expectations for the future, and leaving with significant progress.

If individuals who enter the university do not undergo substantial changes upon leaving, I fail to see the meaning behind our efforts, time, and financial investments.

We want those who enter the university to experience transformation, to improve their lives, and to contribute to improving the lives of others. This is the fundamental principle we envision. Therefore, through thorough discussions, we have identified six different ways to bring about change in our students. It is worth mentioning that discussing the six different ways to transform students is one thing, while developing a system that can effectively evaluate or measure our success is another.

Have we improved their lives? Have we helped them prepare for a lifetime of personal and professional endeavors or utilize any skills we have taught them? This is the first point we need to consider. I will use the formula known as “be A, not B” to evaluate this. “Be A, not B” means they come in one way, but we want them to become another way, not how they were when they arrived. Although these changes may be difficult to precisely measure, we must relentlessly strive for them.

Now, the key question is, what kind of changes do we truly want to see in our students?

First, prioritize the public over oneself.

Based on my life experiences and my time at Princeton University, the majority of young people entering college at the age of 17 or 18 have one common trait—they are self-centered. Most of their time is spent thinking about themselves, especially those of us who excelled in high school and consistently scored well on various university exams. I myself achieved the highest scores in the state during the college entrance exams. They are seen as academic overachievers, but they primarily focus on their own achievements and show little concern for the accomplishments of others.

Therefore, what I hope for is to regard these outstanding students entering DSEU as excellent raw materials. We don’t need to eliminate the intelligence and sharp self-centered energy they already possess; instead, we should refine it and help them become even better individuals. Rather than destroying their original energy, it should be further developed so that they begin to pay attention to the success and happiness of others.

I believe that one of our goals is to change our students’ attitudes toward life by the time they complete their degree programs. Their focus should no longer be solely on themselves but on broader society and a larger population. Their aspiration should be to grow and excel while creating greater value for society.

Second, master practical business skills rather than confining oneself to business theories.

I hope that DSEU teaches students to acquire practical business skills. What are business hard skills? These are genuinely useful skills taught in regular business schools, such as proficiency in big data applications, financial literacy, fundraising capabilities, legal knowledge, personnel management skills, and the ability to identify excellent business partners.

We will also educate students on five different aspects of exceptional hard skills: how to find business partners, investors, employees, suppliers, and customers.

All of the above are hard skills. I want to see students become data professionals, information experts, and technology talents with genuine hard skills.

Third, creativity and innovation, not mechanization.

From my fifty years of business experience, I’ve observed two types of employees in this world. One type is the mechanized employee. They are technically skilled and proficient in handling job tasks, but they are rigid and lack creativity. They can go through a series of predetermined processes and tasks within an eight-hour workday. Even if you give them ten tasks, they can complete them all, but they won’t think about the work or find new ways to accomplish it. They will simply use the same old methods to get the job done.

This is not the talent we want to cultivate. What we truly want to cultivate is a spirit or a state of mind that brings creativity and innovation to work. We constantly focus on the process, always thinking and trying to make work more efficient, cooler, and more innovative.

Fourth, mental and physical agility, not exhaustion/dullness/disarray.

Modern society has many external factors that are reducing people’s attention spans, lowering their intelligence levels, and diminishing their sharpness and focus. Currently, obesity and poor health conditions are a global epidemic, or what can be called a “pandemic.” The obesity rate in the United States has reached 40%. Obesity does not just mean being overweight; in the US, nearly 70% of the population falls into the overweight category. Obesity guarantees that you will have diabetes and heart problems in the next ten to fifteen years.

In my opinion, we should help students improve their attention spans, clarity of consciousness, and agility in their abilities. We should help them have a healthy body. I want students to become aware of the future possibilities of monotony, fatigue, and mental turmoil and start seeking change. We will help them develop habits, educate them about habits, and enable them to have a clear, active, and alert mind while maintaining a healthy body.

Each person only has one body in their lifetime, and they only have one chance to make good use of it. I am surprised that when I was at Princeton University, we never discussed these topics about health. Therefore, at DSEU, you must have a healthy body to obtain a degree. If you earn a degree and graduate but your mind and body are not healthy, that degree won’t be of much help to you. Therefore, I believe that maintaining a healthy and agile body is an ability and state that our students should possess.

Fifth, having an international perspective rather than a narrow one.

There is a word in English called “parochial,” which is not commonly used. It means having a narrow focus on what you care about and are interested in. For example, you are only interested in your family and success, only interested in the situation of your town and country, and not interested in what is happening outside your small world. You do not care about what is happening in other states or provinces of your country, or what is happening in other countries around the world. Your focus is limited, and you only pay attention to local matters without considering the bigger picture.

I hope that the students graduating from DSEU will have a broader global perspective. This means they are interested not only in other places within their town, the prosperity of other towns, and the prosperity of other countries, but also in the prosperity of the entire world.

In recent times, we humans have developed a social system that is capable of destroying the entire world within an hour, destroying all the universities, all the books, and all the educational systems in the world.

If a country initiates a nuclear war, everything we are striving for becomes insignificant, and all education and human history lose their meaning. If we do not step out of our narrow mindset and embrace a global mindset, and if the students we educate do not understand this, I would consider our university a failure.

Sixth, being passionate about life rather than becoming jaded.

I have been teaching for nearly 50 years, and I have discovered something important that I hope all students graduating from DSEU can possess: maintaining enjoyment, happiness, curiosity, and a sense of humor.

Life is not easy for anyone. We all experience disappointment, unhappiness, and setbacks, just like every business in the world. This morning, I heard that the business volume of Google is declining, and even large companies like Apple face difficulties. Therefore, we need to cultivate in our students the ability to overcome challenges and to truly understand and practice a positive attitude towards life. Approaching life with a joyful and playful attitude is the best way to deal with it.

If our students can leave the university with this understanding, then every time they encounter setbacks or problems, they will be able to approach them with eagerness, joy, and a positive attitude. In my opinion, we would have truly cultivated perfect students.

In conclusion, the students being nurtured by DSEU are like this.

Developing from self-centeredness to concern for others and society;

Mastering hard business skills; Being consistently creative rather than mechanical;

Maintaining mental and physical agility instead of exhaustion and scattered attention;

Having a global mindset rather than a narrow mindset;

Becoming someone who appreciates joy, enjoys fun, and maintains a positive attitude.

This is truly the only path to success in the world. This is the kind of students we want to cultivate.