SKEMA Business School is proud to announce the opening of its campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. The school will be the first in France to open a campus in the United States for its entire entering class.
North Carolina
Establishing a campus in Raleigh, a gateway to the leading high-tech cluster in the US is no coincidence. SKEMA has forged a reputation and an identity for its schools in high-tech clusters (Sophia Antipolis, Suzhou) and world-class business centres (Paris and Lille, the cities in France with the highest concentration of business headquarters), thereby offering its students ample opportunity for involvement in business.
In addition to its economic opportunities, offered by the first US technopark, North Carolina is home to many universities (16 in total) as well as an exceptional quality of life for students. SKEMA was drawn to the region given the world renowned reputation of the 51-year old Research Triangle Park. North Carolina quickly emerged as the obvious choice.
At the academic level, the school has met with the three most prestigious universities in the state: North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University.
NC State’s proposal, with the infrastructure available on its Centennial campus, will allow SKEMA to offer complete service and academic excellence to its students. The school has come to an agreement with NC State College of Management to work on a number of academic projects together, which include dual degree masters programmes, Bachelor degree and Executive programmes, student exchanges and internships, and joint faculty research.
This primary partnership does not rule out academic relationships with the other universities. Thus, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with UNC Chapel Hill including students and professor exchanges and advanced discussions with Duke University are still underway.
The SKEMA Campus
At the heart of the Centennial campus, SKEMA Business School will have around 30,000 square feet (2500m2) for its students, who will be able to interact with American and international students.. This location is also home to numerous innovative businesses and research laboratories. In the meantime, still in the Centennial campus, SKEMA has commissioned a 40,000 square feet campus in a brand new building that will be equipped with the latest high-tech innovations and delivered in three years time.
In January 2011, the first 300 students from SKEMA Business School’s Grande Ecole (Master of Science in Management), Bachelor’s, Specialized Master’s in Market Finance and Technology Innovations programmes will arrive on the American campus. In September 2011, the number of students will be increased.
They will have access to all of the amenities provided by NC State University.
Strong business Partnerships
SKEMA’s foreign campuses all have the same objective: combining academic and professional experience at an international level. At SKEMA, the international, real-world experience of students involves more than just spending time abroad. These future leaders must also come into direct contact with another culture and participate in apprenticeships and internships with local businesses.
To reach this objective, the school has also signed a partnership with the Research Triangle Park Foundation of North Carolina, developers of The Research Triangle Park. Among the major objectives of this partnership are joint research projects between the high-tech clusters of Sophia Antipolis, Suzhou and Raleigh,putting students and the school in contact with businesses based in the Research Triangle Park (Cisco, Redhat, IBM, Sas, Nortel, Lenovo, Revlon, and numerous biotech companies).
SKEMA will also open an office in the Research Triangle Park to develop relationships with companies for its executive education activities.
To help reinforce these partnerships, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce will assist SKEMA in forging relationships with the businesses of Wake County.
This substantial project would not have been possible without the help of the Research Triangle Park Foundation, the State of North Carolina and the French Consulate.
Alice Guilhon, Dean of SKEMA, said “This is a pioneering project that we are offering to our students and it is a unique opportunity in France and a rare one in Europe: to study in an extraordinary environment, in partnership with businesses at the heart of the knowledge economy and academic partners among the best in the country. In our globalized world, our future alumni will work in multinational, multicultural businesses. Giving them the opportunity to understand this environment through our international campuses, to live this exceptional experience, is giving them the tools for tomorrow.”