Consistent with the mission of training leaders for China, the USTC School of Management established an Executive Development Program (EDP) in 2011. The EDP Center offers non-degree education designed for Chinese business leaders and government elites, and provides high-quality courses to engage executives with contemporary and innovative management strategies and methods. The EDP program complements the School’s degree programs and research by engaging executives with degree program students and the faculty. The EDP Center is part of the School’s plan to continuously improve and enhance its teaching system, using interaction between EDP and degree programs to promote each other and help achieve the School’s mission of benefiting society.

Every course taught in the EDP is part of a customized project in one of three categories:
1) customized practice, 2) CEO, or 3) distinguished leadership. Each project is designed for a specific group of students, often from one particular enterprise, and includes one or more courses. The Center’s revenues currently account for about 8% of School revenue, and the EDP has become an important part of the School’s educational offerings.

1) Customized practice projects aim to reach professional managers in various industries to upgrade their expertise. They are customized for participating companies to bring direct benefits to the enterprises and improve the companies’ management competencies. As of October 2013, the Center has offered a total of 30 projects in this category for students from more than 100 companies.

2) CEO projects focus on providing information resources for high-level decision-makers. By drawing on USTC’s outstanding on-going research, the students master advanced management concepts and methods, thereby nurturing first-class business and political elite talents. The EDP has done 11 CEO projects with students from over 300 companies as of October 2013.

3) Distinguished leadership projects of the EDP are for entrepreneurs and other business leaders who control assets of at least 1 billion RMB (Chinese Yuan), the equivalent of at least 160 million USD. The focus is on building learning and communication platforms. By optimizing the composition of students as well as inviting leaders of Chinese national government ministries, these projects help to build a dialog and cooperation platform for elite leaders in the political, business, and academic arenas. As of October 2013, the EDP Center has completed 4 of these projects with 51 participant companies.