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Dec. 28, 2007
Making economic ties
Businessman promotes Israel exchanges.
RHONDA SPIVAK
The University of Manitoba's Asper School of Business and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva are beginning an exchange program that will send Manitoba students to Israel and vice versa.
The program will involve sending 20 U of M students to BGU for a month, starting in May 2008, to take a fully accredited international marketing course taught in English.
Israeli students from BGU will then be coming to Canada in 2009 to study at U of M and meet with business leaders.
The exchange program has been made possible by a donation from Gerald Schwartz, chief executive officer of Onex Corp. and a U of M alumnus.
"Winnipeg has had exchange programs with BGU in the medical area before ... but this the first exchange we have ever had in the area of business," said Carla Vickar, executive director of the Winnipeg chapter of BGU.
"The program is a phenomenal opportunity for Manitoba students to learn about business and Israel," she added. "It is not only an academic program, but also a cultural exchange. The students will be touring the country and meeting with top Israeli business leaders. It is a great opportunity, taking into account all of the future business relationships, friendships and international contacts that will be made."
While in Be'er Sheva the students will live in residence with Israeli students. "Staying in the dorms, as opposed to hotels, will let them really see what it is like to be an Israeli student," said Prof. Robert Warren, executive director of the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship, who has been to Israel four times.
"The assignments the students will receive will focus on marketing issues facing Israeli companies looking to expand internationally or international firms seeking to enter the Israeli market," he explained.
The program was initially just going to involve sending 20 students from the Asper School of Business, but it has already grown and now U of M's department of engineering will be sending between five and 10 students to BGU to take a course in water management," said Vickar.
"Already conversations are taking place about expanding the program to other areas, such as medicine and physics. Hopefully, by 2009, we will be seeing students from several departments coming to Israel. The program may also expand in the future to include summer and even longer periods of study," she added.
BGU is Israel's fastest growing institution of higher learning. In the last 10 years, the student population at BGU has tripled, to 17,000, and is comprised of native-born Israelis, Jews and Arabs, including Bedouins, as well as recent immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.
The initial plan was for the BGU students to arrive in Winnipeg in August 2008. However, as Warren said, "The BGU students will likely not come here this summer because the university professors are striking in Israel and the academic year at BGU may have to be extended."
Prior to embarking on an exchange program with BGU, Warren was personally involved in setting up and conducting an exchange program for his business students with Tel-Aviv University, which he has done for the last three years.
"Gerald Schwartz gave a donation four years ago to U of M, wanting to establish a relationship with Tel-Aviv U. I put together a model for such a program with
Simon Benningman, the dean of business at Recanti School of Business at Tel-Aviv. I went on the program to Tel-Aviv U with U of M students three times and taught a course in new venture analysis, as well as technology entrepreneurship," said Warren.
"If you talk to any of my students who were on that exchange program, they will tell you – to the person – that it is probably the greatest thing that they have done in their life," Warren said.
This year, U of M and Tel-Aviv U mutually agreed not to continue the partnership, since there were some major changes at Tel-Aviv U. Warren said, "The dean, president of Tel-Aviv U and the instructor who taught the exchange students are all no longer at Tel-Aviv U and so we decided to make a change."
According to Warren, the exchange program that he and Benningman developed has become a model for similar exchange programs funded by Schwartz.
"I worked with the vice-president external of the U of Waterloo to reach an agreement for an exchange program in computer science with the Technion in Haifa, funded by Mr. Schwartz. As well, Mr. Schwartz is in the process of funding an exchange program for business students between St. Francis Xavier University, a small Catholic school, in Antigonish, N.S., and a partner university in Israel," said Warren.
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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