Chinese Comenius Course

The Chinese Comenius Course is an executive programme about ‘leadership and decisiveness’, in collaboration with the leading Beijing universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, and the Fudan University of Shanghai. This course will offer you the opportunity to reflect in a fundamental manner on your own decisiveness and balance within your own leadership. The course will offer you not only a deep insight into the various factors of the Chinese growth but also into the paradigms behind it and the conception of the Chinese ways of thinking. The Chinese Comenius Course will invite you to let go of familiar patterns of thinking and offer you handles to react to the fundamental challenges we are facing.

Insights after the Course

The Chinese Comenius Course is pre-eminently a Comenius Course that will generate a deep shift of paradigms. The course will unlock the deeper layers of Chinese culture and motives; it also will question and undermine set convictions. More than in any other of the courses, the Chinese Comenius Course will require an open mind from the participants. Within the course a lot of attention will be given to the Chinese views on mankind, society, tradition and change. In the dialogues with prominent professors who are operating close to the centre of power of Chinese politics, a new light will be shed on such topics as effective decision-taking, decisiveness, collaboration & living together, and China’s place in the international arena.

Practical information

Duration
2 –day module in Leyden and a 9-day study trip in China

Start
2 x per year
The autumn edition will start on 13 October 2011

Locations
Leyden, Beijing and Shanghai

Admission
Based on a mutual exploratory conversation.

Group
A maximum of 14 participants 

Participant’s profile

The participants, who are able to work and think at academic level, are aged from forty upwards, and are working in the public sector or business:

• Enterprising managers (director of own company, top consultant);
• Business unit managers;
• General Managers, members of boards of directors, directors of public services, directors of political, ideological and social organisations and other managers;
• Specific professional groups, e.g. artists, journalists and doctors.

Lecturers

Our lecturers include:

• Prof. Leonard Blussé (University of Leyden);
• Prof. Peter Ho (University of Leyden);
• Dr. René Ransdorp;
• Prof. Hu Angang (Tsinghua University);
• Prof. Pan Wei (Peking University);
• Prof. Lu Ming (Fudan University).

Programme & procedure

The course consists of a two-day exploratory module in the Netherlands, and a 9-day study trip to Beijing and Shanghai: During the introductory module in the Netherlands you will be introduced to the Comenius learning codes, the history and culture of China, and the other participants. Professors from the Department of Sinology will bridge our Western outlook and the Chinese world view. Various fields of science will pass under separate review. Provided he is in the Netherlands, the Chinese ambassador, Zhang Jun, will also present a lecture.

• During the study trip you will take courses at Beijing University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Fudan University in Shanghai, where you will meet up with inspiring Chinese professors who are all authorities in their chosen fields of specialisation;
• In the traditional centre of government, Beijing, the focus will be on the theme of ‘balance’. Balance in the classical Chinese way of thinking – mind and body, leadership and government. Shanghai is the city of innovation and entrepreneurship, the city of endless opportunities. Together with lecturers from Fudan University we will look for the foundations of the Chinese ‘power’