On August 31, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) held the Opening Ceremony of the Global Master in Management (Global MiM) Class of 2026 — a pioneering double degree programme jointly launched with ESCP Business School — on its Shanghai campus, welcoming an inaugural cohort of 73 young talents from across the globe. Over the next two years, these students will study and live in four world-class business hubs: Shanghai, Paris, London and Zurich.

The event was attended by CEIBS President Wang Hong; CEIBS Co-President (European) Frank Bournois; CEIBS Distinguished Professor, former President of the European Council and former Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel; CEIBS Vice President and Dean Léon Laulusa; CEIBS Vice President and Co-Dean Zhu Tian; CEIBS Secretary of the CPC Committee Dr. Ma Lei; ESCP General Secretary Anaïs Ravet; faculty representatives; and representatives of the Consulates General of Belgium, France, Poland, Sweden and Portugal in Shanghai. Hosted by Prof. Majid Ghorbani, Associate Professor of Management Practice and Deputy Director of the Global Master in Management Programme at CEIBS, the ceremony opened with the national anthems of the People's Republic of China and the European Union.

CEIBS President Wang Hong

Beauty in Diversity — Pioneers and Founders

In a welcome address, President Wang Hong extended a warm welcome to the inaugural cohort. The opening ceremony of the first Global MiM intake, she noted, is “another milestone of great significance and far-reaching influence in the history of CEIBS.” She cited a celebrated sixteen-character maxim of Fei Xiaotong, the renowned Chinese sociologist and anthropologist — translated as “Every form of beauty has its uniqueness; it is precious to appreciate other forms of beauty with openness; if beauty represents itself with diversity and integrity, the world will be blessed with harmony and unity” — and said: “Today, as 73 young people of different nationalities, languages and backgrounds come together at CEIBS, these words find their most vivid and powerful expression.”

The inaugural Global MiM cohort of 73 students, aged 22 to 23 on average, comprises 26 Chinese students and 47 international students, 40 of whom come from Europe, accounting for 54.8% of the class. It is not only the first CEIBS cohort in which international students form the majority, but also the youngest student community at CEIBS. “As the inaugural cohort of the Global MiM, you are both pioneers and founders,” President Wang emphasised. She shared five expectations with the students: to keep deepening their understanding and practice of “China Depth, Global Breadth”; to respect diversity and build understanding and cooperation across cultures; to uphold the CEIBS motto of “Conscientiousness, Innovation, and Excellence”; to embrace technological change and lead the way into the future; and to nurture bold aspirations to become bridges connecting China and Europe, as well as other countries and cultures around the world.

CEIBS Co-President (European) Frank Bournois

Today, You Are Making History

CEIBS Co-President (European) Frank Bournois then offered his warm congratulations to the inaugural cohort, saying: “You are making history today. Believe me: in twenty or thirty years, when this programme has thousands of alumni around the world, you will still have one privilege that nobody else will ever have. You will be able to say: ‘I was there from the very beginning.’” He added that “CEIBS has never been simply a European school located in China. Nor is it simply a Chinese school with European connections. We are both. That is our history. That is our DNA. And increasingly, I believe, that is our future.”

Describing the Global MiM as “a rather intensive academic cruise,” Prof. Bournois encouraged the students to develop keen “cultural intelligence” — the ability to turn cross-cultural differences into a competitive advantage. He urged them to “be yourselves,” and to have the honesty and courage to say “I don’t know yet. I need to understand this better.” “That is not weakness,” he added, “that is intellectual maturity.” Citing Heraclitus’s ancient teaching to “expect the unexpected,” he reminded the students: “Some of the companies you will lead probably do not exist today. Our responsibility cannot simply be to teach you today’s answers. We have to teach you how to navigate tomorrow’s questions.”

CEIBS Distinguished Professor, former President of the European Council, and former Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel

Be Curious, Be Innovative, Be Generous

CEIBS Distinguished Professor, former President of the European Council and former Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel then delivered a keynote address. The Global MiM, he said, is “an international, intercultural and interdisciplinary experience that brings students beyond their usual frame of reference.” He offered the inaugural cohort three messages: Be curious. Be innovative. Be generous.

On curiosity, he placed the European intellectual tradition alongside the Eastern wisdom of Laozi and Confucius. “The point is not to decide which tradition, which culture, is right and which one is wrong. The objective is to confront ideas — or, better still, to open a dialogue between them,” he said. “This is what happens when European and Asian perspectives genuinely meet: something new can emerge,” he added. In an age of information overload, he reminded students to keep thinking critically: “Education should not only give you answers. It should teach you to question them.”

On innovation, he noted: “If something works, keep improving it. But if it doesn’t work, have the courage to change it. Innovation begins with a very simple question: ‘What if there is another way?’” On generosity, he stressed that cooperation and self-interest are not opposites: “Very often cooperation is the smartest form of self-interest.” He closed by weaving together the words of Voltaire, the Chinese motto of “harmony in diversity,” and the African philosophy of Ubuntu, or “I am because you are”: “Three ideas from three different parts of the world. And yet, they converge around one fundamental belief: we are connected. This, to me, is the essence of the Global MiM.”

General Secretary of ESCP Anaïs Ravet

Anaïs Ravet: It All Starts Here

General Secretary of ESCP Anaïs Ravet then welcomed the students on behalf of the programme’s partner school. She noted that ESCP, founded in 1819,  is the world’s oldest business school, with a vibrant community of 11,500 students representing 140 nationalities, backed by a global network of 95,000 alumni across 193 countries. “Congratulations, and welcome!” she said to the incoming students. “You are now an integral part of this global family.”

The Global MiM, she said, is “building a vital bridge for economic and cultural understanding between China and Europe.” She offered the students this advice: “Learn to listen before responding, to understand before judging, and to adapt without losing sight of who you are. As we say at ESCP: It All Starts Here!”

We May Not Have a Map, But We Have Each Other

Global MiM student representative Dong Yutong

Inaugural student representative Dong Yutong, from China, opened her remarks by referencing the film The Odyssey. “We don’t always know where the journey will take us,” she said. “We simply choose to set sail.” She admitted that in choosing the Global MiM programme, she had eventually chosen one of the least certain options, adding “Maybe I just need the courage to begin.” She concluded by encouraging her fellow students: “Let us not spend this journey trying to prove that we made the right choice. Let us make the choice right. We may not have a map. But we have each other.”

Global MiM student representative Soltane-Alexandre Touazi

Student representative Soltane-Alexandre Touazi, from France, then said that he hopes to gain “China Edge” from CEIBS — “not a slogan, but a real, working understanding of how one of the world’s most consequential economies actually thinks, negotiates, and builds.” He then addressed his classmates directly: “The person sitting next to you right now, whose name you may not even know yet, is going to change how you think about business, about culture, about yourself. Don’t wait until year two to have that conversation. Start today.”

Diversity United: From Day One, the World in One Classroom

Under the moderation of Professor Majid Ghorbani, the ceremony reached then its most vibrant moment — the roll call of nations. As each country’s name was announced, students from that country rose to wave their national flags, to thunderous applause and cheers. Counting dual nationalities, the inaugural cohort represents 16 countries and regions, with students hailing from every continent except Antarctica. Following the roll call, CEIBS Vice President and Dean Léon Laulusa and CEIBS Vice President and Co-Dean Zhu Tian joined the two student representatives on stage, and all students rose to pin the CEIBS and ESCP badges on one another — formally becoming members of both school communities.

Students from China, France, Italy and other countries rise to wave their flags

CEIBS Vice President and Dean Léon Laulusa and CEIBS Vice President and Co-Dean Zhu Tian with student representatives

CEIBS Associate Professor of Management Practice and Deputy Director of the Global Master in Management Programme Majid Ghorbani

The First Photograph on the Wall

Bringing the ceremony to a close, Professor Majid Ghorbani spoke movingly about what makes the inaugural Global MiM cohort special. “‘73’ is not just a statistic,” he said. “It is 73 decisions — 73 people who read or heard about a programme that had never been run before, by a partnership that had never run it, leading to two degrees that no one had yet held — and said yes anyway. Most students inherit a reputation. You will build one. Somewhere in this building there is a wall with nothing on it — no photographs, no list of names, no year groups — because there are no people who came before you. You are the first photograph. The history starts now, and you are writing it.”

Group photo of students, faculty, guests and staff

With warm applause and a group photograph, the inaugural opening ceremony of the CEIBS Global MiM then concluded, and the four-city journey of the first cohort officially began. We hope these students will go on to pursue knowledge and build bridges through mutual understanding, developing into leaders who connect China and Europe and uniting diverse cultures — forging boldly ahead in an era that belongs to them.