Dear IIMBA,

Hello and welcome to the IIMBA at National Cheng Kung University. I would like to begin by congratulating you on your acceptance. The purpose of this brief letter is to inform you about some information you might not find anywhere in the normal information packets.  These are mostly things to pack but also some information that you will likely find useful.

During your time in this program you will have the chance to go to many events. Therefore it is important that you remember to not only bring standard business attire, but also pack your cultural and traditional clothes. We take a lot of pride in our diversity and we frequently enjoy displaying performances and rituals from various places around the world.

Secondly, although the tuition and dormitory expenses are waived, you will still need a substantial amount of money for things like books, food, and your 1-time student fee payment. This student fee payment is separate from the school and is paid to the student council. Itgoes toward class events such as graduation, welcome parties and farewell parties. So please make sure to plan ahead for this feeso that it doesn't come as a surprise.

If you are not already familiar with the school structure it may be slightly overwhelming to comprehend who is responsible for various tasks. Very briefly put, there are two main offices you will work with. The International Student Affairs Division (ISAD: with subdivision OIA) is the first, and the IIMBA office is the second. ISAD takes care of things like dormitory living, registration, acceptance, airport pickup, and mostly administrative tasks that every international student will need regardless of department. The IIMBA office will be responsible (in general) for the issues that involve your MBA degree specifically. These are things like course schedules, thesis advisors, and academic policies. This should help you to direct your questions more efficiently to the appropriate department.

Finally, I would like to say that you have entered a program that is developing and striving to be a top business school in the Asia Pacific region. We are working hard to make these advancements, but we are still young. Information may not always be as easy to attain as you would like;please be patient, look up things about Asian culture (ie. face & respect), and be ready to learn how various cultures operate. The second year students and student council will be an invaluable resource to solving your adaptation needs. The student council webpage: iim.incku.com, contains contact information and a lot of useful tools. Please feel free to ask us anything.

To sum up:

• Please bring:
  • Business attire
  • Traditional Clothes
  • Money
• ISAD: responsible for general international student concerns
• IIMBA Office: responsible for department specific information
• Questions: Direct to second year students and council members also try to be patient in dealing with office staff as things work differently here things work differently here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope you have found the information useful.

Sincerely,

Philip McAndrew

IIMBA Student Council President