Teaching Undergraduate Operations Research in Some of the Business Schools in Asia

Operations research and management science (OR/MS) have long been accepted as an inherent part of management studies in the US; however, the pedagogy of OR/MS in most of the Asian countries has not yet evoked the attention of Western scholars. We carried out a questionnaire survey to explore the teaching of undergraduate OR/MS in business schools in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The responses revealed some similarities among these four countries. In particular, less than half of the respondents indicated that OR/MS was a required course in their undergraduate curricula. They saw the two most important objectives of this course as improving students' ability to think logically and enhancing their overall quantitative skills. Among OR/MS subjects, linear programming is the major topic covered. Simulation receives insufficient attention. In addition, instructors in Asia commonly rely on example calculations and the explanation of theory.