The chance to create something new: The beginnings of IBSS

In 2012, Professor Sarah Dixon, then Dean of the School of Management at the University of Bradford in the UK, accepted a position to set up a business school in China.

“My friends thought I was nuts,” she says. “But it’s not often you get the opportunity to create something new.”

Professor Dixon joined Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in early 2013, tasked with establishing the University’s business school, International Business School Suzhou (IBSS).

The cherry on top, says Professor Dixon, was the chance to finally learn Mandarin. “I’ve always been interested in it. When I was 10, I bought a ‘Teach Yourself Chinese’ book,” she says. While her early attempts started and ended with that book, when she came to China, she began lessons that she still keeps up with.

Professor Sarah Dixon in 2026

IBSS at the start

Establishing a business school in another country played well to Professor Dixon’s strengths. Before moving into academia, she had worked in both Austria and Russia while at the oil and gas company Shell.

“Starting a new school is a bit like starting a business,” Professor Dixon explains. “We were starting from scratch.” She recalls a flurry of working groups, strategy meetings, and creating materials.

“People would just volunteer for things. I remember a senior professor of economics taking on the role of film director for our first video. We got things done because of the cooperation of staff members, and also the sheer speed of getting things done in China.”

But Professor Dixon, with her background in strategic management, knew that to be taken seriously, the School needed accreditation. The first target was the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). “We aimed for AACSB accreditation, which brought a lot of other things into train – it was a process to follow, so we could focus on what was needed in each step. It was the first accreditation we got, and we were busy working on the other two when I left.

“We got the AACSB accreditation in a very short time – only two years. I think that was the quickest for any business school,” she says.

IBSS was rapidly taking shape, and the University (then 7 years old) and the city were in flux as well. “I would be cycling to work, and think ‘That building wasn’t there yesterday!’” she says.

Professor Dixon (right) at the official accreditation from CPA Australia

Looking for something different

The early days were very busy, says Professor Dixon. And there were moments of culture shock as well. “My first session teaching was quite a shock. I was used to, you know, students answering a question when asked. But there, I noticed students would look down at their books to avoid answering.”

One of the biggest challenges in those early days was staff recruitment – convincing people to move halfway around the world to take a chance on a brand new school was tricky. “We spent a lot of time on recruitment. But I noticed that for the recruitment of Professors, it was easier to recruit people who were approaching the end of their careers and looking for something new and different,” she says.

Professor Dixon at an international advisory board meeting

“At the beginning, it was really small, with only 45 staff members. But it was also very international! Around 50% of our staff were international, which I was very proud of.”

If the first challenge came from having too few people, the second came from too many. “We grew so quickly that we never had enough space.”

One of her proudest moments, Professor Dixon says, was making the case for IBSS’s building. “We needed our own space,” she says. However, her vision of the building differed from the ultimate result. “When we were planning the building, I wanted everything to be open. Shared offices, glass doors… But the staff at the time were strongly opposed to sharing offices and being visible. When I left, that aspect of the design was changed.”

The big reveal

Looking at what IBSS and its people have grown into, Professor Dixon can’t help but feel proud. “I had a great management team, and many of them have since gone on to senior roles,” she says. She mentions Professor Eddy Fang, who was appointed Dean of the School last September and joined at the same time as she did, fresh from his PhD at the University of Cambridge.

“To be an effective Dean, you need three things: teaching, research and management skills. Eddy was good at balancing all three,” she says.

One moment that stands out to Professor Dixon is the School’s official launch. “It was a big event,” she recalls. “With fireworks and everything.”

The official launch of IBSS

It was the culmination of all those meetings and working groups, finally unveiling everything they had been working towards.

A new type of international education

In a career, Professor Dixon says, you take parts of everything with you. “My experiences in Shell and at Universities in Kingston, Bath, Bradford, IBSS, Leicester… Anywhere you go, you always take things you have learnt elsewhere with you.”

But IBSS holds a special place in Professor Dixon’s heart. “I was able to create something new and positive,” she says. “It was my best job ever.”

“IBSS and XJTLU, in those early days, were characterised by a passion for a new type of international education in China,” she says. “At one strategy away day, we were brainstorming ideas for a motto. One staff member came up with ‘Combining East and West, creating a better world’, and in Chinese it’s 学贯中西 兼善天下. I thought that ‘better world’ aspect was so important.”

Creating a better world seems like a lofty ambition, but Professor Dixon believes international education plays its part. “It’s amazing what XJTLU has done for its students, both domestic and international, in broadening their horizons.”

By Patricia Pieterse
Photos courtesy of XJTLU and Professor Sarah Dixon