In our recent 2025 China summer program, our teaching team, Dr Peter Adjei-Bamfo, Ms Leanne Gaul and Dr Helen Taylor, took the opportunity to welcome a group of undergraduate students and their academic supervisor from Tianjin University of Commerce (TUC) to Port Macquarie campus. The two-week summer program is part of strategic activities for strengthening CSU’s international reputation and collaboration with partner institutions of our China Joint Cooperative Program (JCP). We brought together a range of expertise across economics, finance, accounting, management and entrepreneurship to deliver rich and engaging sessions. These topics were scaffolded throughout the two weeks and were delivered using various engagement activities to enhance the learning experience of our summer students. The experience of team-teaching in this way exposed us all to new approaches and ways of conceptualising a stand-alone two-week program, depending on each other’s insights as well as our own experiences delivering education to international cohorts. We were excited about the program and have lots to share!
Peter shares his experience….
I taught ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and Impact Investing for day 1, and on day 2, I introduced students to how procurement could drive supply chain innovation (SCI). These topics appealed to the corporate conscience and business competitiveness, as part of global efforts to address sustainability challenges. Key learning outcomes and concepts were designed and supported by practical initiatives by the operations of the A2 Milk company case study, and we discussed their implications for our topics.
ESG, unlike impact investment, does not primarily focus on generating direct financial returns or to create measurable social or environmental impact, although it could result in these. Students were shown evidence of these from A2 Milk’s ESG activities on modern slavery, climate disclosure, and equal gender pay strategy. Learning in procurement and SCI also examined both upstream and downstream supply chain of A2 Milk as well as innovation factors, its different forms and strategies for diffusing and restricting innovation diffusion (e.g., patents). Engagement activities, videos showing concepts in action (i.e., palm plantation and impact on local livelihoods) as well as competitive MCQ-type quiz in Mentimeter were used.
Generally, our use of a common case study made conceptually different topics from finance and management disciplines seem similar, more connected and easier to learn by students with culturally diverse backgrounds to Charles Sturt and Australia. This helped students to quickly relate and learn about new concepts. Although students were initially reluctant and a bit shy, the engagement activities around the shared case study helped to immerse students and empowered them in their interactive learning and English communication. I also noted that students felt more engaged when familiar company examples were used. Therefore, although A2 Milk operates in China, a combination with more familiar companies would be considered in future summer programs.
Explore the insights from our CSU teaching team
