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Banister, a former executive director of e-Universities, a government on-lined education project, says MBS, part of University of Manchester, has just opened its latest centre in Shanghai to serve Chinese and other Asian students.

Besides Shanghai, MBS, ranked the fourth best business school in the UK by an Financial Times survey, opened branches in Hong Kong and Singapore eight years ago.

Today, each of the centres has around 300 students.

As for Thais, there are 35 students on the MBA programme, and nine on the DBA programme to date.

At present, MBS has more than 2,000 Asian graduates, representing about 20 per cent of the total, with most Asian students coming from China.

Given the global financial crisis and economic recession, Banister foresees an increased demand for higher education among business executives in Asia and elsewhere.

Tough times mean fiercer competition for both companies and students, he says, adding that new economic challenges have emerged in the wake of the US financial meltdown.

"We could expect more applications for courses while business managers will not find it so easy to give good performance during this difficult time. (We'll need) more creative solutions to the problems," he says.

Banister, who previously played an instrumental role in introducing electronic trading to the UK finance sector, says the global crisis as triggered by the US financial meltdown could lead to a shifting of global economic power towards Asia, especially China.

For example, international business partnerships might undergo drastic ownership and other changes as a consequence of this crisis.

In addition, the markets might also change drastically, with the rise of middle-class consumers in China being the new engine of world economic growth.

The face of competitors might also change, he says, adding that there will also be less financial leverage and risk-taking in general, with businesses and consumers being more careful with their financial decisions.

Overall, these upcoming changes will require business managers around the world to be more adaptable and creative.

 Banister also foresees a much greater public sector role in the global economy following the US, UK and other European governments' decision to bail out major financial institutions to the tune of several hundreds of billion dollar.

The US government alone recently approved a $700-billion package to rescue its banks and financial system from the state of near-collapse.

"Nationalisation of banks in the US and the UK is unprecedented and (at the scale we've witnessed) will have significant effects on economic activity (as far as the private sector's role is concerned)."

"More public- than private-sector role in the economy means the freedom to take risks, for instance, will also be affected," he says.

Banister also shares the opinion that the western model may need a major reform once again, with the possibility that a "hybrid" of the best elements of western and Asian practices emerging as a new alternative.

His words are against the backdrop in which the classical school of economics and the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith now take a back seat, while the Keynesian school steps in once again to rescue the financial and economic system as it did in the 1930's.