Would you like fries with that degree?

China’s universities may seek to emulate many of the world’s finest third level institutions but its newest university isn’t about creating engineers, scientists and doctors. Instead it aims to produce the country’s next generation of managers…for McDonald’s.

The first of its kind in China, the 250 million-yuan (€27 million) Hamburger University is designed to train a new generation of local Chinese managers to help develop the company’s interest in the world’s fastest growing economy.

Far from teaching its students the right way to fry and flip a burger, these institutes are aimed at McDonald’s managers looking to progress up the corporate ladder by improving their business skills.

Many of McDonald’s top management have been trained at its institutions, including its current president and CEO Jim Skinner. The company’s head of its Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa operations, Tim Fenton also graduated from one of its Hamburger Universities.

During the opening ceremony two weeks ago in Shanghai, Fenton spoke about why McDonald’s had chosen to open one of its hamburger universities in China.

“China is strategically important to McDonald’s. Currently we’ve about 1,100 restaurants there, and we plan to expand this to 2,000 in the next three years.”

China is McDonald’s fastest-growing market, where it enjoys an annual expansion rate of 10%, eight times higher than in the United States. This new institute is the seventh of its kind opened by McDonald’s. The company’s other universities are located in the United States, Japan, UK, Germany, Brazil and Australia.

More than 125,000 people have graduated from the companies universities worldwide and its new Chinese centre aims to teach 5,000 students over the next five years.

The Shanghai Hamburger university has two classrooms, a library, five full-time professors and translators who can speak three different languages. It will teach such topics as restaurant leadership practices, business leadership practices and operation consultancy, as well as practical courses designed to simulate real-life situations such as how to manage a drive-thru during its busiest hours.