INFRAME ASIA, PEOPLE – Matilda Tao is back in the classroom in Singapore at the age of 56, but her first experience was far from easy. The Taiwanese television host recently attended an accounting course as part of the Chinese Executive MBA programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In just four days, she had to deal with material that she described as equivalent to two years of accounting studies.
Tao shared the experience after completing her first course and returning to Taiwan. She said the first few days were particularly challenging because she did not have a business background. On her first day, she admitted that she could barely understand much of what the lecturer was teaching.
The pressure increased because the lessons were followed almost immediately by assignments and examinations. After three days of classes, the students had to prepare a group presentation analysing a company’s financial statements on the morning of the fourth day. They then sat for a written examination that afternoon.
The classroom setting also meant Tao could not simply sit quietly and follow the lesson from the back. Each student had a large name board on the desk, allowing the lecturer to call on anyone to answer a question. Tao joked that the arrangement made it almost impossible for students to fall asleep during class.
Her daily schedule was equally demanding. Classes began at 9 a.m., with each session lasting about 90 minutes, while students could attend four or five classes in a day before lessons ended at around 5.30 p.m. After returning to her hotel, Tao still had to review the material and watch recorded lectures on her phone to prepare for the next day.
Interestingly, accounting was not the main reason Tao decided to continue her education. Her decision began with a chance meeting with a young woman on a flight after Tao had visited her son in Singapore. The woman told her that she was taking an NUS programme that included lessons on artificial intelligence and opportunities to take part in activities overseas.
The conversation encouraged Tao to try a new learning experience, particularly because she wanted to understand the development of AI. After joining the programme, she discovered that the curriculum would also cover business, accounting and interest rates. Tao later joked that she had only then realised how much material she had not expected to encounter.
Amid the pressure of the course, Tao found her own way to catch up with the difficult material. She uses AI as a study partner by entering her lecture notes and asking the system to generate accounting questions for her. The approach gives her a way to test her understanding after a demanding day of classes.
The campus has also introduced Tao to classmates with very different professional backgrounds. Many are company owners or senior executives from industries including electronics and healthcare. Tao initially felt less confident among people who had spent years working in the business world.
Those conversations have also created experiences outside the classroom. Tao said she once learned about a stock through a conversation with her classmates and later bought it, before the share price rose for five consecutive days. After completing her first course, she is expected to return to NUS every month for the next classes.
