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SCHOOLS FROM OVERSEAS SPREAD THEIR WINGS IN CHINA

By Pan Mengqi | China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-31 07:49

US higher educational institutions setting up centers

Editor's note: In a world facing increasing challenges on a number of fronts, such as isolationism and protectionism, different nations and cultures now have a stronger need and desire to get to know one another. In this series, "China and the World: Learning and Understanding", we look at efforts that have been and are being made globally to broaden mutual communication and study. This is the first in the series.

When Judith Farquhar was busy preparing for the launch of the University of Chicago's Beijing center in 2008, her wish was simple - she just wanted a fixed place to work in China.

As a professor in anthropology, Farquhar's research topics - traditional Chinese medicine and society - had required her to visit China frequently for field research. With more than 20 years' experience working in the country, she and her Chinese colleagues used to spend most of their time brainstorming academic ideas in hotel rooms and coffee shops.

The university decided to establish a center in Beijing, more than 10,500 kilometers from its campus in Chicago, with an aim greater than just setting up an overseas office for its faculty.

It was a bigger ambition, according to Balaji Srinivasan, the institution's vice-president for strategy and innovation and chief international officer. The university wanted to "enhance and strengthen its ties with Chinese thought and culture" by having a physical presence in the country, Srinivasan said.

SCHOOLS FROM OVERSEAS SPREAD THEIR WINGS IN CHINA

In September 2010, the University of Chicago Beijing Center opened in the city's Haidian district.

For Farquhar, the center not only provided her with a place to work in China, but also with funding for her research on the traditional medical practices of Chinese ethnic groups. With the center's help, she and her colleagues from Peking University have selected local researchers at sites nationwide.

"My collaborator joins me at the center in Beijing, and we can work very closely together every day by virtue of having this convenient space," she said.

The 2,000-square-meter center is a condensed version of the university campus, and includes space for seminars and conferences, as well as faculty offices and study areas. In the entrance, 91 portraits hang on a red wall, all of them Nobel Prize laureates affiliated to the 129-year-old university.

Lecture halls, rooms for seminars and a library at the center are almost identical to those at the Chicago campus.

Every summer, students pack the center as it hosts various programs and internships for the increasing number of those who are interested in China.

SCHOOLS FROM OVERSEAS SPREAD THEIR WINGS IN CHINA

The University of Chicago is among the growing number of world-leading institutions to set up a center in China.

In the past decade, many of the best-known names in higher education have extended their footprints by opening centers and campuses in the country. With the universities' academic resources and the convenience of being in China, these centers help them to interact with all aspects of Chinese society.

Yale Center Beijing, which was established in 2014, has held hundreds of events and programs in the past five years, including dialogues, speeches and concerts. Most of the topics are related to China, from medicine to music, energy to the economy.

On Sept 17, 2017, Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of electronics company Xiaomi Corp, visited the center and shared the innovation history of his business with more than 200 participants. The event, which was also livestreamed, garnered over 210,000 views.

Lei is not a Yale alumnus, but he said the center has become a public place and a platform for "thought leaders from all fields to exchange ideas that transcend boundaries".

The center has a mission to "bring Yale to China and bring China to the world", according to its managing director, Carol Li Rafferty. This means it will serve as a hub for "constructive dialogue about pressing issues and the exchange of ideas and knowledge among decision makers and thought leaders", using Yale's wealth of resources as a leading global research university and its strong ties to China.

Yale reportedly has the longest relationship with China among all United States' universities - and it all started with the work of its alumni.

In 1835, Peter Parker, a Yale graduate, was involved in a series of "firsts" in China. He became the first Protestant medical missionary to travel to the country after he graduated, and he went on to open China's first Western-style hospital, the Ophthalmic Hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. He also became the first doctor to introduce modern anesthesia to China.

In 1854, Yung Wing graduated from Yale College, becoming the first person from China to earn a degree from a US college or university. (The college was renamed Yale University in 1887). Inspired by and determined to share his experience at Yale with other Chinese students, Yung organized the Chinese Educational Mission. Over 10 years, he sent 120 Chinese students to schools in the US, including Yale.

Yale's relationship with China has continued to flourish, with more than 800 Chinese students studying various subjects at the US institution today, accounting for the largest number of international students at the university.

The establishment of the Yale Center Beijing is also a result of the university's strong network of alumni. Neil Shen, a founding managing partner of Sequoia China and a Yale alumnus, is the center's main founding donor and now serves as chairman of its executive council.

Rafferty said even though the relationship between China and the US has evolved over the years, exchanges between the two peoples are still important, and that is why Yale University's connection with China should continue. She added that the center will continue to provide a platform for exchanges between China and the world.

Cornell University, a research institution in Ithaca, New York state, also has a long history of dealing with China. Hu Shih, an alumnus, was a significant figure in social and educational reform in China who was one of the leaders of the country's New Culture Movement in 1919.

In 1946, Hu became chancellor of Peking University, where he promoted international cooperation in education. He once said that only education can connect humanity beyond national borders, religions and political differences.

More than half a century later, Cornell is now doing what Hu advocated. In 2016, it set up its China center, with a vision to build a bridge between the university and the country, according to Ying Hua, director of the Cornell China Center. This involves fostering innovative collaboration between Cornell and Chinese institutions, and addressing critical challenges facing China and the world.

To connect with the rich intellectual resources of top universities, research academies and government agencies, Cornell chose Beijing for its center, as did the universities of Chicago and Yale. In 2012, Stanford University opened a 3,352-sq-m center on the Peking University campus.

But Harvard took an alternative route. In mid-2008, the Harvard China Fund and the Harvard Business School set up an office in a commercial building in Shanghai, which later became the Harvard Center in China.

The Harvard China Fund's chairman, William C. Kirby, who is also former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at the university, played a prominent role in launching the center.

Kirby said Harvard chose Shanghai instead of Beijing because the former's stature as the nation's commercial and financial center made it doubly attractive to the Harvard Business School as a home for its activities.

"I don't think there's a more dynamic city on earth today than Shanghai," Kirby said. "It's an extraordinary place: an international center of culture and commerce and a magnet for talent from across the globe."

Kirby said each university center in China "displays its own DNA", and when it comes to Harvard, the aim is to always be at the cutting edge.

In 2015, at the Harvard Center Shanghai, the university's president Drew Faust and multinational conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group launched the Harvard Global Institute Program to boost the university's influence worldwide.

In a letter to its faculty members, Faust said the creation of the Harvard Global Institute was aimed at making Harvard fully participate in an evermore connected world.

"Today, knowledge is increasingly shared across national boundaries, and challenges must be understood in their broadest geographic context. Harvard must leverage its extraordinary intellectual and pragmatic strengths with a strategy of engagement, ensuring the highest quality and impact for our teaching and research in the decades to come."

The program grants scholarships to promote efforts to address major global challenges such as climate change, immigration and transnational relations.

Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Beijing-based Wanda Group, said at the opening of the program that this is a mutually beneficial collaboration between China and one of the world's leading teaching and research institutions.

"Having Harvard faculty, students and researchers on the ground in China to help address some of the country's most pressing needs will be immensely beneficial," Wang said. "And it is our hope that the discoveries the HGI enables will not only improve the lives of everyone in China, but also have applications around the world."

Kirby said Harvard's decision to set up a center in China was not just because of the nation's economic expansion and rising prominence globally, but is also down to the growth of its higher education system. Top Chinese universities are well-known for excellence that is increasingly attracting collaboration with leading overseas academic institutions, including Harvard, he added.

Higher education in China has grown rapidly in the past four decades.

The size of the country's higher education and research and development sectors, and the speed at which they are developing, is aimed at having 40 world-class universities by the middle of the century, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.

China already has 37 million domestic university students and 490,000 from overseas.

Kirby said this is a result of the reform and opening-up policy, which was launched in 1978. It was initiated as a response to the country's economic transition from a centrally planned model to a market oriented one, but more profound reforms were later implemented on a wide scale in other areas of society.

In 1993, the Outline for Education Reform and Development was issued. This paved the way for the country to expand the scale of higher education, diversify educational institutions' financing, privatize education provision, develop competitive universities, and advance the internationalization of higher education.

Liberalization of the education sector, which accompanied China's admission to the World Trade Organization in 2001, has also led to more higher educational institutions, new international academic exchanges and joint research initiatives in the country's education system. More colleges and universities want to expand their influence to China, and many new forms of cooperation have emerged.

In 2013, the Ministry of Education granted accreditation to Duke Kunshan University, a Sino-US joint venture between Duke University in North Carolina, US, and Wuhan University, Hubei province. Located in Kunshan city, Jiangsu province, it is one of nine joint venture universities in China.

Denis Simon, executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan, said operating a joint venture university in China demonstrates Duke's desire to have global reach and impact.

"Few countries in the world have been as strong and proactive in terms of support for the development and advancement of higher education as China. Research capabilities are being strengthened as China seeks to transform itself into an innovation-driven knowledge economy," Simon said.

"And what's more important is that the momentous changes in education in China have not gone unnoticed in the West."

panmengqi@chinadaily.com.cn

 SCHOOLS FROM OVERSEAS SPREAD THEIR WINGS IN CHINA

Lei Jun, founder and CEO of electronics company Xiaomi Corp, shares the innovation history of his business at the Yale Center Beijing in September 2017. Photos provided to China Daily

SCHOOLS FROM OVERSEAS SPREAD THEIR WINGS IN CHINA

(China Daily 01/31/2019 page1)

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