NCSU Plans China Exchanges: N.C. State Will Trade Students With Three Major Universities in China in 2007

By Anne Blythe, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Oct. 12–It’s the Year of the Dog in China, but at N.C. State University on Wednesday, what Chinese diplomats wanted to talk about was the Wolf.

NCSU administrators announced plans to set up international exchange programs with three major universities in China. Shaozhong You, minister counselor for education and cultural exchange at the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., was on hand.

The programs will begin next summer when more than 50 NCSU students study abroad at Zhejiang University, which has its own research park. Within several years, NCSU officials expect hundreds of students to be part of the program each year.

Madeleine Green, vice president of the American Council on Education Center for International Initiatives, said NCSU is joining a wave of American universities setting up partnerships in China.

“China is of tremendous interest to U.S. higher education institutions,” Green said. “It is of great interest to the world. China’s got a billion people. The economy’s growing at an incredible rate.”

Universities constantly tout themselves as the institutions best positioned to drive the global economy, and NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger underscored that point in discussing the scope of the new exchange program.

“These international agreements go well beyond study-abroad programs,” Oblinger said.

He and other university officials said the new partnerships are likely to plant seeds for diplomacy outside the classroom.

“This program will give the Triangle name recognition in parts of the world that have never heard of North Carolina,” said Charles Hayes, president and CEO of Research Triangle Regional Partnership, a public-private organization that promotes economic development in 13 North Carolina counties.

On a trip scheduled later this month, NCSU officials plan to formally sign academic agreements with Peking University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University. They also hope to cement ties with China Agricultural University, Beijing Forestry University and the Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Students from Chinese universities will be able to take graduate and undergraduate courses at NCSU. Provost Larry Nielsen did not have an estimate of the program’s costs. He said the major expense would be travel between the two countries.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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