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Professor Zuguang Hu, president
of Zhejiang Gongshang University, and Walter Opello
of SUNY Oswego sign an exchange agreement in China
last month. It is one of six new exchange agreements
between universities in China and SUNY Oswego,
which also has a longstanding agreement with Capital
Normal University in Beijing. |
SUNY Oswego has new exchange agreements with six universities
in China, and its 13-year-old agreement with Capital
Normal University in Beijing has been renewed.
Walter Opello, associate provost for international education
and programs, announced the agreements on the return
of a campus delegation to China.
Opello along with SUNY Oswego Dean of Business Lanny
Karns and Xiaoqin Sun Irminger of the School of Education
visited all seven universities last month. As China’s
global impact grows, Opello said, “We thought
it would be a good idea to have more opportunities in
China.” Irminger, who joined the department of
curriculum and instruction this year, helped make many
of the contacts, he said.
The new agreements are with Shanghai Normal University,
Wenzhou University, Wuhan University of Technology,
and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang Gongshang
University and Zhejiang University of Technology, all
in Hangzhou.
The area around Shanghai and to the south and west,
where all the universities are located, is a prosperous
one, Opello observed. Shanghai Normal’s director
of international exchange programs “commented
that more and more of their students would like to study
abroad, and many of them have the financial means to
do so,” Irminger said.
The agreement with Capital Normal is active. “Two
(Oswego) students are on their way there this semester,”
Opello said. But the Beijing university has mainly served
as a study-abroad destination for Oswego students.
“The agreement signed in 1993 seemed to allow
much broader exchange and collaboration between the
two universities,” Irminger noted. “Capital
Normal expressed strong interest in expanding our current
practices to include bilateral exchanges of students
and faculty.”
The Chinese government grants scholarships to Chinese
professors to go to the United States, but they need
to find a host university, Opello said. Yang Mingjia
of Wuhan University is at Oswego this year to work with
Opello and Steve Rosow in political science.
Several Chinese faculty members at the various universities
expressed interest in coming to Oswego in the future,
Opello said. Irminger noted, for example, that a professor
of philosophy at Capital Normal would like to come to
Oswego as a visiting scholar.
Similarly, the opportunities for Oswego faculty to teach
at the Chinese universities are attractive, Opello noted.
The Chinese universities, he said, “have plenty
of money to support this activity. If we can get faculty,
they’ll take care of transportation. They’ll
take care of room and board.”
Opello predicted that as many as 20 students and four
faculty may come to Oswego from among the seven Chinese
universities in the next couple of years.
As exchange students, the Chinese students and Oswego
students would each pay the standard tuition at their
home university, Opello explained. He said that he anticipated
that some Chinese students who would sample Oswego as
exchange students might stay to become full fee-paying
students or return to Oswego later for graduate degrees.
—Julie Harrison Blissert |
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To March 2007 E-Newsletter |
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