China Center Initiatives
These are the six major initiatives on which our office will focus its efforts in the next few years:
The first is to strengthen the University of Minnesota (Mingda) Institute of Leadership Training. The China State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) recognizes the Mingda Institute as one of the top international training centers. During the 2006-07 academic year, more than 300 Chinese executives and professionals from governmental, academic and business sectors completed training through the Mingda Institute. This is an exceptional mark of success! In order to further strengthen this bridge between China and University of Minnesota, we added another full time person, Ms. Mandy Bai, as the training program manager. Her job will be assisting in the Mingda Institute in operations and development.
The second major initiative is taking a lead role in recruiting top quality undergraduate students from China to the University. Through many connections and visits to high schools throughout China we have managed to solidify partnerships with five top high schools in Jilin, Hunan, Sichuan, Zhejiang, and Fujian. We are excited about the high quality of students we have interviewed and tested and we hope to continue to attract the best Chinese students to the University.
Thirdly, the China Center is establishing a Confucius Institute. The Chinese government has partnered with universities and community organizations around the world to promote the study of Chinese language and culture through these Confucius Institutes. After two years of planning, the China Center will join 31 other U.S. institutions by opening its own Confucius Institute! It will provide training programs for teachers of K-12 Chinese language classes and offer Chinese language and culture lessons to the greater Minnesota community.
The fourth initiative is to establish joint academic programs with our university partner in China. Our ambitious goal is to eventually open a satellite campus in China. University of Minnesota is proud to have numerous deep and long-standing connections with China’s top Universities. We are making aggressive efforts to help colleges and departments at the University establish joint academic degree programs in various academic areas with our Chinese partner universities. By opening a satellite campus in China where U of M professors can deliver courses and U of M degrees will be conferred, we will take our relationships with top Universities in China to the next level.
The China Center will continue to help build bridges between our corporate partners and China. Serving our community with expertise and resources on culture and business development is a part of our mission. The China Center’s achievements are not possible without the unwavering support of our corporate partners and we are making a greater effort to strengthen our ties with the corporate community. It is our goal to promote economic cooperation and help create business opportunities in China for our corporate partners.
Lastly, the China Center will focus on creating more study in China opportunities for the University of Minnesota students. We will expand our existing scholarship programs through more ambitious fundraising and active community involvement. We will also help the Learning Abroad Center and the individual colleges to establish reciprocal student exchange relationship with universities in China.