Agreements signed this week will dramatically enhance CU programs with China universities

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Bringing together researchers from across disciplines, oceans and institutions, Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman signed agreements this week in China to expand collaboration with Tsinghua University and create a new Chinese major with Peking University in Beijing.

Tsinghua and Cornell will now exchange faculty members and undergraduate students to strengthen teaching and research in engineering. Kent Fuchs, dean of Cornell\'s College of Engineering, also signed the agreement Nov. 8.

"Students and faculty alike are excited by the possibilities that arise from this new level of collaboration," said Lehman. "Achieving this new level of cooperation will confirm Cornell as a university whose graduates become leaders around the globe and a university whose research has universal impact."

For years Cornell and Tsinghua have been exchanging graduate students in the field of engineering, said Fuchs. "These are two of the finest engineering universities in the world. Now it is time to expand that relationship to undergraduate students and faculty. We will have exchanges going in both directions, and it will take the Cornell-Tsinghua relationship to a higher, more productive level."

Faculty from both universities will exchange information on nanoscience and nanotechnology, advanced materials research, information science and computer engineering, mechanical and biomedical engineering, energy systems and environmental engineering.

Members from each university\'s faculty will be put into working groups and meet twice a year for workshops, which will consist of formal presentations and individual meetings. Annually, two engineering faculty members from Tsinghua will visit Cornell for a semester, and two Cornell faculty members will spend a semester at Tsinghua. The first workshop will be held in fall 2005 at Tsinghua.

Cornell undergraduate students will have an opportunity to spend a summer in Beijing, taking courses and participating in work-study jobs in that city.

On Nov. 9, Lehman and G. Peter Lepage, dean of Cornell\'s College of Arts and Sciences, signed an agreement with Peking University to offer a new intensive undergraduate major in China and Asia-Pacific Studies.

Cornell students will receive rigorous language training on campus, explore China-related topics in Washington, D.C., and spend a senior year semester in Beijing studying alongside Chinese students to develop a deep understanding of China\'s culture, politics and foreign relations.

"The collaborative agreement with Peking University builds on the strong connections Cornell has had with China and its people for more than 100 years," Lehman said. "It opens to both our universities a new dimension in transnational education for the 21st century."

This partnership creates a unique opportunity for Cornell students. "This is a radical departure for Cornell," said Sherman Cochran, Cornell professor of history and director of the university\'s new China and Asia-Pacific Studies Program. "Many of our students study abroad, but this major requires rigorous language training, and it requires a student to spend one semester in China and another semester in Washington, D.C."

Beginning in their freshman year, students in the major will study Mandarin Chinese and will have three years of Chinese language study before their Beijing semester in their senior year. "While in Beijing, the students will take courses on Chinese history, politics and foreign relations, in Chinese, from a Chinese professor at Peking University," said Cochran.

In addition to the rigorous language study, the Cornell students will spend a junior-year semester in Washington, D.C., conducting research on topics related to China and its relations with the United States. In both Beijing and Washington, students will hold externships in government agencies, businesses, newspapers and nongovernmental organizations. The first course in this new major will be offered in the fall 2005 semester.