Trip concludes with preparations for visit by Rutherford
schoolchildren in July
XI’AN, China — Middle Tennessee State University’s delegation to
China headed home Wednesday after gaining a fifth new academic partner and
setting plans for a group of Rutherford County schoolchildren and parents to
visit Xi’an cultural sites in July.
MTSU signed a pact
with with Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, solidifying a relationship that
President Sidney A. McPhee broached in December with SNU leaders at a Beijing
ceremony honoring him a “Person of the Year” by the global Confucius
Institutes.
It gives MTSU
a presence in China’s Shaanxi province in the northwestern region of the
country. Xi’an is home to some of China’s top cultural sites, including the
archeological dig of Terra Cotta Warriors at the Mausoleum of the First Qin
Emperor.
McPhee noted SNU
and MTSU share “normal school roots” and both remain major institutions for
training teachers and school administrators. Also, like MTSU, Shaanxi has grown
into a major comprehensive university with expertise in sciences and the arts.
“SNU is a
top-tier university in China, directly administered by the Ministry of
Education here, and known for its quality programs and excellent faculty,”
McPhee said. “We are pleased to begin this partnership with our new friends.”
SNU will also be
one of three hosts to a group of Rutherford schoolchildren and parents visiting
China in July as part of MTSU’s Confucius Institute’s cultural exchange
efforts, McPhee said. The delegation on Tuesday set the group’s plans to see
the Terra Cotta Warriors, as well as the ancient Xi’an City Walls, Bell Tower
and Drum Tower.
The
schoolchildren will also visit Hangzhou and Shanghai during the exchange, the
third such activity organized under the auspices of MTSU. It follows last
year’s visit by Chinese schoolchildren to Murfreesboro and the initial 2012
trip to China by Rutherford students.
Co-hosts Dongcheng
Education Group and Hangzhou Normal University, along with private donors, will
also provide financial and logistical support for the July trip and parents
will pay for the children’s flights to and from China. Hanban, the headquarters
for Confucius Institute, is covering the costs of the Xi’an portion of the
trip.
“SNU, along
our partners at Dongcheng, Hangzhou Normal and Hanban, have allowed us to
extend this exchange effort for a third year,” McPhee said. “This is yet
another tangible result from the relationships we have created and fostered
over the past decade plus.”
The pact
signed by MTSU and SNU will allow the two universities to set up student
exchanges and develop faculty collaboration, said SNU Vice President Xuqun You.
He said SNU
has almost 18,000 undergraduates and almost 8,000 graduate students, along with
more than 40,000 enrolled in continuous education and long-distance learning
programs. It is located on two large urban campuses in Xi’an and boasts almost
3,000 faculty and staff members.
The university contains 16 colleges and departments, 58
majors, 26 doctoral programs and 95 master programs.
The agreement with
Shaanxi was the fifth agreement signed during the MTSU delegation’s visit to
China. It follows new pacts with Xiangnan University in Chenzhou; Communication
University of China in Beijing; Shanghai Second Polytechnic University; and a
renewal of MTSU’s partnership with Hangzhou Normal University.
Under McPhee’s
watch, MTSU’s international student enrollment has increased from 396 to 789 in
five years, and the university has 335 students in its education abroad
programs this summer. It has more than 40 exchange agreements with institutions
around the world.
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