Progress makes south China institution one of MTSU’s most productive
partnerships
NANNING,
China — The year-old partnership between Middle Tennessee
State University and Guangxi University will enable 140 students from the south
China institution to eventually come to the Murfreesboro campus.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee learned the news
Wednesday at a meeting on the Nanning campus with Guangxi administrators as
well as deans and professors in its colleges of business, foreign language and
mathematics and information science.
Guangxi Vice President Shang Nahong told McPhee that
53 students will eventually enroll at MTSU to study finance in the Jones
College of Business; 34 will study business administration in the Jones College;
and 46 will study mathematics in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.
The Guangxi students will enroll at MTSU as soon as
they complete course requirements on their campus.
“This is tremendous,” McPhee told Shang. “This means
that Guangxi University has become one of our most productive and successful
partnerships in less than a year. We are thrilled and appreciative.”
The students will enroll in a newly developed
“three-plus-two” program between the universities, which will allow Guangxi
students to finish their undergraduate degrees and earn graduate degrees while
on the Murfreesboro campus.
McPhee, accompanied by state Sen. Bill Ketron,
R-Murfreesboro, and two professors from the College of Basic and Applied
Sciences, Elliot Altman and Iris Gao, also engaged in talks about expanding the
“three-plus-two” program to other majors.
The relationship between MTSU and Guangxi was first
forged in May 2013, when McPhee and Ketron visited Nanning and announced the
opening of a student recruitment office at Guangxi.
The office marked the university’s first overseas representative
office and reflects MTSU’s growing commitment to Guangxi, an autonomous region
on China’s border with Vietnam. The region is also home to the Guangxi
Botanical Garden of Medicinal Plants, at which MTSU works with as a research
partner and collaborator.
Then, in November, Guangxi University President Zhao Yanlin
visited MTSU and signed a memorandum of understanding following a roundtable
discussion between McPhee and executives from both universities. Guangxi
officials later toured campus and met with their MTSU counterparts for further
discussions.
Ketron, the state’s Senate majority caucus leader
and a 1976 graduate of the university, said he was pleased to learn the
relationship he helped forge last year was benefiting both institutions.
“I’m very excited about the news you have given us
today,” Ketron said. “Since our world economy is now global, the relationship
between MTSU and your university is very important and seems to be leading the
way in our state, if not our country.”
McPhee and Shang also agreed for six professors from
Guangxi to come to MTSU this fall to collaborate with faculty and learn more
about the Murfreesboro campus.
“We have established partnerships with universities around
the world, but when we talk about training teachers, MTSU is our priority,”
Shang told McPhee.
“We are serious about our partnership with our
Chinese universities,” McPhee said. “We are very selective — there are many who
want to partner with us — and we want to partner with universities like Guangxi
that will produce results.”
Founded in 1928, Guangxi has an enrollment of more than 24,000
students, similar to MTSU’s. Also like MTSU, most of its students are
undergraduates and it is known for its wide variety of majors within its 30
colleges.
Its academic disciplines include various degree programs in
public management; business and commerce: culture and mass communication;
agriculture; and science, as well as specialties within education, science and
engineering.
Guangxi boasts academic exchanges with more than 150
universities or research institutes in 35 countries or regions.
No comments:
Post a Comment