Seeking foothold in fast-growing China, UF opens Beijing office

July 11, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida is joining other American schools that, like corporations and professionals, are putting down roots in rapidly growing China.

The UF Center for International Studies in Beijing opened in June, joining a growing number of U.S. universities establishing offices or otherwise ramping up activities in China, home to the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing economy.

UF and institutions such as the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland have long had agreements or collaborated with Chinese universities on, for example, international study programs in Chinese or English. UF’s new China-based office seeks to expand these kinds of collaborations into a palette of distance-learning classes and other offerings. The goal: to both entice top Chinese students to pursue UF degrees and help a growing number of American students seeking careers in China get a foothold in the country.

“After 9/11, the number of international students applying to UF and other universities basically dropped 30 percent, so we have a need to increase our efforts to recruit international students,” said Sherman Bai, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering title=”UF’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the center’s director. “And because of developments in China, our students are becoming more and more interested in business and careers there, and demand is increasing for Chinese language and cultural classes and opportunities to visit China.”

Peggy Blumenthal, vice president for educational services at the New York City-based Institute of International Education, said Chinese students no longer view the United States as the must-have option for graduate studies. Also, she said, more and more American students are opting to study in China – in fact, according to Chinese government figures, some 3,730 American students journeyed to the country to study in 2003, she said.

“China is becoming one of the leading host countries as well as a leading sending country, and that’s quite new,” she said.

Not only that, but with increasing funding from the Chinese government, Chinese university graduate research programs are rapidly improving their quality and capabilities, she said. The result of all these trends is that U.S. universities increasingly see opening China-based offices or enhancing China activities as key to their future success.

“I think the growth of graduate programs in China is opening opportunities for collaborative research,” she said. “And I think there’s a wide range of ways where if you have a presence on the ground, you can explore a lot of opportunities for academic linkages, beyond just receiving students.”

Bai returned to Gainesville in June from Beijing, where he rented the UF center’s office space in the China Agricultural University’s international conference center. The conference center, located is in the city’s Haidian District, is in an area known as the “university zone” because 10 Chinese universities are based there.

The center has several specific functions, but its overall goal is to boost UF programs and interests through its official presence, Bai said. “With a permanent center, we can constantly build relationships with the Chinese government and Chinese corporations,” he said. “It’s a much more integrated and networked effort.”

That’s important in part because UF students are already pursuing careers in China, he said. This summer, for example, a handful of students participating in a UF architecture summer program received job offers from Chinese firms seeking talent in the design of skyscrapers, he said. “Three or four students are starting to learn Chinese immediately and expect to go back to China and get jobs after they graduate,” he said.

To meet this new demand, the center will seek to support current international study programs and create new ones focusing on Chinese language and culture, Bai said. The center also expects to serve growing Chinese student interest in earning credits and degrees from U.S. universities through distance-learning programs. UF colleges and schools that have expressed an interest in offering distance-learning classes in China include engineering, medicine, pharmacy and building construction, Bai said. One day soon, it may be possible to earn a UF degree without leaving China, he added.

Bai said many challenges lie ahead for the center, not the least of which is coordinating with the Chinese government.

“If you offer anything in China, you need to get government approval to do so,” he said. “Another challenge is networking. You need to build up a network, and that takes time. And setting up programs takes time, too.”