[photopress:Chinese_student.JPG,full,alignright]Kent State University is aiming to start a new chapter in enrollment, bringing in dozens, if not hundreds, of students from China.
By opening an office in Beijing this semester, it is joining a flood of other colleges and universities that are launching outreach programs in the People’s Republic of China.
‘China is hot,’ said Madeleine Green, vice president of international initiatives for the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.
While no one keeps records, she said, ‘well over 100’ American institutions have footholds in the world’s most populous country, and more seem to be starting up each day.
Steve Michael, KSU’s associate provost for diversity, said Kent State wants to create at least 10 active partnerships with universities in China that could lead to collaborative faculty research, joint degrees and the delivery of some programs through distance education.
He hopes to double the number of Chinese students — particular those who don’t need to use a scholarship, those who can pay the whole of the tuition and residential feesght — at Kent State to 200 within five years.
Steve Michael said, ‘Somebody’s going to have to educate’ China’s young people and it may as well be American universities.’ He said there simply isn’t enough university capacity in China to cope with the demand.
Linden Tours of Alexandria, Va., organizes tours to Asia specifically for college-admissions staffers for as much as $18,000 a person. Staff members from the University of Toledo, Ohio State University and Miami University all took the tour last year.
‘It’s our most popular tour,’ said company co-owner Darryl Calkins, ‘and the cost can be recouped if you enroll just one student who doesn’t need a scholarship.‘
Perhaps all of this could have been a tad better phrased. It all seems slightly sordidly commercial.
Source: Ohio.com