Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

October 27, 2008

By Gabrielle Matthews

If you are among the more than one billion people worldwide who watched television and internet coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, you know why the world's eyes are on China. With a booming economy and growing international presence, China is a major player on the global stage.
   
As Georgetown looks toward a future ripe with possibilities for collaboration with Chinese universities, leaders are also mindful of the past.  "Jesuits and Jesuit institutions have been in China for 400 years, on and off," says Georgetown Provost Dr. James O'Donnell. "So as China becomes again a world player and a focus of international attention, Georgetown is ideally placed to establish connections with and for faculty and students."
   
Georgetown's commitment to international programs means an ever-sharpening focus on China, with high-level agreements and programs designed to facilitate partnerships between Georgetown and Chinese universities.
   
In May 2007 Georgetown University President John DeGioia signed a cooperative agreement with Fudan University President Wang Shenghong to develop joint projects―just one of the six cooperative initiatives Georgetown now maintains in China. Others include programs with the China Scholarship Council, which provides post-doctoral fellowships for research at Georgetown, a memorandum for academic cooperation, faculty and administrative delegations and professor exchanges with Renmin University, an agreement to promote international cooperation in the areas of early childhood education and children with disabilities with East China Normal University and a memorandum for academic cooperation and annual conferences with the  China Central Party School. Additionally, China’s State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs granted Georgetown the permission to provide training to Chinese officials, which enables Georgetown’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development, Center for Language Education and Development, and School of Continuing Studies to develop programs. Georgetown is also planning programs with the State Administration on Religious Affairs and the US-China Friendship Society.  In the fall of 2007, Georgetown opened a liaison office in Shanghai, the first of its kind for Georgetown, which is headed by Dr. Lili Dong.
         
 "Georgetown students will have the opportunity to work with faculty and students from Chinese universities and learn from each other through programs including faculty and student exchanges, joint research, and bi-local classes," says Dong.

These bi-local classes will include lectures and seminars given by Georgetown and Fudan professors in their respective locations, with video and audio feeds to both universities.

"Shanghai, where Fudan University is located," she continues, "as an international city and China's center of commerce and finance, can provide internship or employment opportunities."

The opening of Georgetown's Liaison Office at Fudan will mean broadening the scope of research opportunities for Georgetown professors; similarly, Georgetown students will benefit from increased opportunities for internships, research, and cultural exchanges.

“Georgetown College is especially excited about the possibilities for collaboration,” said Dr. Chester Gillis, interim Dean of the College and Professor of Theology. “As a leader in liberal arts education, we know there are myriad ways for Georgetown to benefit from research opportunities, while at the same time assisting Chinese universities as they conceptualize and refine their liberal arts programs.”
 
Mr. Samuel Robfogel, Director of International Initiatives in the Provost’s Office, is pleased with the initial results of collaboration with Fudan and other Chinese partners. “On the one hand, the agreement with Fudan and the opening of Georgetown’s Liaison Office have opened up new opportunities for Georgetown students and faculty to go to China,” Robfogel noted. “On the other hand, our new agreements over the past two years with the China Scholarship Council, Fudan, and others have brought new students and post-doctoral researchers from China to Georgetown.”

For Robfogel, one of the most promising areas for the future will be helping Chinese universities interested in bolstering the liberal arts to get to know Georgetown. "Fudan is a leader in introducing liberal arts education to contemporary Chinese universities," he says. "Fudan College, with its focus on general education, is one of the first, if not the first, to offer students the opportunity to study outside a major for their first year. Other Chinese universities are paying attention."

Georgetown faculty will have the opportunity to share their experience as teachers in the Jesuit traditions, which include an integrated education and research in arts, humanities, languages, sciences, and social sciences. This approach is relatively new and rare within elite Chinese universities, where the focus in the last two decades has been mainly on science and technology.

"Both Georgetown and our Chinese partners benefit from the new and diverse exchanges,” Robfogel says. "We get to enhance research opportunities for Georgetown science faculty and students, while Chinese partners get to see how the Jesuit liberal arts concept of educating the whole person functions. It's a great exchange of people, ideas, and pedagogy," Robfogel says.

Not only will opportunities increase for faculty researchers and administrative leaders, Georgetown's already strong study abroad programs in China will also prove to be even more varied and well-rounded in the future. In the 2007-2008 school year, 12 students studied abroad in Beijing, 12 in Harbin, four in Nanjing, eight in Shanghai, and seven in Hong Kong. With the on-the-ground support and information the Liaison Office in Shanghai provides, even greater exchange between Georgetown and other universities and programs will be forthcoming.

"Georgetown students who would like to study or do internships in China will be able to benefit from staff support from the Office of International Programs and the Office of International Initiatives at the DC campus; and under the Office of International Initiatives, Georgetown's Liaison Office based in Shanghai will be able to provide support while students are in the country," Dong explains.

Undoubtedly this support system will be a great benefit for students as they pursue study, internships, and programs in China, as will the active Georgetown alumni gatherings to be found in Beijing and Shanghai.   

Conversely, Georgetown's agreements with Chinese universities mean a greater range of options for visiting Chinese students and professors to research and study in the US. With distinctive regionally-based prospects such as the I-270 corridor for biotechnology, the National Institutes of Health, defense industry contractors, and others, says Robfogel, "Washington is key. When a student comes to Georgetown, they come to the nation's capital—a dynamic city, with rare opportunities. It provides a great mix for students or young post-doctoral researchers."

More programs for Georgetown faculty and students are currently in the works, including new summer study abroad programs and internship opportunities in Shanghai. "With various faculty and student exchange programs and joint conferences between Georgetown and Fudan, collaboration between the two institutions will involve participation from more faculty and students and reach more academic programs beyond the present scope," says Dong.

Collaborations are already happening. June 18-20, 2008, a delegation from Georgetown, comprised of professors of chemistry and physics, traveled to Fudan's main Handan campus in Shanghai to participate in a two-day symposium. There, the delegation discussed current research with their Chinese colleagues. This was the first in what will surely be a series of collaborations, and was a great success for all involved.

Although Georgetown is a leader in science and biomedical technologies, its reputation in China tends to highlight the exceptional law, international relations, and public policy programs. Faculty members hope the new initiatives help not only increase Georgetown's international exchanges, but also further the university's reputation for liberal arts and science in China.

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