Sci-Edu
UPDATED: 08:33, June 18, 2004
Interview: Cornell gears up to bring century-long partnership with China to new level
With a package of proposals in his briefcase, Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman hoped his first formal visit to China could bring the century-long relationship to"an entirely new level."
"Cornell has enjoyed a uniquely important relationship with China over the past century, that is the background of the new proposal, Cornell-China New Century Initiative," Jeffrey told Xinhua Wednesday before his visit to China on June 26.
"In the early 20th century, Cornell became the number one university outside China that students would come to attend. It was partly because Cornell's interests included the most theoretical and the most practical, all in one place, and the belief was that the two need to be studied together," he said.
"So (Chinese) students came to study agriculture, Cornell has the finest agricultural college in the United States and maybe theworld," he added.
During his first formal visit to Beijing as President of Cornell, Lehman will finalize and celebrate partnerships with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in medicine, with the China Agricultural University in agriculture and the life sciences, as well as with Beijing University in education.
The president said he is also exploring a fourth partnership with Tsinghua University, to focus on engineering, including nanotechnology.
For the trip which will also lead him to Hong Kong and Singapore, Lehman said he is hoping to continue the university's involvement with China by beginning steps toward developing a comprehensive framework for new collaborations with the Chinese government, academic and research institutions, and alumni.
"As I complete my first year as Cornell's new President, I am excited to have the opportunity to bring that relationship to an entirely new level," said the president.
A special university for Chinese students Cornell offered its first Chinese language course in 1879. Its Full-Year Asian Language Concentration (FALCON) program is the only intensive Chinese language program in the U.S. that allows students to study Chinese all day, every day, for a full year.
Currently, Cornell has a total of 20,000 students, with some 3,000 from outside, 618 of them from China, "a size big enough for asmall college in the United States," according to the president.
Explaining what makes Cornell so special to Chinese student, the president said, "it has something to do with the way Cornell was created," pointing to a banner with a quotation from the founder of the 130-year-old university.
"I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study," it reads.
"There was a recognized need to have the institutions of highereducation that were for all people, not just young men of particular religion," he explained. "So men and women of all religions, all races, from all over the world, they would come to study all subject, not just Latin and Greek, mathematics and history, but also agriculture, engineering and caring for animals."
"Cornell University is sometimes described by historians as thefirst true American University, because it was created after the industrial revolution in the United States, after the civil war," he added.
"So the university was founded in 1865 and started to taking students in 1868. We began offering Chinese language instruction in 1879. Our first student from China, Shi Zhaoji came in 1897, heturned to be an ambassador to the United States," he recalled.
A century ago, so many students from China came to Cornell University because of its strong programs of agricultural researchand teaching that Cornell became known in China as "a cradle of modern agriculture."
"China has always been especially important for Cornell, but it's not just China, it is the whole world," he said, noting "our mission is to serve the whole world."
Mutual responsibility
Lehman said earlier in his statement of purpose for the trip to China that his university "shares the sentiments that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao articulated when he visited the United States."
Wen said last December in the United States: "To strengthen China-US cooperation is not only a mutual need but also a responsibility, which our two countries shoulder in the interest of world peace and development."
Lehman paid his first visit to China in 1998 and returned therein 2000, as dean of the University of Michigan Law School. As a result, Michigan Law School set up exchanging programs with the People's University and Tsinghua University in China.
"When Cornell needed a new president last year, they knew this part of me," he said, "They were eager to have my interests in a larger world, and especially in China, be brought to Cornell."
As a veteran in an institution of higher education who is familiar with China's educational systems, Lehman provided his point of view on China's reform on education.
"Because of my trips to China in the past, I am familiar with the educational challenges it faces," he said. "They are significant, because China has a large population. There is a needto increase China's capacity for higher education."
"At the level of key universities in China,... my advise is to allow there to be different kind of universities," he said.
"You let Tsinghua be Tsinghua, you let Beida (Beijing University) be Beida, you let each one bloom in its own way, I think that is the right philosophy," he continued. "And then you develop partnerships, collaborations within China and with key universities in the world."
Lehman said that during his past visit to China, he noticed thefierce competition among key universities in China.
"The competition is so intense that makes collaboration impossible. I believe competition is important, but I also believe it has to occur in the context of collaboration," he said.
Source: Xinhua
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