Seven University administrators traveled halfway around the world in an effort to provide Chinese students the means to attend graduate schools in the United States.
The delegation flew to Shanghai last month to attend the International Graduate Scholarship Conference, which was co-hosted by the University, the China Scholarship Council and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s “Responsive Ph.D.” consortium.
The two-day event was attended by leaders of 20 prominent educational institutions in China, graduate deans and faculty members from 17 leading U.S. research universities in the consortium and more than 400 of China’s top college seniors. The number of U.S. universities in attendance marked an increase from 12 last year, showing heightened interest in attracting Chinese students.
“We are privileged to have a ringside seat on history in the making here,” said Robert E. Thach, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and a conference organizer. “The University is clearly a player in this arena and seen as a definite leader in China. This association will do us a lot of good for many years to come.”
At the event, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton hosted a banquet honoring university leaders from China and the United States.
“I am very proud of the leadership Dean Thach is bringing to advance our relationships with premier universities in China and with prospective students from these institutions,” Wrighton said. “Through his efforts, Washington University has become a major leader in encouraging Chinese students to consider graduate education in the United States.”
Other WUSTL participants were Ping Wang, Ph.D., the Seigle Family Professor of Economics in Arts & Sciences and department chair; Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and associate professor of architecture; Richard A. Loomis, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences; Tamilynn E. Holder, director of international alumni & development programs; and Bridget Coleman, director of admissions and recruiting in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Also attending was Diane D. Jacobsen, Ph.D. (M.L.A. ’95, M.A. ’00, Ph.D. ’03), a member of the Arts & Sciences National Council.
The conference’s opening day, Oct. 13, included presentations by representatives of the China Scholarship Council and their U.S. counterparts. Several graduate deans talked about what their universities are doing in China. Debra Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, also gave an address.
“We had a very open discussion of the issues involved in international education, the issues involved in Chinese graduate students coming to the United States and U.S. students going to China,” Thach said.
“Especially important was the issue of whether the Chinese students who come to the U.S. will then return to China after they get their degrees.”
The group discussed a proposal for a special fellowship program that the Chinese minister of education is considering. Similar to a National Science Foundation fellowship, it would support students for five years in graduate school at an international university, Thach said. The students then would incur the obligation of returning to China to take a job there after graduation.
The conference’s second day featured an information-exchange event attended by more than 400 students from all over China. The schools in attendance, including WUSTL, set up information booths on graduate study. University alumni living in Shanghai, including Sonya Ho, David and Lauren Ledger, Millie Tang and Peter Young, assisted at the event.
“I was invited to the 10th anniversary of the China Scholarship Council in June,” Thach said.
“A Chinese vice-minister told our group: ‘We want our students to get the best education possible, and we want them to come home to be leaders in China to help modernize it. We know they are going to get ideas that some of us will consider very foreign. We understand that research can only be done in an open environment. We want them to pick up the most advanced ideas the West has to offer, and we will welcome their ideas and put our trust in them when they return,'” Thach added. “I was delighted to hear a Chinese leader speak so openly about this issue.”