by MARY HANCOCK
Last year the University of Nottingham, which runs the oldest foreign branch campus in China, was approached by government officials from Shanghai asking if it would consider opening another location, this one 140 miles north of its undergraduate campus in Ningbo.
The project would involve a substantial donation by a wealthy Chinese philanthropist, along with a host of government perks, including enough land to support an enrollment of 4,000. In return, Shanghai municipal officials hoped Nottingham would build a research-oriented campus in Pudong, Shanghai’s major development zone. There, graduate students and professors could work on such subjects as drug development, stem-cell research, and regenerative medicine.
Nottingham agreed to the proposal, inspired by the belief, says Christine Ennew, pro vice chancellor for internationalization, that Chinese officials “see foreign involvement as a catalyst for change and a source of innovation.”
The Chinese government recognizes “the key role that higher education can play in social and economic development,” she says.
The Nottingham project, while driven by provincial-government officials, illustrates a broader central-government push to raise the caliber of higher education in China through deeper engagement with foreign universities.
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