KU News Release

KU to develop faculty, student exchange with prestigious Chinese university

Jeff Weinberg, assistant to the chancellor, and Peking University Executive Vice President and Provost Jianhua Lin.

LAWRENCE – In a move that signals the University of Kansas’ increasing strength in research and international prestige, a top university in China has signed an agreement with KU to develop a direct exchange that promises to open new doors in China for KU students and faculty and bring more Chinese graduate students here.

Following a visit by KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway last summer, the executive vice president and provost of Peking University, Jianhua Lin, signed the agreement last week and accepted an invitation to visit KU this spring. Lin expressed particular interest in initiating new study abroad programs, sending more graduate students to study at KU and developing a robust exchange program for faculty and scholars.

Regarded as the Harvard of China, PKU has more than 200 research institutes and 42 colleges and departments, offering nearly 500 specialties. Located in Beijing, it enrolls about 30,000 students, including 2,000 international students. A 2007 Times of London ranking placed PKU fifth in Asia and among the top 40 universities in world.

“A global society and marketplace compels us to continue to seek collaboration opportunities with universities around the world. This is something KU has done for 50 years,“ said Hemenway. “We have long sought a formal relationship with Peking University. I am very excited about what lies ahead for our faculty and students who gain access to one of the world’s greatest universities – and for the many students who will come and enrich KU through their studies here.”

KU, which now attracts about 300 students and 30 visiting scholars and researchers from China annually, was one of the first U.S. universities to establish direct exchange programs with universities in China, starting in the early 1980s. It now has exchange programs with three other Chinese universities – Nanjing University, Nankai University and Zhengzhou University – and is in a partnership with Huazhong (Central China) Normal University, one of six original national teacher training universities in China, to operate KU’s Confucius Institute.

KU’s institute, based at its Edwards Campus in Overland Park, was just named a 2007 Confucius Institute of the Year, one of only four institutes in the United States and 20 worldwide to receive the designation. As part of the global network of Chinese cultural centers, the institute aims to promote Chinese language and spread Chinese culture though classes offered to businesses, schools throughout the state and the community at large.

KU founded its Center for East Asian Studies in 1959 and its department of East Asian Languages and Cultures two years later. The department offers four levels of Chinese language and currently has 90 students enrolled in Chinese language classes. The center has an extensive outreach program that brings the study of China to K-12 classrooms and community organizations throughout Kansas and western Missouri. In addition, KU Libraries has a full-time Chinese librarian and an extensive collection of publications in Chinese.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.