Editor’s Note: In our second consecutive issue covering China/U.S. partnerships, we feature the Stevens Institute of Technology’s excursion into China.

"It was surprisingly simple and unbureaucratic," says Robert Ubell, Dean of Stevens Institute of Technology’s School of Professional Education, referring to at least four partnerships he and his colleagues at Stevens have built to offer hybrid graduate-level degree programs to students in China. Any stumbling blocks, such as those that could possibly be generated by cultural differences and government regulations, never seriously materialized.

A master of science in Telecommunications Management was the first Stevens Institute of Technology hybrid program to launch in China, officially started in November 2003 through a partnership with the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), one of China’s top technical universities. A Stevens master of science in Microelectronics and Photonics is also being offered at BIT. The hybrid mix of these programs is one third taught online by Stevens faculty, another third by Chinese instructors in Beijing, and a third by Stevens faculty in Beijing.

Other similar hybrid graduate degree program partnerships will either start this fall or are in the works. A Stevens master’s degree in Project Management will be delivered this fall at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. The first cohort consists of 30 employees from China’s Development Bank.

A master’s in Information Technology and one in Telecommunications Management is also likely to be launched either next spring or fall at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A memorandum of understanding for two graduate programs has been signed with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications for delivery as early as next spring.

The impetus for entering China came about three years ago when Department of Physics and Engineering Physics Professor Hong-Liang Cui, who was born in China and has ties there with other educators, encouraged Stevens to look into the possibility of developing relationships with Chinese institutions. The time seemed right because the Chinese government had already started a concerted effort to open its doors to foreign higher education partnerships, coinciding with joining the World Trade Organization in December 2001. Cui’s encouragement ultimately led to a collaborative trip to China in which he, Ubell and Vice President Maureen Weatherall visited with local Chinese educators.

"The most surprising thing in terms of our mission was that most of the senior people at universities we visited were educated in the U.S. or abroad. The cultural barrier we had anticipated was certainly not as high as we expected," says Ubell. "It was as if the conversations and negotiations we were having were with people down the road instead of half way around the world."

"There are obstacles," Ubell continues, "but they are no different than collaborative experiences I have had in the U.S. On the whole, most of the institutions we approached were eager to participate."

Nonetheless, there were differences. "The bureaucracy can often be mystifying. There is a zone of confidentiality that they do not want to breach." Consequently, it may be difficult to determine the precise direction a discussion is moving until the conclusion of the negotiation process.

Ubell adds that after reaching an agreement with BIT, the necessary approval from the Chinese Ministry of Education took only six months. The Ministry is now reviewing applications from Stevens’ new partners at Central University of Finance and Economics, often the source of the country’s chief financial planners, and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who some call the MIT of China. Approval is likely to be forthcoming in the next weeks.

Overall, the evolution of a rapidly growing new economy in China is bringing about more openness. "In the last three years, we have seen a dramatic change," Ubell explains. "For example, it took one of our new partners three years to warm up to us. As soon as they did, the speed and style of their interactions with us were just as if they were in the U.S."

Stevens Director of the Telecommunications Management Program Audrey Curtis has been to China four times since 2002. "I have continued to see change and development in Beijing," she says. "More signs are posted in our alphabet, making it easier for foreigners to get around; there are more cars, more buildings and subways. It is also clear that the 2008 Olympics is a big motivation for much of the renovating and new building that is going on."

Both Curtis and Ubell note that long-term relationships with Chinese institutions are definitely in the cards for Stevens. In addition to these new partnerships that have created hybrid degree programs for Chinese students, the Stevens administration wants to expand into corporate training in China.

Through the establishment of a "Stevens China Council" comprised of business professionals with Chinese backgrounds from such companies as IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Honeywell, Stevens administrators are looking to catalyze the development of corporate training programs in China, as well as Chinese human resources
development.

"These Chinese students become very valuable assets to Fortune 500 companies," Ubell continues. "One of the major obstacles faced by international companies operating in China is that while employees may be technically proficient, they do not necessarily have the management style needed in today’s post-industrial age. So these companies are constantly looking for skilled managers with technical expertise, and that is the kind of graduate we produce at Stevens."

"Part of what we hope to do is get local and international companies interested in our students as they emerge from our programs with special skills critical for China’s future," adds Curtis. "We want to get them interested in Stevens to make them aware that we are in their country, that we are worldwide,"

Chinese students who graduated from Stevens’ first telecommunications program at BIT have already landed responsible jobs at top Fortune 500 companies and consulting firms operating in China, such as Siemens, AIG, Emerson, and Frost & Sullivan. Others are working for major Chinese corporations, including China National Railway and Huawei.

In the meantime, Curtis notes that at the end of their first year of offering the BIT program Stevens went through a process that was akin to a U.S. accreditation study with the Chinese Ministry of Education.

"I had to pull together for their inspection the syllabus for each class, homework assignments for each class, textbooks for each class, exams, grade sheets, and student evaluations," Curtis reports.

"I also wrote a 20-page report and submitted faculty evaluations. It was all put into a set of filing cabinets much like a U.S. accreditation board process. A group came and inspected the report and approved us for ongoing operations." Curtis proudly adds that the Ministry awarded the Stevens program at BIT among its highest ranking.

In general, the political, social and economic future of the world is tied to U.S.-China relations. Educational partnerships, such as those being fostered by Stevens with Chinese higher education institutions, are happening quicker and easier today through the application of hybrid online and face-to-face teaching and learning experiences.

"It was obvious after the Chinese entered the World Trade Organization that it was incumbent upon them to develop knowledgeable managers and engineers and scientists who could collaborate effectively with the Western world and with the traditional capitalist world," Ubell explains.

"It has become essential for the Chinese to increase and transform their traditional educational activities rapidly into more of a Western-style activity. And what better way to accomplish that then to import Western, especially U.S.-style, education into the graduate arena."

Although the number of enrollments in such programs is relatively small now, the outlook for future growth and expansion looks promising as China continues to open its doors to U.S. higher education. With two programs in Beijing now underway, another to be launched this fall, plus others scheduled to be introduced next year in Shanghai and elsewhere, Ubell estimates that by the end of 2006, as many as 200 Chinese graduate students will be participating in Stevens programs in China. Long-range, Ubell predicts that Stevens in China will be educating thousands of Chinese graduate students in technical management, engineering and science.

Ubell, who will be delivering a talk in Beijing in November at a jointly sponsored World Bank-Chinese Ministry of Finance Conference on public-private partnerships in Chinese education, will also be traveling with Vice President Weatherall to Guangzhou (Canton) and Qingdau this fall to enter talks with several leading schools in those cities.

"We are purposefully partnering with the strongest academic institutions in China to assure a high-level of quality in the education we provide and to learn best practices from our Chinese partners," comments Weatherall. "An example of this is our exchange with Central University of Finance and Economics in which two of their professors this year have been Visiting Faculty at the Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens.

"Our efforts in China are part of Stevens’ aim to enter the global arena in education and training," Weatherall adds. "Stevens has already established close ties with a number of institutions abroad in Ireland, France, Germany, Malaysia, Honduras, Bulgaria and the Dominican Republic. Our programs in China extend Stevens’ existing and growing relationships to one of the world’s most dynamic economies."