APRIL 2, 2004 VOL. XXXVII, NO. 10
Chinese university leaders to train at Yale

BY HELEN ECKINGER

Over spring break, Yale Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer, LAW '77, and Vice Provost Chip Long traveled to China to discuss the possibility of hosting a leadership conference for senior Chinese university administrators at Yale this summer. Their trip was a success, and on Tues., Mar., 23, Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji announced that officials from seven top Chinese universities would attend a conference at Yale in late August to discuss the University's administrative practices.

"China is committed to bringing its major universities to world-class status," Ji said in a Yale press release. "It will be important for our educational leaders to examine and study how Yale and others of the world's foremost universities are structured and administered."

In response, President Richard Levin, GRD '74, noted the importance of Yale's close ties to China. "China contains over 20 percent of the world's population and is growing at a rate that will make it the world's second largest economy in short order," he said. While China's relationship with Yale spans 150 years—Yung Wing, the first Chinese student to study in the United States, graduated from Yale in 1854 —it was only last summer that the possibility of a University Leadership Program (ULP), as the conference has been dubbed, emerged.

"Last summer, senior administrators from Fu Dan University, one of China's leading universities, visited Yale for several days to focus on our administrative organization and practices," Lorimer said. She felt that the Fu Dan delegation's visit was key to catalyzing the development of the ULP. "We believe the Fu Dan delegation gave government officials a very favorable report of the sessions held at Yale upon their return to China," she said.

The Chinese vice minister of education also visited Yale over the summer and became acquainted with the various university faculty initiatives in China. Then, last November, Levin made a much-publicized trip to China with seven Yale faculty members. During his trip, Madame Chen Zhi Li, one of China's top education officials and an acquaintance of Levin's from previous visits to China, proposed the idea of establishing the ULP. "[Li] reaffirmed her positive impression of Yale University's advancement in recent years and asked if Yale might be receptive to holding a leadership development program for the senior administration of some of China's top universities," Lorimer said.

The conference was formally agreed upon during Long and Lorimer's spring break trip. Four administrators from each of China's top seven universities and three representatives from the Ministry of Education will attend.

While the University has not announced which administrators will be involved in the program, Lorimer stated that "the president and provost will be central contributors, as will many other representatives of different administrative offices, ranging from Undergraduate Admissions to development to Medical School affairs."

Lorimer added that she and Long are in the process of refining the curriculum discussed in Beijing and will consult their colleagues about it over the next several weeks. According to Lorimer, the Chinese delegates are specifically interested in the organization of academic departments; how a faculty search is conducted; how admission decisions are made for undergraduates; how research is supported; and how fundraising is conducted. She added that the University hopes the ULP will benefit Yale faculty as well as the Chinese delegates.

"We hope to engage a number of the faculty, specifically those who have exciting projects underway in China, so the program will provide an opportunity for Yale faculty to become acquainted with the leadership of China's top universities," she said.

Even though financial practices play a key role in university administration, neither Lorimer nor Levin felt that the obvious differences in economic beliefs between the Chinese delegates and their American hosts would present a problem at the ULP. "The Chinese economy is gradually converting toward a western model," Levin said. "The Chinese are very interested in the American recipe for economic leadership."

In particular, Levin believes the Chinese delegates are interested in the technological advances universities produce. "Universities create new knowledge that is transferred rapidly into the industrial sphere," he said. Lorimer offered a more general insight into the Chinese interest in Levin's idea of "universities as engines for economic development." She said, "having a well-educated citizenry is the most fundamental premise for economic development."

Lorimer felt that one of the many reasons Yale was asked to host the ULP stemmed from Levin's renown within China. Levin was named 2003's Man of the Year by Shanghai Education magazine and has received an honorary degree from the University of Peking. In addition, he has been asked to deliver the keynote address for an international education summit that will be held in Beijing in August and will bring together the presidents of China's top 100 universities.