LINCOLN, Neb.-
An eight-day trip to China by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor paid off with a new Confucius Institute and a connection that could bring more Chinese students to Nebraska.
Chancellor Harvey Perlman signed an agreement that will establish an institute at the Lincoln campus for the study of Chinese language and culture. And he completed official arrangements for close ties to Xian Jiaotong University’s City College. That sets up a conduit that could bring hundreds of Chinese students to UNL every year.
American students need to become familiar with Chinese culture so they can handle the challenges presented by one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
“Students will inevitably interact more with the Chinese, and I think it’s important that we respond to this as a university,” Perlman said Friday.
“China’s an important place. We’re trying to do as much as we can to globalize the university. …”
The Confucius Institute will open by fall, Perlman said. UNL will be among fewer than two dozen universities with such study centers. The University of Kansas and University of Iowa are among them.
The Chinese government will arrange for at least one Chinese professor to be sent to Lincoln. The institute will arrange or provide language classes for UNL and the city’s K-12 schools, lessons in culture and resources for local businesses interested in China.
China also will give UNL a $100,000 grant and 3,000 language books.
Under budget pressures more than five years ago, UNL dropped its Chinese language program.
The institute will be run by David Lou, a UNL mechanical engineering professor.
The institute will be set up temporarily in Nebraska Hall as the university considers where to put it permanently and more prominently.
Of UNL’s 1,279 foreign students, 260 are from China—the largest contingent from any foreign country.
Those numbers should grow under the new arrangement with Xian Jiaotong University’s City College. Its students will have a chance to complete two years there, then two years at UNL to earn degrees from both schools.
UNL students will have the reverse opportunity.
Xian Jiaotong University is situated in the central China city of Xian, which has about 8 million residents. It is known for its history, culture and top schools.
UNL will be sending a faculty member to Xian later this year to advise Xian Jiaotong students interested in UNL.
The Chinese students will pay 150 percent of UNL’s in-state tuition.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star,
