新闻
- The Phantom Campus in China
- 时间： 2008-02-12 12:00:00 来源：Inside Higher Ed
- In May 2006, Kean University attracted national attention for its announcement that it would be the first American university to open an extensive and newly constructed university campus on Chinese soil in September 2007. As the New York Times reported at the time, Glasses clinked, toasts were made and then leaders of this 151-year-old institution were calling it the most important moment in its history. Well, its now February 2008, and theres been no such announcement of the historic campus opening. In response to multiple inquiries on the projects status, a university spokesman offered only brief answers over e-mail. Kean University is continuing to pursue plans to open a campus in Wenzhou. The application was approved by the municipal and provincial governments and is now with the Ministry of Education for review, Stephen Hudik said in one. We do not have a timetable in place at this time for the upcoming [opening] of the campus. We are still very much engaged with the governing bodies in China on the application. The process of opening up a new campus is a lengthy one and involves many various procedures and reviews. We are continuing step by step with the process and await the decision of the Ministry of Education, he said in a second. That message came in response to follow-up questions about whether the negotiations were still active and what a new timetable for opening might be, if Keans funding offer from local and provincial Chinese governments still held, and if university officials remained optimistic about ultimately attaining approval from the Ministry. Colleges across the United States continue to plan and construct ever-more-ambitious extensions of themselves abroad. A front-page article on branch campuses in Sundays New York Times, the first in a series on higher education and globalization, described the phenomenon as a kind of educational gold rush. Yet, in China where the market for higher education is sizzling hot and the quantity of potential students staggeringly large a number of highly ambitious plans by American colleges to open full-fledged campuses have fizzled or otherwise been indefinitely forestalled. To take another example, in May 2005, Inside Higher Ed reported that the University of Montana planned to open a campus for 2,000 Chinese undergraduates in fall 2006. The hoped-for campus which would be funded by private investors has so far been mired in the Chinese Ministry approval process. In China, you never want to formally apply for anything that you know is not going to be approved, said Terry Weidner, director of Montanas Mansfield Center, which focuses on Asia and U.S.-Asian relations. We have never made a formal application, so what we were doing is waiting for the word, You may now apply, meaning nudge, nudge, wink, wink, itll now be approved. To date, theres been no (unofficial) word either way. When asked about the challenges of establishing campuses in China, American academics point to the Chinese Ministrys slow-paced scrutiny of foreign colleges looking to operate in the country. The Chinese embassy didnt respond to an inquiry, but the Ministrys scrutiny is arguably well-placed given the seemingly unending number of American institutions looking to China to build exchange partnerships, dual degree programs, and even campuses (typically if they can get the infrastructure built for them by local governments or outside investors). China is, as a policy issue, grappling with precisely this idea. How should they welcome foreign freestanding operations in China and how to do it; what should be the parameters? Eventually theyll figure it out, said Philip G. Altbach, director of Boston Colleges Center for International Education. Whether Kean University or Montana has given up the ghost after all this time, I have no idea. But Im sure they or numerous others would like to get in on the ground floor. Complicating the debate further is the fact that while academic exchange is often the buzz-term and no doubt thats often part of the motivation institutions are usually out for financial gain, too. In speaking about the planned Montana campus, for instance, the university stressed that taxpayer monies would not be used. And the fact that university officials had hoped it would be a money-making endeavor is no secret. Among the goals and objectives identified by President George M. Dennison in 2006-7: Pursue alternative revenue sources, including the China Campus. Those who tend to be nervous about Western influence are certainly nervous about the for-profit model, as well, because they have conceptions about Western profiteering, said Weidner. He added that its sort of obvious that there is disagreement at the highest level on the Chinese side about what to do with its American suitors. I think the Chinese probably know theyre the No. 1 market on the planet. Its not news to them, said Don Olcott, chief executive of the London-based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Citing the momentum that drives the desired expansions, Olcott also mentioned the often understated risks. I think it is risky. I think its probably more risky than most institutions who have engaged in it will admit, because there are so many unknowns as the international market has been in flux. Its very difficult, Olcott added, to find out from institutional leaders what theyve spent in funding their overseas (ad)ventures. While foreign governments or investors in some cases offer to pay for the physical plant making the prospect seem palatable even to cash-strapped state universities programs and campuses abroad can swallow significant administrative resources during the negotiation process alone. Im entirely convinced, Olcott said, that there are institutions that are trying to play in this market who have no business being in it.