Two Tufts faculty members are in Asia this week, finalizing plans for the establishment of Tufts' first study-abroad program in China. When formalized, students will have the opportunity to study at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. A separate program at the University of Hong Kong is also in the works, and is set to begin in the spring of 2003.
Currently in the experimental phase, the Tufts in China program will not officially be offered until fall 2002. Efforts to establish the program come in response to strong interest from both students and faculty.
Director of Study Abroad Shelia Bayne and Chinese Associate Professor Xueping Zhong will spend the next week in China negotiating the final terms of the program, including hiring a resident director and creating a curriculum. The program will be primarily for students who already have a background in the Chinese language, and there may be a prerequisite of Chinese 4. However, subject courses will be taught in English, in order to ensure that they fulfill Tufts' curricular requirements.
"The challenge in setting up this program is making sure that the University will offer such courses in English," Bayne said. "We always try to integrate the curriculum abroad with that at Tufts so that students can be prepared here, go off and immerse themselves in another culture, and then use those skills as they come back for senior year."
The study abroad program at the University of Hong Kong will be completely separate from its counterpart. While the two programs are based in the same region, their focuses are distinct, giving students "the opportunity to choose one or the other, or maybe even both," according to Bayne.
Courses at the University of Hong Kong are taught in English, and the program is geared towards students who do not have an extensive language background, and who wish to study fields such as economics, engineering, and international relations in a foreign setting.
"The China program will be language-based, while the Hong Kong program will focus more on leadership," Chinese Lecturer Mingquan Wang explained.
While students have previously been able to attend programs in Asian nations, Bayne hopes to create something with a unique Tufts identity, while encouraging people to study China's languages and culture. Last year, ten juniors participated in non-Tufts sponsored programs, but they later faced bureaucratic complications as a result of their detached status.
"Some students are concerned with fulfilling their distribution requirements and transferring credit while abroad," Wang said. "With the Tufts program, students can spend more than one semester in China if they so choose."
Senior Ken Lin studied in Taiwan last year, and although the Chinese and Taiwanese cultures starkly differ, he said that the Hangzhou program would benefit many Tufts students.
"A lot of people have problems transferring credits from non-Tufts programs - Dowling can sometimes be kind of slow about it, and we sometimes don't know how many credits we'll get for the hours we put in, " he said.
He also criticized Tufts' proposed program, arguing that the location is not ideal. "Hangzhou is kind of isolated. Most people, when they want to go to China, want to go to Beijing."
Hangzhou was chosen partially because of Zhong's relationship with Zhejiang University. According to officials, the idea for creating a study abroad program in China has been circulating for several years, and the delay in implementation involved finding an appropriate partner institution.
"Professor Zhong's connections made this opportunity interesting and feasible," Bayne said.
Historically, most Tufts-sponsored study abroad programs started in a similar manner, with faculty members taking the initiative. The proposals are then brought to a faculty subcommittee, which considers their feasibility and asks questions about the quality of the partner institution.
Bayne hopes to announce the China and Hong Kong programs in next year's study abroad catalogue so that current freshmen may consider them as options.
"We feel that the Tufts in China program will offer things that other programs cannot," Wang said. "It will integrate both culture and history, and because we know the background behind it the transitions will be smoother."
With the addition of the China and Hong Kong programs, Tufts will offer 11 different study abroad programs. The options have been steadily expanding since Bayne began work at Tufts in 1989.
"Back then there were only five programs, and they were only in Western Europe," she said. "Now Tufts-sponsored study abroad programs are available on four different continents. I think this says a lot about Tufts. The former configuration of programs is no longer appropriate for a university of this caliber. We need to be represented in all parts of the world."
