At the end of August, 35 students in Shanghai will receive Masters in Education degrees from Towson University, marking the first time TU has ever awarded a diploma in China. If Provost James Brennan's efforts are successful, it will be only the beginning. Last week, Brennan returned from a 10-day visit to China with 60 business cards and a variety of possible partnerships with Chinese universities.
Joining Brennan on the trip were College of Graduate Studies and Research dean Jin Gong and associate vice president for international programs Dean Esslinger. "This is the country of the 21st century," Brennan said. "It's a boom economy. Shanghai reminds me of New York City."
Many American universities offer executive Masters of Business Administration degrees in China. But Towson is unique in its education offerings.
"We are, as far as I know, the only American education institution allowed to grant degrees on its own in China without a partner," Brennan told the University Senate on Monday. He credited Gong with the success of the M.Ed. degree partnership.
Gong, a native of Shanghai, said the city has a population of over 17 million people, and probably about 700 high schools. The schools have teachers, Gong said, but they need the kind of professional development that Towson can provide.
Last February, Gong discussed the program with several Shanghai school districts. By July, 36 students were enrolled in the program. The vast majority of the Shanghai students are high school teachers; the local school district pays 90 percent of each student's tuition.
The program lasts 14 months. Towson University professors travel to China each summer to teach eight courses -- four each summer. Over the fall and spring, the students complete four courses online through Blackboard.
"We don't want to use our instructional resources during the semester, but we have excess capacity for professors over the summer," Gong noted.
Last year four Towson professors were sent to Shanghai. This year, that number has increased to nine. And enrollment in the program is growing, too: Later this month 60 additional students will be admitted into the program from a pool of over 100 applicants.
The Shanghai students meet the same admissions standards as any other Towson student.
Gong said the partnership is a win-win situation, because Towson's professors gain a "tremendous experience in Chinese education." He said College of Education dean Raymond Lorion, secondary education department chair David Vocke and the faculty members are very supportive of the collaboration.
The first class of students will complete their courses on August 23. After the program concludes, some of the Shanghai students may travel to Towson to participate in an American-style graduation ceremony.
Brennan said the Shanghai M.Ed. program has raised $80,000 for Towson after expenses.
"This is not costing the people of Maryland a dime. This is actually making money for the University," Brennan told the Senate.
The revenue is fed directly into the University's study abroad program, Brennan added, to provide scholarships for Towson students who wish to study abroad.
Brennan, Gong and Esslinger spent three days in Beijing, three days in Shanghai and four days with a delegation of other Maryland representatives in the Anhui Province.
Paralleling Towson's trip to China, the state of Maryland sent a delegation to the country for two weeks in April. Maryland maintains a "sister state relationship" with the Anhui Province to foster economic and cultural ties, Brennan said.
While in China, the Towson representatives met with three universities to solicit bids to "jump-start Chinese education" at TU, Brennan said.
When he was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville, Brennan brought several Chinese professors to Kentucky to teach Chinese to students. "I negotiated with a university near Beijing to send over two of their faculty members," he said. "[The Beijing institution] has faculty who specialize in teaching Chinese as a foreign language."
Brennan is interested in establishing a similar partnership at Towson. Towson currently offers Chinese courses, but not in a systematic way, he noted.
He will be working with the College of Liberal Arts and the modern languages department to see if a Chinese program can begin in Fall 2006.
Brennan, Gong and Esslinger also met with representatives of the China Central Radio and Television University to discuss a relationship between the two institutions. The university is the main distance education vehicle for China's Ministry of Education, and enrolls about 2.7 million people.
"They don't need help with instruction, but they would like us to help them develop instructional materials," Brennan said, especially for education and business courses. Brennan pointed out that the arrangement could potentially be "very lucrative" for Towson.
Some of the University's Chinese initiatives are ongoing. Towson has conducted faculty exchanges in business, English, public relations and other areas for many years, Esslinger said.
TU has also participated in a training program for Shanghai's high school principals. "And about every other year we brought eight high school principals to Towson for a three-month period," Esslinger said. The principals take courses in education leadership and shadow local school administrators.
Towson hopes its educational efforts will expand beyond Shanghai.
The delegation met with officials at Renmin University in Beijing to discuss a project for public relations and marketing students in Towson, Beijing, and St. Petersburg, Russia. "We're going to see if we can get some money from the European Union and the National Science Foundation and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to see if they would support a project to bring students from these three places together to do a summer-long experience," Brennan said.
The students would travel to the cities and explore forms of public relations in each culture.
Gong said Towson is also looking into offering a joint undergraduate degree program with a Chinese university.
Students would begin their education in China, spend their sophomore and junior years in Towson, and then return to China to complete the degree. Gong suggested a joint degree could be offered in actuarial science, because China needs more people who understand free markets and investing.
While Brennan is excited about the opportunities he discussed during the trip, he pointed out that Towson isn't putting a "Moved to China" sign outside Stephens Hall. "It's a big world out there, so we don't want to focus entirely on China," Brennan said. "But China is so important, and since no one else in the area is really claiming this as an region of specialization, I'd like Towson to be the first ones on the block."
The only other USM institution with a presence in China is the University of Maryland College Park business school.
Brennan, Gong and Esslinger agreed that the collaboration with China could benefit students at home in Towson.
"The stronger ties that we have in China -- which has the fastest growing economy and a quarter of the world's population -- the more our students will be prepared for the global economy," Brennan said.
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