Since Reform and Opening Up, Sino-foreign joint ventures have cropped up in many different industries. But some the most complicated arrangements are those in higher education. Since Reform and Opening Up, Sino-foreign joint ventures have cropped up in many different industries. But some the most complicated arrangements are those in higher education.

Over the past decade, foreign universities have flocked to China—setting up satellite campuses or partnerships with Chinese colleges—in the hopes of benefiting from Chinese academia. Some prominent examples are the University of Nottingham in Ningbo and New York University in Shanghai.

But these arrangements leave many questions. Like how much are these Chinese campuses really like their home universities? What does China hope to get out of the deals? And are these schools subject to the same rules of ideological censorship that affect Chinese universities?

Today’s episode is coming to you from the Sino-British College in Shanghai—a consortium of nine British universities and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. Our guest, Ian Gow, is the president and CEO of the school and was the founding provost at the University of Nottingham Ningbo. He’ll tell us how these schools work, what they bring to both foreign and Chinese students and what really happens inside the classroom.

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Links:

Frank Langfitt (NPR) – For Some NYU Students, A Sweet Deal To Study … In Shanghai

The Academic Council – British Universities in China: The Reality Beyond the Rhetoric

The Economist – Campus collaboration: Foreign universities find working in China harder than they expected

Home is Where the Heart Dwells – A Letter about Plagiarism by Professor Steve Stearns (Yale)