NYU Shanghai campus breaks ground

Although a long list of universities are lining up to capitalize on Shanghai’s economic boom -- from the recently announce Parson’s campus to Duke’s MBA program -- none so far have taken the plunge as New York University has, starting work this week on its new campus in Shanghai, the first university jointly operated by China and the United States in the Middle Kingdom.

Dubbed “NYU Shanghai,” the local campus of the New York-based university would not merely be a satellite branch as many overseas programs are, but an independent entity authorized to grant degrees, according to state media reports.

NYU and East China Normal University (ECNU) will jointly operate the Shanghai campus.

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Allan Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit organization, told the New York Times that, “that while about 80 American universities have branch campuses, it is rare for research universities like NYU to have degree-granting branches [like the one opening in Shanghai].”

Although this is the first campus like this in China set up by an American university, Temple has had a similar program in Japan for over four decades, and Yale is planning one in Singapore.

The NYU and East China Normal University will strive to develop the joint venture into one of the world's "finest comprehensive universities," said NYU President John Sexton during the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday.

If Sino-foreign universities were given autonomy of providing excellent education and attractive scholarships, they would drive the reform and development of Chinese universities.— Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21th Century Education Research Institute

"In the era of globalization, we and our American partner hope to cultivate innovative international talents by providing opportunities to share global educational resources and experience different cultures," concurred Yu Lizhong, president of the ECNU at the same event.

The NYU Shanghai campus will be located in Pudong’s Lujiazui, and the first group of 150 undergrads -- the majority of whom would be Chinese -- are expected in 2013.

Applications would be based on student’s performance on the goakao as well as and an “NYU-style student screening process,” according to Yu.

At the press conferences, Sexton estimated that the university’s Shanghai campus would have 3,000 Chinese and international students once at full capacity, with the majority being undergraduates.

The NYU Shanghai campus is a part of NYU’s global expansion, which has gotten much less press than the controversial Abu Dhabi branch or their new London location.

NYU Shanghai undergraduates would be permitted to take up to three semesters to other NYU campuses abroad, Sexton told reporters.

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21th Century Education Research Institute, told Xinhua, that "if Sino-foreign universities were given autonomy of providing excellent education and attractive scholarships, they would drive the reform and development of Chinese universities."

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Not only a potential benefit for Chinese students, setting up campuses in Shanghai and cities across China, now the world’s second largest economy, benefits American universities as well. Having international campuses sets U.S. universities up as “global institutions,” a key tool for marketing to students within the United States, and also helps the schools attract professorial and research talent as well as enlist more tuition-paying students.

Although the first Sino-U.S. joint venture in Shanghai, the first official Sino-foreign university in China was the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. It was co-established by the U.K.-based University of Nottingham and Zhejiang Wanli Education Group-University.