| NAU signs agreement with China to expand opportunities
NAU President John Haeger on Monday signed agreements with Chinese universities that will enhance the international flavor of NAU's campus as well as offer Chinese students a degree from NAU and their home university.
In the "1+2+1" program, Chinese students will complete their freshman year at one of the Chinese partner universities. In the second and third year of the program, the students will travel to the United States to complete their sophomore and junior years at NAU. The students will return to China to for their fourth year, earning dual degrees from NAU and their home university.
Although the program is intended to bring students from the Chinese universities to NAU, it could open up avenues for an exchange, Haeger said. "The 21st century is really the China century," he said, referring to the opportunities for economic growth. Haeger said the partnership will bring an enhanced international flavor to NAU and prepare its students for an increasingly global economy.
NAU could see the arrival of students in the 1+2+1 program in fall 2005, Provost Liz Grobsmith said, as specifics of the agreement are worked out with the individual universities. Grobsmith will travel to China in March with Stephen Wright, director of the International Office, and John Leung of the history department to meet with the universities.
NAU is the only university in the West in this partnership, and there are five American universities participating. Wright said NAU is "in the right place at the right time." It is comparable in size and function to the universities represented in the agreement, and it provides an environment that the more urban Chinese universities do not, he said.
The delegation's visit is the result of Haeger's trip to China last fall, during which he and Wright explored with Chinese officials the possibility of bringing more Chinese students to study at NAU. For background on NAU's partnerships with China, go to www4.nau.edu/insidenau/bumps/11_3_04/china.htm and www4.nau.edu/insidenau/bumps/12_15_04/china.htm
Eighteen Chinese students are enrolled at NAU, and there are 353 international students at NAU this semester.
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