Yale Bulletin
and Calendar

YALE'S INTERNATIONAL STRENGTH|SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT|SEPTEMBER 2006



The Peking University Student Arts Performing Troupe presented a concert in Woolsey Hall last year during a visit by a delegation from China's flagship university. The Beijing educators were in the United States to learn from American universities' successful experiences.




The Yale-China Connection


Visit by China's President. In May of 2006, President Hu Jintao of the People's Republic of China came to Yale, where he met with University officials and gave a speech to the campus community. Hu's visit to the University, the first by any Chinese president, both affirmed the long-standing ties between Yale and China, which date back more than 170 years, and was indicative of the ways in which those ties are continuing to strengthen and expand. During a formal gift-exchange ceremony, Hu presented Yale with a gift of 1,346 books to strengthen the Yale Library's collections on Chinese scholarly learning. The gesture echoed a similar gift to the University in 1878 by Yale alumnus Yung Wing, the first Chinese citizen to graduate from a North American university. Wing's gift was key to the expansion of Yale's renowned East Asia Library, now considered one of the finest outside China.

Peking-Yale Joint Center for Microelectronics and Nanotechnology. Last fall, Yale, which already has two joint research centers in China (the Fudan-Yale Biomedical Research Center and the Peking-Yale Joint Center for Plant Molecular Genetics and Agro-Biotechnology) launched a third in partnership with Peking University -- this one focusing on microelectronics and nanotechnology. The center will support a multidisciplinary research program in which independent research groups will share facilities, resources and expertise. These scientists will engage in the synthesis of electronic materials and devices on a molecular scale in order to advance nanoelectronic science and technology. The first project is aimed at creating futuristic semiconductor memory chips with many orders of magnitude, higher density and better performance than what's currently achievable. The center is also offering two courses for Yale students enrolled in the new "Peking University-Yale University Joint Undergraduate Program" (see related item); these are two of the few engineering/science courses abroad that give Yale course credit. The center is associated with the Institute of Microelectronics at Peking and is co-directed by Yale Professor T.P. Ma.

Yale China Law Center. Directed by Professor Paul Gewirtz, the Yale China Law Center has built strong working relationships with Chinese institutions and experts within academic, legal and government circles that are central to China's legal reform process. The center was established in 1999 after Gewirtz returned to the Yale Law School from a post as Special Representative for the Presidential Rule of Law Initiative in the U.S. Department of State. The center has two important missions: to assist the law and policy reform process within China, and to increase understanding of China in the United States. Since the center was launched, it has initiated a wide range of in-depth projects in the areas of judicial reform, administrative law, regulatory reform, criminal law and legal education. In the past year, the center has hosted conferences and workshops in China looking at topics ranging from tort law reform to public participation in the policymaking process, gay rights, food-safety laws and the legislative "power of the purse."

China-Yale Senior Government Leadership Program. This intensive training program -- a collaboration between the Yale China Law Center and the China National School of Administration -- is introducing the "rule of law" to the the most senior cohort of Chinese government officials ever to participate in an executive education course outside of China. The three-year program aims to expand the participants' understanding of the best U.S. thinking on important issues of law and public policy that are relevant to China's ongoing development and the country's integration into the world economy. Featured speakers have included two U.S. Supreme Court justices, current and former U.S. cabinet secretaries, the governor of New York, the United Nations secretary-general, and senior leaders at the White House and the United Nations, as well as leading Yale scholars from a wide variety of fields. A recent session included a visit to the White House, where participants met with President George W. Bush.

Yale-Tsinghua Environment and Sustainable Development Leadership Program. In partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is teaching the Chinese municipal officials who are responsible for urban planning and development -- typically mayors and vice-mayors -- how to promote economic development in more environmentally sustainable ways. The three-year program, which began in 2005, has included sessions both in China and in New Haven, where the officials met with Yale faculty and senior officials from cities and corporations across the United States.

Management of Chinese Companies. Last year, the Yale School of Management along with the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges presented a month-long advanced leadership development program in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme. The participants -- chief executive officers, general managers and vice-general managers of state-owned enterprises in China -- attended classes and discussions at Yale, and took field trips to relevant government agencies and companies in New York City and Washington, D.C.

China-Yale Advanced University Leadership Program. The China-Yale Advanced University Leadership Program was created in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Education to meet that nation's goal of transforming a small number of its institutions of higher education into "world-class universities." The program brings together presidents and vice presidents of China's leading universities together with Yale faculty and administrators to discuss issues that are key to an American university, including liberal education, peer review, competitive faculty appointment processes, and administrative practices ranging from fundraising techniques to strategic planning. The goal is to introduce the educators to models and best practices that Chinese universities might profitably adapt to their own needs. The 2004 and 2005 sessions were held at Yale -- making the participants the most senior Chinese university leaders ever to participate in an executive education program outside of the nation's borders -- and the 2006 session took place in China, with all participants from the first two sessions in attendance.

Maurice R. Greenberg Yale-China Initiative. This newly announced program -- created through a $50 million gift from business executive Maurice R. ("Hank") Greenberg and The Starr Foundation -- will advance Yale's collaborations with China and other nations around the world in three critical areas. It will provide Greenberg Scholarships to both Chinese students studying at Yale and to Yale students studying in China; it will further strengthen the Yale World Fellows Program (see related item); and it will support the construction of a new conference center that will enhance Yale's programs for emerging government, education and business leaders from around the globe, such as the China-Yale Senior Government Leadership Program (see above).


Introduction

Educating Future Global Leaders

Forging Global Alliances

Attracting the World's Top Students and Scholars

Advanced Training for World Leaders

Learning About the World

The Yale-China Connection

Welcoming the World to Yale

International Resources on Campus


Yale Bulletin & Calendar