The University of Manitoba Manager of International Cooperation Agreements says interaction with sister educational institutions in China has changed as their education system has grown and developed.
The University of Manitoba is observing 40 years of diplomatic and academic collaboration with China this year.
“Manitoba-China Cooperation in Higher Education” was the focus of an academic and cultural symposium held last month at the University of Manitoba.
Rhonda Friesen, the Manager of International Cooperation Agreements with the Office of International Relations, says the nature of cooperation is ever evolving and reflects the changing nature of higher education in both nations.
Rhonda Friesen-University of Manitoba:
“Many of our initial partnerships in China were development focused, research and development perhaps but primarily in the area of capacity building in China.
But quite a number of those partnerships that began in the late 1980s, early 1990s have actually gone on and evolved into different types of working relationships as those universities have developed capacity within themselves to deliver course work, to conduct research.
The Chinese government has invested in infrastructure, laboratories and things like that.
Now we’re seeing more partnerships dealing with education agreements, joint program agreements that are significantly increasing in number both at the undergraduate as well as at the graduate level and also an increasing number of faculty exchange partnerships and research collaboration.
We’re starting to interact with Chinese universities at a different level and in a different way as their education system is growing.”
The University of Manitoba is currently involved in about 50 partnership agreements in China, over 100 faculty members have professional involvements in China and approximately 40 percent of all international students at the University of Manitoba are from China.
*This post first appeared in the November 1, 2010 edition of University News, a presentation of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences, to learn more click here.
