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May 31 - Dan Solomon

The large sign flanking the lawn that welcomes you to Fudan University in Shanghai includes the exhortation, “Put in full practice the theory on scientific development” - perhaps a Chinese expression of a land-grant concept.  The sign also calls their community to “Innovation,” a term we had heard frequently at earlier stops on our trip and another shared value with NC State.  We were beginning our first full day in Shanghai at what was a once private university, but is now a national public university – one of 10 selected by the government for priority funding.

As we had seen elsewhere, Fudan is diversifying its programs, and what was once known primarily as a leading institution in the liberal arts and sciences has now added substantial programs on a medical campus in southwest Shanghai (originally Shanghai Medical College) and on a science-park campus featuring software engineering, microelectronics and pharmaceuticals.

As in our earlier university visits, the formal meetings at Fudan were held in a large guanxi (“gwan-shee’”) room, literally a “relationship” room.  A discussion on the appropriate steps for establishing formal relationships ensued, and Professor Gu Yunshen, executive vice-dean of the Graduate School, offered his opinion that the best opportunities for collaboration were in professional degrees in specific disciplines, such as the masters of accounting, and student exchange capitalizing on the government’s scholarship program for students from China’s top universities that we had learned about in Beijing.  Fudan has been allocated 150 such scholarships per year.

Our final programmatic session at Fudan was with its president, Professor WANG Shenghong, who in a dialogue with Chancellor Oblinger provided a detailed overview of his institution, its history and aspirations.  He sees the greatest challenges as raising required funds, including breaking cultural barriers to cooperating with industry; recruiting top scholars to an underdeveloped country; and effectively organizing interdisciplinary programs.

On our walk across campus to lunch, we enjoyed loudspeakers broadcasting the student radio station which seems to favor American popular music of an earlier generation.  We had lunch in an on-campus hotel run at a profit by Fudan’s School of Management.

Back on the van, we rode to Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (“SUFE”) to execute an umbrella memorandum of understanding that had been negotiated in advance.  Chancellor Oblinger and SUFE Vice President Zhou Zhongfei opened the meeting with overviews of our respective institutions.  SUFE has strength in finance, economics, public administration, accounting and business administration – important assets for the Shanghai community.

A primary goal of this visit was to advance preliminary discussions about a specific partnership in which SUFE students would enter NC State’s Financial Mathematics Masters program.  Pang Tao, assistant professor of Mathematics at NC State, won an internationalization seed grant to pursue development of the partnership.  Professor Pang was in Shanghai for the meeting, and described the proposal to the SUFE leadership who were quite enthusiastic.

Banner reminding Fudan students to focus on innovation.

Fudan University President Wang Shenghong and Chancellor Oblinger.

Gift exchange with President Shenghong.

Signing ceremony at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (*SUFE*) to execute an umbrella memorandum of understanding.