An excellent piece on significant steps for educational opportunities with foreign countries.
Prairie Fire - The Progressive Voice of the Great Plains.
Educational partnerships with China,
part oneThe first of a two-part series on the University of Nebraska’s growing exchange of educational opportunities with China, this article discusses the importance of China on the world stage and the partnerships that have been developed between the Nebraska university system and Chinese universities.
On Aug. 8, 2008, the Olympic “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing was the site of pageantry, protocol and fireworks for the 2008 Summer Olympics, as China very visibly stepped out on the world stage. If by any chance you missed the television coverage of the opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics, you might not understand fully the need for a connection between China and the University of Nebraska. You might even ask yourself why events halfway around the globe, in a time zone 12 hours ahead of Nebraska, could have so much significance. The answer is that China, with a population of 1.3 billion people, has impacted world markets through the manufacturing of world goods, the import of raw materials and the processing of its own natural resources, on an unprecedented global scale. If you have any doubt of this, walk through any mall or strip mall in America and make a count of the “Made in China” labels. It would be much more challenging to find labels on merchandise that do not carry the words. In order to sustain such economic growth, China must educate its work force, and it is turning increasingly to foreign universities to assist in this process. This article will focus on the role of Nebraska’s premiere public university, the University of Nebraska, and its growing exchange of educational opportunities with China.
