40 years of China-US cooperation in higher education: working to secure the global common good

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

SESSION DESCRIPTION:
The global common good is a big order, even for World-Class Universities. Universities in the US and China can have an inordinate influence on the interpretation of, and service to, the global common good. Their ‘positionality’ gives them the potential to build extensive collaborative networks through their respective global initiatives. This means that they have an opportunity and growing responsibility, through research and teaching, as well as academic and educational exchanges, to work more closely together to remove obstacles to the improvement of the global common good. At the September 27th 2017 US-China University Presidents Forum: Relations Over the Next 50 Years, held at Columbia University, Vice Premier Madame Liu Yandong said China and the United States should enhance people-to-people exchanges to build stronger ties where the two countries ‘have the least disagreements and the most consensus’ (Columbia University Programs, 2017). This includes academic exchanges through collaborative research, as well as the education exchanges that help students in both countries to develop a commitment to the global common good. Academic and educational exchanges among universities in both countries have continued to expand over the past 35 years. Madame Liu asserted that: ‘China-US ties have become warmer, more resilient and more dynamic.’ She went a step further: ‘We hope that universities and think-tanks of the two countries will carry out strategic and forward-looking research and jointly cultivate high-quality talents so as to make positive suggestions for the development of China-US relations.’ (Liu Y.D., 2017). While the enhancement of the global common good inevitably depends upon relations among all countries, the relationship between the US and China currently constitutes the world’s most important bilateral link. At the same Forum, Henry Kissinger, the architect of US-China relations that led to normalization in 1979, said: ‘the only alternative to positive relations between Washington and Beijing is global destruction’ (Kissinger 2017). Such a statement give pause in any consideration of the role of universities in advancing and safeguarding the global common good. In a similar light, former Yale University President Richard Levin, a frequent visitor to China, highlighted the transformation of contemporary universities in historical perspective: ‘As never before in their long history, universities have become instruments of national competition as well as instruments of peace […] a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and geopolitical stability’ (Levin, 2006). Universities in China and US obviously deserve the confidence and support of their governments to address global obstacles to global peace and security, but especially to sustainable social and economic development.

This panel argues that the global common good, as defined by what is shared and beneficial for all or most members of the global community and achieved by collective action, will rest more heavily on universities in two countries – China and the US – and how they build productive networks of academic collaboration in the next fifty years that address urgent global problems.

The panel has four papers with varying research methodologies. The first by SHEN Wenqin uses an historical-policy analysis method to reflects upon the 40 year period of “learning from the USA” in terms of the experience of policy transfer. Using academic archival materials, oral interviews, and policy texts, he analyzes the history of the impact of policy transfers in higher education. The second paper by Gerard Postiglione uses background literature and survey research supported by the Ford Foundation to assert that securing the global common good requires that universities in China and US pay much more attention to the growth in social and economic inequality as well as unequal access and equity in their own institutions. Postiglione looks at how universities in China and the US have provided lessons for other countries in addressing the issue of access and equity in higher education. The third paper by Denis Simon, based on an upcoming book and his forty years of experience in China addresses the key issue of innovation in US-China educational relations. The fourth paper by ZHU Zhiyong, Guili Zhang, and Shaoyi Hao use interviews to study and evaluate the academic and life impact of the visiting scholars in the USA> they provide useful insights for China and USA about how to strengthen the cooperation between higher education institutions and governments, especially pertaining to faculty development.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Higher Education

Individual Presentations

• Learning from USA: Policy transfer and the development of Chinese higher education since 1978 - Wenqin Shen, Peking University

• Universities in the US and China: Closing the gap on social and economic inequality - Gerard A Postiglione, University of Hong Kong; Li-Fang Zhang, University of Hong Kong

• Universities and innovation in US and China. - Denis Simon, Duke University (China)

• Learning from USA: Evaluating China’s University Faculty Visiting Scholar Program in the USA - Zhiyong Zhu, Beijing Normal University; Guili Zhang, College of Education East Carolina University; Shaoyi Hao, Beijing Normal University

Discussants

• Jun Li, Faculty of Education, Western University

• Baocun Liu, Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University