Beijing University celebrates 25 years of partnership with UMF

FARMINGTON – The president of University of Maine at Farmington returned from a two-week trip to China this week, attending a series of events commemorating the longstanding exchange program that has seen 125 students and faculty members travel between Maine and Beijing over the past 25 years.

The Beijing University of Technology and UMF began the relationship in 1989, a few years after the country began allow visitors in the early 1980s. Through the efforts of Zunan Cai, then vice-director of the International Exchange Program at BJUT, and Gari Muller, UMF professor of French and then chair of the University of Maine System’s International Studies Council, a program was developed to provide regular, inexpensive Chinese and English language instruction to both institutions. The exchange has remained in place for 25 years, making it one of the longest standing agreements between an American and Chinese educational institution.

In 2010, officials from BJUT traveled to Farmington to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the agreement. Two years later, the agreement was expanded to allow two additional students to travel to China each year. In the past, the exchange has benefited both regions in other ways, including the display of Chinese paintings at UMF and having larger groups travel to Beijing as part of Fulbright grants and other programs.

UMF President Kate Foster traveled to BJUT for the 25th anniversary at the end of May, spending two weeks at the campus, which houses 20,000 students; 10 times the size of UMF. At one point, Foster asked her hosts why they had organized an elaborate welcome for the representative of a comparatively small school.

“They said ‘we never forget who partnered with us first,'” Foster recalled.

She attended BJUT courses and gave a lecture on issues and opportunities of higher education in America. She discussed ways to improve the exchange and new opportunities that both schools could offer each other. Chinese schools typically train students for a specific career, Foster said; the concept of a broad, varied education, such as Liberal Arts & Sciences, was not an educational concept in China.

The president of BJUT, Guo Guangsheng, expressed an interest in Liberal Arts degrees, Foster said, as well as UMF’s K-12 education program. Chinese educators are given rote training on elementary and secondary school skills, with less emphasis on educational theory and techniques.

To UMF, Foster said, BJUT offered a chance to improve its own educational product. The Chinese system of providing a strong, post-graduate pathway into a career was something UMF could benefit from, Foster said. Currently, UMF uses internships and service learning opportunities to prepare students for post-graduate life, but Foster said that she believed more could be done to create connections between degrees and careers.

UMF also is looking to improve its international offerings, by creating new opportunities such as the one that exists in Beijing. Two other universities in China have similar relationships with UMF, which has also reached out to schools in Europe and elsewhere.

“We’re trying to seed and nurture these relationships,” Foster said.

In China, she noted, travel to the United States, or elsewhere, was seen as desirable and career-enhancing. At UMF, it was sometimes seen as more of an interruption, particularly as students became involved with sports, clubs and other activities. Through the Office of International Exchange and partnerships such as the one with BJUT, the college is seeking to make travel a more regular part of local students’ curriculum. Some students, for example, have elected to do their student-teacher work in other countries.

In between classes and formal dinners, Foster toured Beijing, a city she had last visited in 1985. With the exception of the historic districts, Foster said, nothing looked the same. Beijing has undergone rapid redevelopment over the past few years, including the construction that accompanied the hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

“It’s a very exciting and very colorful place,” Foster said.

Foster said that she was particularly struck by the westernization of the city, American brands like Starbucks were everywhere, and students giving presentations in English often chose western themes, and topics such as Snoopy, Agatha Christie and basketball.