A new University of Utah program will allow students who attend Nankai University in China to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree by attending both schools. The new partnership was announced Thursday.
Robert Newman is Dean of the College of Humanities. He says the U of U’s 3+X program is a flexible agreement. Hence the name, Chinese students who are admitted to the program have three options.
“They could potentially do their fourth year and finish their bachelor’s degree at the University of Utah,” Newman says. “There is the possibility of their doing their fourth year at the University of Utah’s new Korean campus in Songdo and also there is the possibility of, if we were looking at a master’s program, doing a couple of years here.”
Newman says the Korean campus in Songdo will open for classes next fall.
Nine percent of students at the U of U are international. Newman says most of those students come from China.
He says the purpose of this partnership is to expand that relationship and give all students a wider and fuller perspective of global culture and issues.
“Most of the major issues that we have today are issues that need to be solved from interdisciplinary and global perspectives,” Newman says. “So it is a good relationship, a good partnership, which is a model for further partnerships as well.”
Nankai students are required to apply to the U of U by the same guidelines as traditional students.
They can choose from a variety of majors including finance, comparative literary and cultural studies, communication and teaching English as a second language.
Newman says the Nankai students are expected to arrive at the U of U in fall 2015.
