Georgetown Collaborates with Fudan University
A year after first meeting to explore opportunities for collaboration, Georgetown has signed a cooperative agreement with Fudan University, one of the most prominent universities in China, to support world class research, innovation in higher education, and greater mutual understanding between the people of China and the United States.
Under the agreement, Georgetown and Fudan will collaborate in the areas of law, medicine, and journalism to provide new academic exchange and faculty research opportunities. The two universities will also work together to strengthen liberal arts education for undergraduates. The leaders of both institutions agreed higher learning is as much about developing the human spirit as about acquiring knowledge in various disciplines.
“By embracing one another as academic partners, Fudan and Georgetown will forge a collaboration that will complement our academic strengths and national prominence in our respective countries, and will allow us to play a key role in the expansion of U.S.-Chinese relations,” said Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. “The participating faculty and students will benefit from an inter-cultural dialogue that will add a new dimension to both our university communities.”
"Our expanded cooperation will ehance world class research, innovation in higher education, and promote mutual understanding between the two peoples," said Fudan University President Wang Shenghong. "It is our firm belief that providing a liberal education to undergraduate students can advance the pursuit of knowledge with a responsibility to contribute to the common good."
With the new agreement, the Fudan Law School and Georgetown Law Center will offer dual graduate degrees in law. Up to ten Fudan graduate students of law will be eligible to enroll in the Georgetown L.L.M. program each year. Two of these students will receive Georgetown scholarships to support their studies. The program will be the foundation of additional joint teaching, research and conferences organized by the two law schools in the future.
Georgetown will also award one-year post-doctoral fellowships to three Fudan University faculty members for the 2007-2008 academic year to pursue research in American studies, international health and oncology. In addition to participating in the academic life of Georgetown, these fellows will work to develop proposals for collaborative research projects and programming between the two universities.
The two universities will also pursue cooperative academic activities in the areas of liberal education, health sciences and journalism. Faculty from both Fudan and Georgetown will observe medical research activities at both schools and look at organizing joint conferences on issues including translational medicine, and students from both universities will also have the opportunity to take short-term, elective courses at the other institution.
The new agreement builds upon existing partnerships between Georgetown and Fudan. Since 2005, Georgetown Public Policy Institute has hosted an annual two-week public affairs workshop for Master of Public Administration students from Fudan’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs. In addition, researchers from Georgetown’s School of Nursing & Health Studies will continue to work together with scholars from Fudan’s School of Public Health to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
To support the existing programs and development of future activities, Georgetown will open a liaison office at Fudan’s Center for American Studies later this year. The office will assist faculty and administrators at both universities and facilitate exchanges between the two schools. In addition, a committee will be formed to help guide future activities between Fudan and Georgetown.
Fudan University, in Shanghai, was established in 1905 and currently enrolls 25,000 full-time degree candidates. The university offers undergraduate degrees in 68 academic disciplines, as well as master’s and doctoral programs. Fudan consists of 17 schools and four independent departments: Physics, Chemistry, Macromolecular Science, and Environmental Science and Engineering.
Source: Office of Communications
May 2, 2007
