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Last modified: Friday, May 17, 2013

Indiana University President McRobbie visiting Beijing as part of 15-day East Asia trip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2013

EDITOR'S NOTE: A translated version of this release is also available.

BEIJING -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie will continue a 15-day visit to East Asia on Tuesday in Beijing, where he will renew a partnership agreement with one of China's pre-eminent research universities, meet with IU alumni and business and government leaders, and participate in a special event for newly admitted Chinese students and their families.

Michael McRobbie

Michael A. McRobbie

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McRobbie will sign a renewed agreement of friendship and cooperation between IU and Peking University, the first established modern national university of China. Additionally, he will sign a new agreement that will generate graduate student and staff exchanges between IU and PKU.

IU Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret and IU first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie will join McRobbie in Beijing and also serve as presenters at a special presidential reception for incoming IU students from China and their families, as well as for alumni. During the event, they will deliver an overview of academic and social life at IU and advice for making a successful transition to the university.

McRobbie also will visit Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai during his visit to China. While in Hong Kong, he will sign an agreement of friendship and cooperation between IU and the University of Hong Kong as well as an agreement to establish a graduate dual degree master of public administration program between IU Bloomington's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and HKU's Master's in Non-Profit Management Program.

More than 4,700 students from East Asia are enrolled at IU, including more than 3,250 from the People's Republic of China, who accounted for more than 40 percent of IU's total international enrollment this past year. More than 100 students from IU's Bloomington campus studied in China last year.

"Indiana University is committed to meeting the changing needs of students and faculty in an increasingly globalized world," McRobbie said, "and that commitment is reflected in our strategic partnerships with China's most prestigious universities and in our ever-growing numbers of Chinese alumni.

"I am delighted to be back in China to extend efforts that have resulted in more overseas study opportunities for IU students in the world's largest country, enhanced research collaborations among faculty and staff here at IU and in China, and more of the best students from this important region of the world coming to Indiana to pursue a quality education."

This is McRobbie's third official visit to China since becoming IU's president in 2007. The trip is one element of IU's international engagement plan. The university has identified 30 countries as priorities and has plans in place to strengthen institutional ties, increase research opportunities and provide greater access to study abroad for IU students.

In addition to the agreement with Peking University, IU has active, university-wide partnerships with Sun Yat-sen University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University.

Kelley School of Business

IU Kelley School of Business in Bloomington

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Business remains a highly sought-after area of study at IU for Chinese students. IU's Kelley School of Business, with degree programs on IU's campuses in Bloomington and Indianapolis, is consistently ranked highly by peer academics, corporate recruiters, business developers and business publications such as Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report.

Kelley's undergraduate program in Bloomington was ranked No. 1 in a Bloomberg Businessweek survey of corporate recruiters. Last fall, the school received three No. 1 rankings in MBA student surveys by the publication: career services, teaching quality and student satisfaction.

The Kelley School offers undergraduate and graduate education programs to about 5,600 full-time students on its Bloomington campus and another 1,600 students on its Indianapolis campus. Enrollment in its Kelley Direct online MBA program -- which earlier this year was ranked third by U.S. News -- also is close to 1,000 students.

Its new Institute for Business Analytics, one of the first such institutes in the nation, supports academic programs that prepare students to solve challenging business problems using advanced analytics.

It was the second business school in the United States to include international components in its curriculum (it added international business classes in 1959), and it has furthered its global reach through several new educational programs and initiatives.

The Kelley School has recently partnered with Zhejiang University in Hangzhou on summer exchange programs for students. The Kelley School at Indianapolis has partnered with Sun Yat-sen University on an undergraduate dual degree program.

Sun Yat-sen University is an important strategic partner at IU's Indianapolis campus, IUPUI. Undergraduate dual degree programs also include those in computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, media arts and science, public affairs, and mathematics. Several academic programs at IUPUI also have student exchange programs with SYSU.

Students from the IU School of Medicine and the SYSU Zhongshan School of Medicine, for example, can complete clinical electives at the partner school.

In 2011, the National Science Foundation selected IU to lead an effort to link the China Education and Research Network, or CERNET, with Internet2 and other U.S. research and education networks, which is allowing researchers in both the U.S. and China to more easily collaborate and share research data.

The study of East Asia spans more than 20 departments and professional schools on the Bloomington campus, including the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, which recently marked its 50th anniversary; the Title VI-supported East Asian Studies Center; the Chinese Language Flagship program; and the IU-Australian National University Pan-Asia Institute.

At its Indianapolis campus, the Confucius Institute promotes the teaching of Chinese language and culture.

IU's teaching and research activities in Asia will be core efforts of the new School of Global and International Studies. The university recently broke ground on a new four-story, 165,000-square-foot structure that will house the school, starting with the 2015-16 academic school year.

Reports as the trip progresses will be available at a new website, "Global Engagements and Partnerships," as well as the Global Engagements and Partnerships blog and through official IU social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.