Last modified: Friday, May 24, 2013
Indiana University President McRobbie visiting Shanghai as part of 15-day East Asia trip
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2013
EDITOR'S NOTE: A translated version of this release is also available.
SHANGHAI -- Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie will continue a 15-day visit to East Asia in Shanghai on Thursday with meetings with higher education leaders and a reception for IU alumni.
Friday evening, McRobbie will bestow one of IU's highest honors to Tongkui Ju, a distinguished jurist in China and a 1949 graduate of the Maurer School of Law. He will receive the Thomas Hart Benton Medal, which is given to individuals who have achieved a level of distinction in public office or service and have exemplified the values of Indiana University.
Ju, also a graduate of Soochow University, has served as a judge in Shanghai District Court and played a key role in the reorganization of the Shanghai Lawyers' Association. He worked on several of the largest joint-venture and private-direct investment activities in China as a senior attorney there.
For example, in 1982 Ju represented the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Industrial Corp. in successful joint venture negotiations with Squibb Corp., which was the first American drug company to establish such a joint venture in China. He also served as a visiting researcher at the Research Institute of Legal Science at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
For more than three decades, Ju has fostered close ties to IU and the Maurer School, hosting students in its alumni shadow program and assisting those hoping to connect with other IU alumni and lawyers in Shanghai.
The Thomas Hart Benton Medal was first presented in 1986 to the president of Nanjing University by then-IU President John Ryan.
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.
McRobbie also will visit Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou during his visit to China. IU Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret and IU first lady Laurie Burns McRobbie are joining him on the trip.
IU has active, university-wide partnerships with Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University.
"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.
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 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 through official IU social media channels on Facebook and Twitter.
