A Relationship Restored Trends in U.S.-China Educational Exchanges, 1978-1984 (1986) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Context for Academic Exchange
2 The Context for Academic Exchange
Pages 15-29
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From page 15... ...
The Sino-American academic exchanges of the 1970s and 1980s were preceded by more than eight decades—from the 1870s to 1950 of educational and scientific interaction. The links between the two eras are strong.
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From page 16... ...
The potential of educational ties with China has always sparked the imaginations of leaders and interest groups American universities have been particularly responsive to Chinese students and scholars. At the same time, scientific, technological, and educational relationships have often served the aspirations of those who hope to impart their cultural and political values to the Chinese.
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From page 17... ...
If one lesson has emerged from the pre-1950 experience, it is that both sides must moderate their expectation that academic exchanges veils produce immediate change. Both sides can anticipate ups and downs in their relationship.
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From page 18... ...
In 1914, 11 percent of Chinese students in America were women, and by 1925, this percentage had risen to 39, a rather high level considering the era and China's prevailing traditions with respect to the education of women.9 In 1983, 23 percent of PRC Chinese students and scholars in the United States were women. There are several possible reasons for the comparatively high proportion of women sent abroad in the pre-1949 era, including the greater percentage of undergraduates sent abroad by China at that time, the greater emphasis on social sciences and humanities, and the impact of missionary education in preCommunist China.
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From page 19... ...
Because American funding was relatively plentiful for the natural sciences, Chinese students abroad were more frequently able to complete degree programs in these fields. In all fields, financial considerations continually intruded into the educational relationship.
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From page 20... ...
SINO-SOVIET EXCHANGES, 1950 - 1960 Although the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 did not alter the fundamental goals and priorities of China's educational exchange policies, the decisive political realignment did produce significant changes in the destination of Chinese students going abroad and in the origin of foreign students entering China. The new Communist leadership swiftly centralized control over all levels of education throughout the country and moved to eliminate the "bourgeois" orientation of urban intellectuals.
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From page 21... ...
Foreign students in China, too, showed the same dissatisfactions under the new regime. Like their earlier counterparts, Chinese students in the Soviet Union were supervised by the PRC embassy in Moscow and were assigned to educational institutions and academic disciplines according to Beijing's priorities.
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From page 22... ...
One estimate puts the number of economic, cultural, educational, and technical experts who went to China during this period at more than 10,000.23 Evidence points to relatively modest numbers of students. A first-hand report by Rene Goldman, a Polish student who studied in Beijing from 1953 to 1958, indicates that although his university traditionally had hosted many foreign students, he encountered no Soviet students until 1957, when two groups totaling more than 100 arrived.24 Further evidence that the flow of Soviets to China was modest appeared in a 1957 Chinese news article that stated that an arriving group of 50 Russian students represented the largest group in the history of the exchange relationship up to that time.25 Almost all the Soviet and Eastern European students were confined to Beijing,26 while Korean and Vietnamese scholars apparently were spread more evenly across China.27 The presence of Soviet and Eastern European students in China did cause some friction.
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From page 23... ...
in academic year 1983-1984.34 Note, however, that about one-third of the PRC Chinese who have come to the United States thus far have been nonmatriculated "visiting scholars" who are not counted in the figure just cited. Although PRC students and scholars currently comprise a modest percentage of foreign students in the United States, China has made sending students here a major priority in its total exchange effort.
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From page 24... ...
Although 8 percent of all foreign students in the United States studied physical and life sciences in academic year 1983-1984, 34 percent of Chinese officially sponsored students and scholars did so in calendar year 1983. Four percent of all foreign students in the United States studied in the health sciences during academic year 1983-1984, while 10 percent of officially sponsored Chinese students and scholars were in the health sciences in the United States during 1983.39 A dramatic difference exists between the visa status of Chinese stu
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From page 25... ...
Some evidence suggests that the swift growth will continue. In late 1984, Chinese State Councillor Zhang Jingfu announced that in 1985 China intended to boost by one-third the number of officially sponsored students and scholars sent abroad.42 Finally, in January 1985, China's State Council issued "Draft Regulations on Self-Supported Study Abroad," which encourage any interested Chinese citizen to apply for permission to study abroad at his or her own expense, regardless of that person's academic qualifications, age, or employment status in China.43 Although the impact of these regulations remains to be seen, it appears likely that many more students holding F visas will come to the United States from China.
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From page 26... ...
Finally, in the spring of 1985, the government announced far-reaching reforms of the science, technology, and education systems, which were aimed at decentralizing the management and financing of these sectors and forging closer links between the economy and research activities. The education reforms adopted in May and June 1985, which brought multiple changes for higher education, are already affecting Sino-American academic exchange and increasingly will influence it in the future.
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From page 27... ...
Third, because effectively implemented reforms will give individual Chinese institutions more autonomy, it may become harder for national exchange organizations in America to gain access to a broad range of individual institutions in China simply by dealing with central authorities in Beijing, unless Beijing underwrites the costs for individual institutions. All that can be said with certainty in early 1986 is that these reforms will affect academic exchanges in many ways.
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From page 28... ...
20, 1985, p. A-8: "The first Soviet students to study in Peking in more than two decades left here in an angry mood this summer after a frenzy of smashing beer bottles and dormitory windows, according to other foreign students....
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From page 29... ...
Boyan, Alfred C Julian, and Krista Van Laan, eds., Open Doors: 1982/ 83, Report on International Educational Exchange (New York: Institute of International Education, 1983)
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