China Seminar Series examines the American influence on modern Chinese education

Talk by Jiashi Yang, associate professor at the University of Nebraska, focuses on Tsinghua University, which is considered China’s MIT.

The China Seminar Series continued on March 17 as China scholar Jiashi Yang, an associate professor of engineering mechanics at the University of Nebraska, examined the American influence on modern education in China. The topic was Tsinghua University – the jewel of the higher education system in China. Interestingly, Tsinghua was created, at least in part, by American support.

The Boxer Rebellion, which took place in China at the beginning of the 1900s, led to the end of the rule of the Qing Dynasty. War reparations were given to eight Western countries – including the United States for their role in quelling the uprising.

In 1908, the United States Congress approved partial return of the reparations to China to create the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship Program to provide higher education opportunities for Chinese students in the U.S. From 1909 to 1911, nearly 200 Chinese students between the ages of 15 and 20 studied engineering, agriculture, and business in the United States before returning to China to help establish the country’s modern educational system.

“Many of them became very famous scholars in China,” says Jiashi.

Jiashi Yang, an associate professor of engineering mechanics at the University of Nebraska, visited Bryant as part of the China Seminar Series on March 17.

Tsinghua College was founded in 1911 to formalize the system for preparing Chinese students to study in the United States. Its mission was to train the future leaders of China.

During the first 20 years, about 1,000 students were chosen – only two or three from each province in China – to complete the eight-year preparatory program. The majority of the instructors were Americans, and the students received five-year scholarships to study in the United States after finishing the program.

In 1928, Tsinghua was transformed into a four-year university and a graduate school was created. One of the original chancellors was also one of the first Chinese students to go to the U.S. to study in 1909. By 1946, there were 134 Chinese professors at Tsinghua including 64 with Ph.Ds from institutions like Harvard, MIT, and Columbia.

Tsinghua University became well-known for training technocrats – engineers and scientists – many of whom became top leaders and politicians in Chinese government.

Today, Tsinghua University is the only business school in China that has been accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a distinction shared by Bryant and only 10 percent of universities worldwide. There are more than 20,000 students and 7,100 faculty and staff on the expansive Beijing campus. (It takes 20 minutes to drive from one end of the campus to the other.)

Bryant has a connection to Tsinghua as Chen Zhang, assistant professor of computer information systems, earned his Bachelor of Science in modern applied physics in 1997 from Tsinghua University. Jim Segovis, executive in residence in the management department, and Hong Yang, associate professor of science and technology and director of Bryant’s U.S.-China Institute, have been guest lecturers.

“The Boxer Indemnity Program founded one of the leading universities in China,” explains Jiashi, who earned a bachelor’s and a master’s in engineering mechanics at Tsinghua University. “These scholars played a fundamental role in the formation of the modern educational system in China.”