At a time when a record number of Chinese students are heading
abroad for studies and a growing number of overseas-educated
natives are returning home to cash in on the economic boom, a group
of university alumni have taken a step further: repaying their
foreign alma mater.
More than 500 Chinese alumni of Boston University (BU) pledged a
$1-million donation to their US alma mater at the launch of their
alumni chapter in Beijing on Saturday, the group said.
The amount, to be given over five years, is the first such
collective gift for the fourth largest private university in the US
in its 169-year history.
BU president Robert Brown, 56, who attended the launch and was
the institution's first president to visit China, said, "We're
expanding the alumni office in Asia, and that will have a big
impact on what we do in China specifically."
About 5,000 of BU's 32,000 students are from abroad, and the
university has about 260,000 alumni in more than 50 associations
and groups across the world.
BU has a student exchange program with Shanghai's Fudan
University, and counts Ha Jin, a Chinese author writing in English,
as one of its close to 4,000 faculty members.
The latest boost to BU's $946-million endowment comes in a year
when 200,000 Chinese are expected to travel abroad for studies.
Only a dozen Chinese students went abroad for studies in 1978.
But from 1978 to 2006, about 1.1 million Chinese went abroad for
studies, with 275,000 returning home.
In the past two years, however, an increasing percentage of
Chinese have returned home because "China's domestic business
environment has improved significantly," Yu Minhong, chairman of
Beijing New Oriental Group, has said.
Hugo Shong, executive vice-president of International Data Group
and head of the newly formed China alumni chapter, said on Saturday
that the contribution will hopefully help nurture more talent at
BU.
Shong said, "I think it's important to have an alumni platform
to maintain the network and also to provide feedback for BU to stay
competitive."
Boston University alumna Jin Wei returned to Beijing after
living in the US for almost two years. The 28-year-old holds a dual
master's degree in business and information systems. She ignored
some very good opportunities abroad to head back home and start a
social networking site, and now works for an IT company.
"It's a great time for China, and I want to be a part of it,"
she said.
(China Daily, January 21, 2008)
