Dartmouth and BNU representatives suggested possible undergraduate exchange program, which would be separate from the current study abroad programs, and allow students to study with English-speaking colleagues at BNU, exploring topics other than Chinese language and culture like economics, psychology or government.
The next step in Dartmouth's partnership with BNU will likely be a year or term-long exchange program with one or two students.
The university and its delegation, led by BNU President Dong Qi, are interested in offering scholarships to recent Dartmouth graduates to study graduate-level Chinese, specifically through a master's program. Dartmouth, in turn, would consider inviting some BNU graduate students work on their PhDs in Hanover, assistant provost for international initiatives Laurel Stavis said.
Since most BNU students determine their course of study before enrollment, Chinese delegates were curious about how students declare majors at Dartmouth, Asian and Middle Eastern languages and literatures chair James Dorsey said.
"Although they didn't say it, I think [they] were rather surprised that so many world class scholars teach undergraduate classes," Dorsey said. "Apparently their top flight researchers teach almost exclusively graduate courses because their university has more graduate students than undergraduates, It's a structural difference."
The BNU delegation met with education and psychological and brain studies professors to discuss how cognitive science applies to a liberal arts education. Dong, a brain scientist who is interested in how people learn, told Stavis he hopes BNU and Dartmouth will collaborate in psychological and brain science projects in the future.
The BNU delegation attended Dartmouth's first mini-symposium on the arts and music in neuroscience and medicine, part of the Year of the Arts. Members of the delegation also toured the College's campus, as they had never been to Dartmouth before.
"I think we accomplished a lot, and over the next weeks and months we can see what we do to make these things happen," Stavis said.
Last fall, Dartmouth representatives traveled to BNU to celebrate the 30-year relationship between the two universities with banquets, gifts, speeches and toasts.
About 40 students go on the FSP and LSA+ annually, said Lynn Higgins, associate dean for international and interdisciplinary studies.
Dartmouth's long-standing relationship with BNU is rare, and Hua-yuan Li Mowry, an Asian and Middle Eastern languages and literatures professor, is the driving force behind it.
"It is almost unheard of that we were involved with a university in China so early," Dorsey said. "We should all tip our hats to professor Mowry."
Interim President Carol Folt led Dartmouth's delegation to China last fall, which included Dean of the Faculty Michael Mastanduno, associate provost for international initiatives Lindsay Whaley, Higgins and other faculty and administrators.
