Schwarzman College

Schwarzman College (also Chinese: 苏世民书院, pinyin: Sūshìmín Shūyuàn) is a new residential college of Tsinghua University (THU), which will host Schwarzman Scholars, an international scholarship program designed to "educate the next generation of global leaders".[1][2][3] The program is intended to launch in June 2016, upon completion of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, located in Beijing, China.[4][5] The college was designed by Robert A.M. Stern, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture and will host 200 elite scholars annually from the US, China and other countries around the world for a one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing.[6]

Modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University and the classical Chinese academies known as Shūyuàn (Schwarzman College is called Sūshìmín Shūyuàn in Chinese, translated directly as Schwarzman Academy), Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University will compete with Yenching Academy at Peking University in China and other similar scholarship programs around the world.[7]

College

Mission

Schwarzman Scholars is designed to help future leaders better understand China and provide them with the firsthand knowledge and relationships necessary to foster collaboration and cooperation between nations. Given that China is poised to become the largest economy in the world within the next decades, Schwarzman believed it was necessary for future leaders to better understand China, its history, culture, economy and motivations. Schwarzman’s stated goal is to help prepare future leaders to interact and relate with greater sensitivity and knowledge. By fostering greater cooperation between the East and West he hopes to forge future geopolitical stability. [8]

Program

Schwarzman Scholars will study for a one-year Master’s Degree in Public Policy, International Relations, Economics & Business at Tsinghua University. Scholars will live in Beijing for a full year of study and cultural immersion, traveling the country, engaging with world leaders and developing a better understanding of China and its people through first hand experiences.

The academic program was developed in consultation with an academic advisory council of individuals from various institutions of higher learning such as Harvard, Yale, American, Duke and Oxford.[9] Scholars will reside in a residential college, Schwarzman College, built specifically for the program, modeled on those at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale.[10]

Scholarship

Annually, 200 Schwarzman Scholars will be chosen through a competitive selection process that seeks the "world’s next generation of leaders." Successful applicants will be elite students who have an excellent academic record and demonstrate outstanding leadership potential. Approximately 45% of the participants will come from the U.S., 20% from China and 35% from the rest of the world. Further details on composition are not fixed. Students will apply directly to the program and will not require a nomination from their university.[11]

Campus

Located in Beijing, Tsinghua University is one of the foremost institutions in China. Established in 1911, Tsinghua now has more than 25,900 students, including 13,100 undergraduates and 12,800 graduate students. At present, the university has 16 schools and 56 departments with faculties in science, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, history, philosophy, economics, management, education and art. As one of China’s most renowned universities, Tsinghua has become an important institution for fostering talent and scientific research.

Tsinghua’s many notable graduates include: Communist Party’s current General Secretary, Xi Jinping; the former General Secretary Hu Jintao; the former Chairman of the National People's Congress, Wu Bangguo; former Premier, Zhu Rongji; and the former First Vice Premier Huang Ju.

History

Schwarzman College was announced in 2013 and will be established in 2016 by Tsinghua University. It is expected the program will eventually grow from 100 students in the inaugural year to 200 students.

According to Schwarzman, in fall of 2010, the then-university president Gu Binglin asked if he would want to help the university with a concept for a "Global Scholars" program. At the time, Schwarzman was on the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (SEM). A year later in 2011, a delegation from Tsinghua visited Schwarzman in New York where the concept was put on hold until the leadership at Tsinghua had changed (the term of the then-executive administration was ending) and the global financial crisis had receded (the fundraising environment would have recovered). Soon after in 2012, the newly installed Tsinghua president Chen Jining met with Schwarzman, who was now living in Paris. Schwarzman, who was interested in moving forward with the concept, put forth six special ideas that would "reduce friction" for the new program. First, the college would need its own physical facility. Second, the program would need to be immersive, including travel and field work across the country with professors. Third, the program would assign mentors to each of the scholars in their area of interest. Fourth, there had to be no cost to the scholars. Fifth, the program would only be one year instead of two or three years long. Sixth and last, the program would be taught in English. Schwarzman told Chen Jining, "If we do this, what I really want to do is construct a program that that has the same prestige as the Rhodes, because those are the students that I’m aiming for." Schwarzman also saw the program as a way to bridge the cultures of the world's current two largest powers, America and China. With 200 Scholars per year, Schwarzman envisions a powerful alumni network of 10 000 scholars within a half century and possibly even future heads of state and government.[12]

A year later in spring of 2013, the program was announced in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of the National People's Congress, in Beijing, China. A fundraising campaign to raise 200 million USD from foreign sources, in addition to Schwarzman's 100 million dollar donation to the program, was also simultaneously launched. Shortly after in fall of 2013, Oxford University Rhodes House announced the launch of its own Second Century Campaign, led by a new founder McCall MacBain with a goal to increase their endowment from 100 million GBP (then 150 million USD) to at least 250 million GBP (then 375 million USD). A year later in spring of 2014, Peking University, Tsinghua University's chief rival, announced its own global scholarship program, Yenching Scholars at Yenching Academy. Shortly after in summer of 2014, Tsinghua University announced it had reached its original fundraising goal and that it would increase it to 350 million USD. In spring of 2014, when the program first launched its admissions process, Tsinghua Schwarzman had already raised 333 million USD for its endowment fund. Shortly after a third target of 400 million USD, to be reached by the following year, was announced. "The Rhodes scholarships and Schwarzman Scholars programs have similar endowments and fund-raising goals. Which one is ahead in any given week depends mainly on the exchange rate of the pound, which has weakened lately against the dollar." Meanwhile, it was also understood that Peking Yenching would be better funded through Chinese private donations and government grants, which set off competition to further grow the two programs' endowments. As a result of the increased competition among full-scholarship leadership programs, there has been marked growth in fundraising, with the endowments moving towards a half billion USD each.[13][4][14][15][16][17]

Leadership and Governance

Advisory Board

Academic Advisory Council

Schwarzman Scholars has an Advisory Board whose members include former leaders in government and affiliates of institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke and Oxford.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Program". Schwarzman Scholars. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  2. ↑ http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/jjhen/2057/2013/20130428172527122874163/20130428172527122874163_.html
  3. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/world/asia/us-financier-backs-china-scholarship-program.html?pagewanted=all
  4. 1 2 http://schwarzmanscholars.org/american-financier-stephen-a-schwarzman-endows-international-scholarship-program-in-china-2/
  5. ↑ "College". Schwarzman Scholars. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Bradsher, Keith (20 April 2013). "$300 Million Scholarship for Study in China Signals a New Focus". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  7. ↑ http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2nd-chinese-university-starts-rhodes-style-program
  8. 1 2 3 "Schwarzman Scholars". Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  9. ↑ "Leadership". Schwarzman Scholars. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  10. ↑ Tang, Didi (21 April 2013). "Blackstone founder creates $300 million China scholarship". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  11. ↑ http://schwarzmanscholars.org/admissions/
  12. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/news/evan-osnos/rhodes-east-why-is-the-schwarzman-scholarship-in-china
  13. ↑ http://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/news/announcement
  14. ↑ http://english.pku.edu.cn/News_Events/News/Focus/11335.htm
  15. ↑ http://schwarzmanscholars.org/schwarzman-scholars-endowment-achieves-300-million-fundraising-milestone/
  16. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/dealbook/despite-challenges-of-ge-deal-blackstones-schwarzman-kept-a-focus-on-scholar-program.html
  17. ↑ http://www.ioe.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/ioe/5331/20141017140314673966581/Perils%20of%20Academic%20Competition,%20Past%20and%20Present%20-%20.pdf

External links

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