China’s top universities could soon rival Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League, the president of Yale University has warned.

Professor Richard Levin, speaking to the Guardian on a trip to the UK, said Chinese institutions would rank in the world’s top 10 universities in 25 years’ time, squeezing out some of the west’s elite campuses.

At the moment, British universities dominate the top 10 rankings, with Cambridge coming second to Harvard, University College London fourth and Oxford and Imperial College London joint fifth. The rest of the top 15 are US universities. China’s highest-ranking institution is Tsinghua, at 49.

But the Chinese government now spends billions of yuan – at least 1.5% of its gross domestic product – on higher education with the aim of propelling its best institutions, such as the universities of Tsinghua and Peking, into the top slots, Levin said.

“In 25 years, only a generation’s time, these universities could rival the Ivy League,” said Levin, the Ivy League’s longest-tenured president. He was speaking before giving a lecture on the rise of Asia’s universities to the Royal Society in London on Monday evening.

Levin said: “China and India … seek to expand the capacity of their systems of higher education … and aspire simultaneously to create a limited number of world-class universities to take their places among the best. This is an audacious agenda, but China, in particular, has the will and resources that make it feasible. It has built the largest higher education sector in the world in merely a decade.”

China has more than doubled the number of its higher education institutions in the last decade from 1,022 to 2,263. More than 5 million Chinese students enrol on degree courses now, compared to 1 million in 1997.

Chinese scholars are increasingly leaving their posts in US and UK universities to return home, Levin said.

The growth of Chinese higher education comes as English university leaders fear they may not be able to maintain their world-class reputation for higher education, with savage government cuts of 950m pounds over the next three years.

Commenting on the cuts, Levin said it would be “a shame if the British government didn’t recognise the status of Oxford and Cambridge as global leaders”.

He pointed out that it had taken centuries for Harvard and Yale to match Oxford and Cambridge. And while China had a large pool of talent to draw on, it was currently seen as less attractive to scholars from across the world than the US and the UK, he said. China’s universities lack “multidisciplinary breadth” and “the cultivation of critical thinking”.

Levin said: “I don’t see the rise of Asia’s universities as threatening. Competition in education is a positive sum game. Increasing the quality of education around the world translates into better informed and more productive citizens.”

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China MBA: Cal Poly State University

MBA留学：Cal Poly

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China MBA Admission Info, Cost Info, and Deadlines

Cal Poly Masters in Industrial Technology

Masters in Industrial Technology Admission Info, Cost Info, and Deadlines

Pound-for-pound we think the Cal Poly MBA is the best in the world….

Created by The Greatest Living American

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I never stop being astonished at what Thomas Stader and the Library Project accomplish. TLP is a testament to the power of good social marketing. More importantly the group delivers more than it promises.

Here is a letter from Thomas about their recent work:

I am so proud of what The Library Project has accomplished over the past three months. We have far exceeded The Library Project’s goals and expectations. There is so much to share – from an incredible and growing list of elementary schools which have benefited from new libraries to how you can get involved in helping to improve the lives of China’s rural children.

Before we start sharing our library’s successes, I would like to discuss how The Library Project is providing assistance to the people affected by the recent earthquake in China. On May 12, 2008 China experienced a 7.9 earthquake in Sichuan Province, located in central China, 70,000 people died, and over five million people were left homeless. Thousands of elementary schools were damaged in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will continue to do all we can by providing books and libraries to elementary schools and orphanages by way of our new 2008 Earthquake Program. The Library Project will be providing our first libraries to six “tent schools” located 25 km from the epicenter. To learn more about this program, please click here.

Over the past three months The Library Project created twenty-five school libraries and donated more than thirty thousand books. Each of the twenty-five schools received a wide range of high quality children’s books including: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, reference books and comics. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for older students and pinyin language books for the kids just learning to read. The Library Project also provided colorful child-safe tables and chairs, posters and a world globe to all the classroom and/or library rooms.

These fabulous new libraries are located throughout China in the countryside of Shaanxi, Anhui, and Gansu Provinces. At each library site, The Library Project held book drives, which collected over thirty thousand quality second-hand books from local donors. We also purchased over ten thousand first-hand books from Xin Hua Books Stores at just $1 a book.

In addition to books and supplies, the school librarians received library management training. Since most rural elementary schools have never had a single book in their libraries our Librarian Training Program gets them up to speed starting day one.

The Library Project is very happy to announce that Scott Perkins and Nicholas Ingleton have joined our Board of Directors. Scott Perkins is President and CEO of Connectify Networks based in San Francisco, California. Nicholas Ingleton has lived in Asia for 50 years and currently is a director of Aston Holdings (Overseas) Limited in Hong Kong and Aston Associates Limited in Beijing. I am honored to have them a part of our growing team.

In addition to providing libraries to twenty-five elementary schools in rural China, we have had over twenty small awareness and fundraising events since March. Our volunteers hosted most of these events around Asia and the world. For example, Celia held an all women’s wine tasting in Beijing that raised enough funds for one library. Siok Siok Tan has been doing charity screenings of her new documentary on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “Booming Beijing” and raised enough funds for five libraries. Sophia and Eric organized an event at Kommune (great Ozzie BBQ) and a lecture on ”rural education in China” at the Glamour Bar, both in Shanghai. We raised enough funds at these two events for libraries in two different rural elementary schools. I would also like to thank everyone that came out to our San Francisco, Phoenix and New Jersey events. We raised enough for seven libraries during that USA fundraising run! Finally, a huge thank you goes out to Napoleon and Marcel in Hong Kong for organizing our lecture at Web Wednesdays and the XL Results Foundation. We raised enough for three libraries at these events. Thank you everyone for your hard work and dedication!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

There are three ways to get involved:

Help by spreading the word. You can help out in so many ways. Forward this newsletter to your friends, family members and coworkers, make a post on your MySpace page, blog to help raise awareness for The Library Project, or join our Facebook Group by clicking here. You can also help by hosting a small event at your home, work or local restaurant. . If you need help organizing a fundraiser, please contact me anytime at tom at library-project.org. Thank you!

Help by volunteering. You can make a huge difference in the lives of countless children in the developing world by becoming a volunteer. There are so many different ways to volunteer: you can throw a wine tasting or dinner to introduce The Library Project to others, hang a poster above the water cooler at your office, or introduce us to your company’s HR Department.

Help by making a donation. Without money, we can’t buy books. At a dollar a book, most of us can afford to buy 10, 20 or even 100 books. Make a donation and help bring the gift of education to countless children. Our libraries generally contain about 500 – 1000 books, thus every donated book (or dollar) helps!

Lastly, please check out some of our new products. We created 50 book, 100 book, 250 book and 500 book gift cards available at $1 a book. Each card also has a beautiful picture of a library we have donated. The gift cards are a perfect gift idea.

The Library Project is a non-profit organization. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Thank you in advance for your kind support of our efforts.

Sincerely,
Tom Stader
The Library Project
Founder

Cal Poly, home of one of the best international MBA programs, and a great China MBA blog, has arrived. On youtube, at least. The video offers a peak at the ten-day trip the 40 intrepid MBA students and professors took across China and into Beijing, Macau, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou and features such places as the forbidden city in Beijing, the Sands Casino in Macau, and Shenzhen and Shanghai factory visits.

Thanks to Steve Rodger and Kooltree productions for putting this together.

We are more than happy to announce to you the winners of last week’s China Photo Contest and would like to apologize for the delay. Ironically, the theme for the contest was what we had always been looking for but finally lost–Time.
“Qing Dynasty Clock”, photographed by Darryl Snow. Darryl is our winner from last week.

Luke Shi is our runner up. Here is his work: “Forbidden City”.

Our second runner up is Jacco Bax with his work: “Newspaper and Temple”.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in last week’s contest. Please contribute to our new round. To see your photos here, please send them to or or just post them at the China Photo Contest Group on Facebook.

Recently, I was able to complete an interview with Thomas Stader, founder of a Chinese charity organization that helps to build libraries. Here are his words about some of the latest work the Library Project has been working on.

Can you tell us a little bit about the Library Project?

The Library Project provides books and libraries to under-financed countryside elementary schools in China.

I founded The Library Project because I found that most countryside elementary schools in China were lacking books that the children could physically read. What I mean by that is, most books in a countryside elementary school were written for university and high school students. They also lack any kind of reading area for the children to curl up with a book. What we do is very simple, we donate colorful, relevant, hi-quallity books to countryside elementary schools, while also ensuring that they have a safe and fun area to read the books in.

I understand that often children’s libraries in China aren’t often stocked with good children’s books and are often cramped or uncomfortable. Can you tell us more about that?

In general, we have found a complete lack of children’s books with PinYin for young learners. A child absolutely needs PinYin to read during grades 1 – 3. So that is our first obstacle that we must overcome. Our second is a complete lack of a comfortable library for the children to gather as a class and read a book. Most schools have a room set aside for a library, but they don’t have the funding to fill the room with furniture.

What we have found is, once we bring books that the children can read, along with tables and chairs for a library, the children love it.

Cool. I understand you’ve made a lot of big developments in the past year, right?

Yes we have. We have provided our first ten libraries, with plans of reaching a goal of over 80 by the end of 2008.

That sounds like a big commitment. Isn’t it costly to build a library?

The cost is quite low. Most libraries will cost between 4,000 and 8,000 RMB. This includes hi-quality Chinese language children’s books, colorful chairs, sturdy tables, globes, plants, posters, and all logistic costs such as trucks.

What all goes into the building of a library? What kind of cost is there in terms of money, time, and other resources?

From beginning to end, it takes about one month. That includes our Pre-Assessment, purchasing of books and furniture, and final delivery of the library. We usually have a group of about 5 – 15 volunteers helping with the final delivery. Once we set up the library, we introduce the children to their new library and play games. It’s a lot of fun for both the children and the volunteers.

I also understand that you cooperate with local charities to create community support and interest for your project. Have you found that local communities and organizations are helpful and willing to be involved?

That is true. We have partnered with the Xi’an Charity Association to provide libraries to the regions of the ShaanXi Province that they are working in. They are a huge help. We also run community based book collections through Aston English of China. They are one of the largest private English language schools in China, with schools in over 40 cities. We hope to hold book drives in each of those cities annually, and then take those Chinese language children’s books and get them into countryside elementary schools. Aston English has made a major commitment to giving back in China.

I understand you recently made a trip to Shanghai and had some exciting opportunities crop up for you there. How exactly did all of that come about?

That is true. The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business in Shanghai has been absolutely amazing. On November 24th, the Smith School of Business hosted a charity fundraiser in Shanghai that raised enough funds to provide twelve schools with full libraries. They got Black and Decker, Microsoft, Storm Case, Grainger, Grace, Under Armour, The Children’s Place, Jaguar, Avon, and Land Rover, among many others, involved.

The University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business in Shanghai and their China EMBA program have really made a difference in the lives of thousands of children living in the countryside of China.

Where will the funds you raised in Shanghai go and how will they be used?

The funds raised in Shanghai will go toward providing libraries to the Ba Qiao School District in the ShaanXi Province. Each school will receive 500 Chinese language children’s books, and a comfortable child-safe library for the children to use.

To date, what do you think has been your biggest success?

That’s a tough question to answer. There have been so many successes to date. But if I were to pick on success, it would be the creation of our School District Program. This program makes the kind of impact that we all like to see. True impact is hard to make, and I’m confident that providing every countryside elementary school in a single school districts improves the level of education that each and every child receives.

What are the next big plans for the Library Project? How do you see the project growing? How can people in China and abroad help you and support you?

The Library Project has a very clear plan for our future. We will have over 80 libraries provided to countryside elementary schools by the end of 2008. We’ll have over 200 by the end of 2009. We’ll continue that aggressive growth plan until every elementary school in China has children’s books for every child to read.

We have a ton of volunteer opportunities, both in China and abroad. The best place to begin is to check out our website at The Library Project.

All donations are greatly appreciated. Small and large donations really do make a difference. Each book that we provide to schools only cost $1 USD, or 8 Yuan. Adopting a school costs only $1,000 USD. Both of these really do make a huge impact on the lives of literally thousands of children.

China Photo Contest Winners

This week’s award goes to Rinmicle Huang, with her photo of Wishing Pot.

We have selected three photographers to be our runner-ups. They are William Andrew Albano with his photo of Yunnan, Lijiang; Shen Li with River & Trees as well as Darryl Snow with his Jiu Zhaigou.

The following six are our second runner-ups. Ling Fu–Grassland; Zhi’en Wang–Beihai Park; Sarah Snow–Carp Pool and Ideal Shanghai; Darryl Snow–Leshan; and last but not least Jacco Bax–Fenghuang Town.

We want to thank other contestants who have contributed to this week’s selection for their enthusiasm and excellence in works, it’s just your names are hard to pronounce.
Check again next week to see our new winners. To see your photos here, send them to or or just post them on Facebook.

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This past weekend I traveled to Shanghai in order to attend the 2007 China Education Expo, an annual traveling expo showcasing international study abroad opportunities for Chinese students. While there, I also had the chance to catch up with several bloggers, speak with Steve Feld, the Executive Director the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, and spend some time with Christine Lu of the China Business Network. I have to admit that serendipity seemed to follow me as I met up with a number of people, from a helpful and friendly group of Casablancan businessmen on the plane to the Chinese watch salesman that helped me find an Internet Bar when I needed it most.

This week I’ll be writing stories about my adventures and some of the fantastic dreamers I met in my few short days in Shanghai. Photos and maps will follow. Unfortunately, my camera battery died a quick, painless death on this trip, but others have been generous enough to donate their own photos.

Photo courtesy of Ken Yip.

PS–My regrets to missing Chris Carr of Cal Poly MBA Trip’s latest visit. He was in Beijing and I was not able to meet up with him to hear about the latest on his MBA program in California.

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Here is a collection of Randy Pausch’s last lecture: