After hosting a successful summer Olympics and having a continually expanding economy, China is increasingly emerging as a major world power. David Currey is the assistant director at the International Center at MU. He credits China's economic and educational development for the influx of Chinese students earning a higher education abroad.
"I do remember looking at the numbers this fall that we had 70 new undergraduate students from China which is just starting out this fall. So that's pretty significant because usually we get no more than five to ten new undergraduate Chinese students and this fall we got 70. I mean that is a huge jump. I'd say it's probably at least triple what we normally have for our fall intake from China."
In addition to an increase in Chinese students coming to MU, the School of Journalism is also taking more students to China. The school is now offering a new study abroad program called The China Tour. The tour offers MU Journalism students the opportunity to see four Chinese cities: Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou over the span of two weeks. Ernest Zhang is the coordinator for China Programs for the School of Journalism. After helping to organize the Beijing Summer Olympic Games Program he was eager to open another opportunity for students to get to know China.
"This China tour we also designed for our students to see some representative scenic spots in four cities. And also we have arranged for our students to see the representative media outlets in these four cities. I think that our students can know more about culture and also about journalism in China."
The China Tour is offered during the winter intersession in January. Zhang said that the Summer Olympic Program was popular among students and he hopes that the China Tour will attract students, too.
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