Twelve representatives from Qingdao Agriculture University visited campus last fall in hopes of continuing their partnership with Murray State.
Corona Jiang, director of International Programs for QAU, said she is visiting as part of a hybrid program between the two universities.
“We come here to do the shadowing program, and Murray State will have a delegation come to my university in May to do the discovery program,” Jiang said.
The group also met with administrators from Dining Services, Student Affairs, International Organizations, Enrollment Management, and housing, health and career services.
The group met with President Randy Dunn, Vice President of Student Affairs Don Robertson and Vice President of Academic Affairs Bonnie Higginson while at Murray State.
Some of the representatives visiting campus were Pengmin Xu, director of the Network Management Center, Qian Wang, associate dean of the School of Food Science and Engineering and Binggao Sun, associate director of Student Affairs.
Higginson said Murray State has worked with Qingdao to build a relationship with its agriculture program over the last several years.
QAU has recently decided to adopt several agriculture methods from Murray State.
“The representatives decided it would be a good idea to bring a delegation here to shadow our programs,” Higginson said.
In May, a group of administrators from Murray State will fly to China to visit QAU as part of a discovery program which will help them receive insight into how Qingdao operates their university.
“The purpose is to help us understand education on a global level,” Higginson said. “This is especially important in regards to higher education.”
Jay Morgan, associate provost, said Murray State has had a good relationship with Qingdao in the last few years.
“These relationships grow and foster over time and that’s what makes this particular visit important because it paves the way for us to go there again,” Morgan said.
Qingdao officials asked to model their own programs after several at Murray State last year.
The group of faculty members spoke to QAU about using the University as a site for some of Murray State’s discovery programs for study abroad purposes, he said.
Murray State is currently working with QAU to offer an MBA program. Currently, there are only six MBA programs in China, and four of them are in Hong Kong.
QAU enrolls approximately 26,000 students and is located on the eastern coast of China by the Yellow Sea. It is the largest agricultural university in the Shandong province.
Said Higginson: “Relationships like these may be what leads us to opening up programs, research and other opportunities we might not have known existed.”
Story by Meghann Anderson, News Editor.