On the double to a degree

Universties plan to share students and courses in africa and china

Beijing Language and Culture University and Suez Canal University in Egypt plan to train students together.

Under the program, students would spend two years at each university and gain a bachelor's degree from both, says Shen Yinghuan, of the international and cooperation department of Beijing Language and Culture University.

The partnership is one of the university pairings under the 20 Plus 20 Project, initiated in 2009 at the China-Africa Cooperation Forum and launched in 2010 by the Chinese Ministry of Education, in which 20 universities from China link up with 20 from Africa.

The partnerships are designed to develop more comprehensive and pragmatic exchanges and cooperation beyond the normal level of those between students and faculties.

The project is also aimed at expanding research programs, convening international forums and conferences, faculty training and curricula development.

Faculties from Beijing Language and Culture University and Suez Canal University are working on writing textbooks for Chinese and Arabic language studies, providing Egyptian students with Chinese language curricula material and Chinese students with Arabic-language learning guides.

The implementation of the 20 Plus 20 Project was emphasized at the Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2012 as one of the key ways of cultivating expertise.

Yuan Guiren, the education minister, said at the forum that the project was a prime example of higher education cooperation between China and Africa.

Shen, who is in charge of the 20 Plus 20 Project at Beijing Language and Culture University, says that the two universities have worked together since 2008.

"Most of the cooperation at the beginning was between the Department of Arabic and the Suez Canal," he says. "However, since we joined the 20 Plus 20 Project in 2010, we have extended cooperation, including high-level visits, holding research conferences and working on a Sino-Arabic dictionary."

Regarding the proposal to share students and degree courses, he says students from Beijing Language and Culture University will spend their first and second years in Beijing, gaining basic knowledge of Arabic language, and will complete their studies in Egypt.

Students from Suez Canal University will spend their first two years in Egypt, learning basic Chinese, before coming to Beijing.

Shen says his school will invite delegates from Egypt to China this year to discuss details of the plan, including credit transfer and curricula recognition, with a view to starting the program in September next year.

It is hoped the dual-university program will eventually be extended to PhD level.

The project is also expected to benefit students through traditional exchange experiences.

Zuo Baochan, 23, a graduate student from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, spent a month in 2010 as an exchange student at the University of Tunis in Tunisia.

"It was a wonderful experience," she says, adding that it helped her gain more insight into Arabic culture and society. The second-year student majored in Arabic.

"The trip provided an overall picture for me to understand the Arabic world," Zuo says. "It was not limited to language practice. I was able to study the culture and society, including religions."

She now studies finance and believes her Arabic skills will give her a strong advantage in her career development.

"Thanks for the overseas opportunity. All I wish is to spend more time there," she says.

Wang Suolao, an associate professor and the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in the School of International Studies at Peking University, is in charge of the 20 Plus 20 Project in which his university is partnered with Cairo University. He says the project is a way to promote China's soft power in Africa.

"In the past, African families preferred to send children to study in Europe and the United States, but through Confucius Institutes and the 20 Plus 20 Project, more young Africans and their families are getting to know China, and are willing to spend time here," Wang says.

However, he is concerned that the continuing political unrest in Egypt will affect the project's further development, as has happened in the past.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/12/2013 page7)