OSU signs student exchange agreement with Chinese university

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Southwest Jiaotong University President Chunyang Chen (left) and OSU Executive Vice President and Provost Marlene Strathe sign an exchange agreement for undergraduate students at both schools, as OSU Vice President for Student Affairs Lee Bird looks on. Also present for the ceremony were, from left, Hongyun He, Shibin Gao, Yanjun Qui, Yanlin Zhao, Mark Weiser of OSU, and Kaiyin Yan.

OSU President Burns Hargis exchanges gifts with Southwest Jiaotong University President Chunyang Chen (left).

(STILLWATER, Okla., Feb. 23, 2010) -- Oklahoma State University and Southwest Jiaotong University in China have signed an agreement in which students from the Chinese campus can complete their B.S. degrees at OSU.

Southwest Jiaotong was the first university in China to send Chinese reciprocal exchange students to Stillwater and to receive an American student from OSU for study on their campus.

Dr. Marlene Strathe, OSU executive vice president and provost, and Chunyang Chen, president of Southwest Jiaotong University, signed the “twinning” agreement during a ceremony on the OSU campus on Feb. 19. This agreement will allow SWJTU to send more of their undergraduates to study in Stillwater.

Also attending the ceremony were five representatives from the Chinese campus, Hongyun He, director of the Research Center of Intelligent Control and Simulation; Shibin Gao, dean of the School of Electrical Engineering;Yanjun Qiu, director of International Cooperation and Exchange Office; Yanlin Zhao, director of the president’s office; and Kaiyin Yan, director of the Undergraduate Office.

Dr. Lee Bird, OSU vice president for Student Affairs, and Dr. Mark Weiser, associate dean and professor in the Spears School of Business, have traveled to SJU twice to meet and work with its administrators to make the student exchange program possible. Weiser’s May 2009 study abroad program was hosted by SWJTU during their visit to Chengdu, and Bird later hosted 10 SWJTU administrators on the Stillwater campus during her Student Affairs International Symposium in July 2009.

The visiting delegation also met with OSU President Burns Hargis and with administrators of the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s Civil Engineering Department and administrators of the Spears School of Business, and toured both areas.

Vivian Wang, an assistant in the OSU Office of International Students and Scholars coordinated the visit.