UCLA College helps prepare China's future scholars
UCLA’s outreach to China has never been more robust.
Having signed 39 memoranda of understanding with colleges and universities there, UCLA has forged more international academic partnerships with institutions in China than with any other country.
This fall, an estimated 1,200 students from China will be enrolling in undergraduate and graduate degree programs here, the most coming from any single nation.
UCLA Geography Lecturer Justin Zackey works with some Jinling High School students taking his geography class.
In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities, Chinese shoppers can purchase UCLA wear — blazers, polos and other business-casual clothing that exemplify the relaxed Southern California lifestyle — at some 80 UCLA outlets throughout the country, from stand-alone stores to shops-within-shops.
Now the Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science has gone one step further in reaching out to China: Some lucky Chinese high school students hoping to get into an American college or university can enroll in a program in their own school to take UCLA social science classes taught by UCLA lecturers.
Last fall, 50 high school seniors at Jinling High School in Nanjing, a city in the province of Jiangsu, home to 75 million people, signed up for the pilot program, called UCLA’s Social Science Education in Asia. Once enrolled, they hone their critical thinking, writing, listening and communication skills in preparation for applying and studying at an American university.
With assistance from UCLA Extension, the Division of Social Sciences partnered with one of Nanjing’s top high schools to establish the program, which is self-supporting and uses no state funds. The Chinese students pay UCLA tuition, a portion of which goes to the high school. In turn, Jinling High School provides classroom space and faculty offices and helps UCLA faculty obtain work visas. In the program’s first year of operation, it earned nearly $200,000 in nondiscretionary revenue for Social Sciences at a time when generating non-state funds is a high priority for UCLA.
Social Sciences Associate Dean C. Cindy Fan talks to students about their experience in the UCLA program at their high school in Nanjing.
Students coming from China to the United States "go through a very dramatic culture shock," said Social Sciences Dean Alessandro Duranti. While many excel in mathematics and the sciences, it’s the critical thinking skills that are sharpened in American social science classes that Chinese students also need to succeed in colleges and universities here, he said. "So this is our chance to help them succeed. This is our way of making an investment in the training of future international scholars and professionals."
It’s a tough regimen even for Chinese high school students who study constantly. Last year, students took a reduced curriculum of traditional courses required of all Chinese students. To this curriculum were added five UCLA general education classes in physical and cultural geography, 19
th and 20
thcentury American history and political science for which they earned college credit through UCLA Extension. The courses — all of them in English — were taught by three lecturers from the Social Sciences Division who lived in Nanjing during the school year.
The pilot program, which will begin its second year in September at the same high school, may one day be expanded to other high schools in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China, organizers said.
"The Chinese students get a Western-style education and earn UCLA college credits," explained Justin Zackey, a UCLA geography lecturer and the associate director of the program. "When they apply to American universities in the fall or winter, they can submit a transcript showing the UCLA courses they’ve taken, along with their grades. It helps bolster their chances of getting admitted."
Zackey and one of his students in the Social Sciences Education in Asia program. All 50 students who completed the program got into an American college or university, including UCLA.
For the upcoming year, the UCLA lecturers will add an economics course and a course in American popular culture, a survey of American cultural history since 1865 that will draw attention to the longstanding diversity among Americans as both producers and consumers of goods.
So far, the program has been a hit. After applying to colleges and submitting scores from the required TOEFL exam and the SAT, all 50 students were accepted into such universities as Purdue, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UC San Diego, Penn State, Ohio State, William and Mary, the University of Arizona and UCLA.
An evaluation of students’ academic performance and focus group response, said Associate Dean C. Cindy Fan — who spearheaded the program in the College —found that they improved their English proficiency and critical thinking skills, gained more confidence and social skills, and raised their overall academic performance.
"The American social sciences classes I took were definitely very helpful in getting into UCLA," said Man Li, who participated in the program and will start her freshman year this fall as a Bruin. "I got more familiar with the atmosphere of U.S. college classes so it won’t be a big challenge for me to understand the classes at UCLA."
What impressed her most about the UCLA classes, she said, was the freedom to voice her opinions to the entire class and the respect the professors showed every student as they listened to his or her views. Showing esteem for every student, "no matter [whether] they get good or bad scores," is one big difference between Chinese- and American-style classes, she said.
"They’re pretty smart kids," Zackey said. "But you have to remember that the Chinese educational system tends to be more about memorization and repetition, although that’s changing. So instilling a sense that they can challenge and question ideas and think critically to come up with their own opinions is one of our goals."
Another reason why the Division of Social Sciences decided to launch the program was to help college-bound Chinese students understand what American social sciences are all about. "Many more international students who enter American universities, including UCLA, choose to specialize in the sciences rather than the social sciences," said Fan. "Many reasons contribute to this, including the education they receive prior to college. But there’s also a general lack of understanding among high school students about what the social sciences are about."
As it evolves, the program will also help UCLA enroll top international students, who are being vigorously recruited by many top-tier American universities. "UCLA competes with Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other private and public universities to attract the best and the brightest, both domestically and internationally," Fan said. "But higher education is changing dramatically around the world."
The Division of Social Sciences started the program a year ago as a pilot project. It is a self-sustaining program that uses no state funds.
While UNESCO estimates more than 3 million students globally will enroll in higher education outside their home countries, that figure is expected to grow to 7 million by 2020, Fan explained. "The mass movement of students across the globe from China and India will change the face of global education."
In the classroom at Jinling, both students and instructors have had to adapt culturally. Teaching the classes, Zackey found, required a slower pace initially, which had to be counterbalanced by offering more time for one-on-one interaction. "As a teacher, it’s been a great experience. I really enjoy the cultural interactions with my students."
All of his tests were essay-based, allowing him to put a heavy emphasis on writing. Instructors offered discussion sections, small-group debates and the presentation of critical material. "The important thing is that we do this in a way that maintains UCLA’s high academic standards in consultation with faculty committees and administrators," said Zackey, who speaks fluent Mandarin and has spent more than five years of his career doing research and traveling in China.
While instructors refrain from venturing into political issues sensitive to China, classroom discussions range freely and widely over social issues. "One of the recurring themes covered in my classes has been the growing wealth gap in China between the haves and have-nots. We’ll look at a lot of issues through that lens," Zackey said. Feminism, gender and racial issues are topics that also come up. "They enjoyed the history classes more than they thought they would," he said, with a smile.
What the Chinese students share is the same desire that many of their Western counterparts have — a yearning to have a unique educational experience in a different cultural environment and to challenge themselves by living and studying in another country. "Higher education in the U.S. is something that Chinese high school students are clamoring for," said Zackey.
Having an international presence in China through recruitment trips, academic exchanges, alumni groups and new programs such as this one, said Fan, "will go a long way in ensuring that UCLA’s reputation and brand are well-recognized globally."
