Notes from China trip October 2016

Thursday October 20, 2016

Arrived and checked into hotel after an hour long cab ride in stop and go traffic where it was quite easy at times to reach out and touch someone. Everyone got set up on WeChat for communication with Chinese contacts. Checked into Holiday Inn Express on the south side of Beijing.

Walked outside in the rain to find a bank and place to eat. Banks would not accept our Capital One debit cards and the rain kept us from going far enough to explore more. So we went back to the hotel and ate dinner there. That night we checked Capital One’s website and via phone and found out how to use the card…some banks ATM would work; other banks we needed to use the counter instead of the ATM.

Friday October 21, 2016

  • Met with Bob (Yang Jun), agent with ACC Beijing.
  • Met with Alice and Kelly from Zhaolong Agency Beijing.
  • Met with VP from Jinhua Technical College and VP from an automotive technical college in Shanghai for lunch, and two of their staff from each location.
  • Met with Sun Wubin, Dean of International programs at Northwestern Polytechnic in Xian and Lu Sijing, his International Programs Director.
  • Met at dinner with Toby Chu and his staff from Vancouver BC. His leadership team is the group that gave us a booth and is helping us connect to others in China

Summary of the day:

Agents

  1. Both agencies will work with us to direct admit qualified students. They will sign the agreements. They will work to bring FTIC and transfers. Also, if we establish a visiting professor program, they will help recruit faculty for that as well.
  2. $2,000 per full time student, half first semester and half second semester. They believe it will not be easy to find students that meet our profile because we have no English Language Center, but they will try. Target of 5 students from each agency next fall.
  3. They suggest we have an English Language Center on campus and a home stay visiting scholar’s program for faculty (home stays usually around $1,200 a month paid to host family). They believe 4-5 each semester would come and be able to teach Chinese Language for USFSP and participate in research and other activities.
  4. They also suggest a scholarship of some kind to offer since it is an honor and recognition for the student that is important here.
  5. We talked about setting up a program to help Chinese teachers who wish to get licensed in Florida via our 21 credit set of certification courses. If we set that up, they believe we could have 25-20 a year come to us for that program. The teachers would come to get Fla license, then seek a teaching position in Chinese Immersion Schools in the US in states with reciprocity. No University in the US is providing this, so we would have a niche. We need to check on this as a possible in the COE.

Northwest Polytechnic Xian

  1. NWU is ranked in top 30 of all Chinese Universities. It is a 211 university, which means it was established as one of the top national universities in an original ranking of all Chinese Universities about two decades ago. Doctoral granting. Engineering university but have many other options. Website is in English.
  2. Xian is a top 3 tourist city in China.
  3. They will accept short term and semester abroad, visiting professors for a month or semester or year who come to teach a class. They will accept summer session visiting professors and students as well because they have summer programming.
  4. They provide students with scholarships to cover all classes, housing and food. Students pay their travel over and back.
  5. They will cover professors housing and airfare plus provide a stipend if they come to teach in field for a month, a semester, or a year.
  6. They teach over 700 courses in English and have over 1,400 international students.
  7. They will also do exchange with us to swap out tuition for a small number of students.
  8. Model we could use: USFSP students go to Xian for a semester and take 2-5 courses on ground that we articulate with them to count at USFSP, just as with study abroad. USFSP student can take online courses with us to round out their schedule if needed. Some would get NWU scholarship to cover room and board and tuition/fees; some who do not receive scholarship (# is limited) would pay their own room and board but still not tuition/fees at NWU. All would be registered as our students for that semester regardless and would pay our tuition/fees that varies depending on the number of courses taken online with us vs on ground with NWU.
  9. USFSP students may be able to tutor on the side as part time while there.
  10. This is an amazing opportunity at a top tier Chinese university that believes in internationalization. We will get some of their students coming to us for semester abroad and exchange.

Shuai and BOSSA

  1. China needs over 2,000 new teachers of English each year. Shuai works with BOSSA, the Chinese ministry’s overseases group that recruits those teachers.
  2. He would hire post Baccalaureate students to come teach English in China; as many as we have willing to do so and who have a good interview.
  3. Covers air fare r/t annually; housing and one meal a day at the school where they teach, insurance, visa costs. Stipends are 15,000 RMB a month if employee pays housing; 10,000 RMB a month if China pays housing.

Toby and CIBT Vancouver

  1. CIBT has a huge English Language Center in Vancouver with thousands of students each year there from all over the world who come into a bridge program where they study English while getting 6-9 credits of transferrable Gen Ed credits from local colleges. CIBT owns 17 colleges in Canada and a large number of student housing for international students adjacent to those colleges and K-12 international schools. He also owns the top K-12 college prep school in Vancouver.
  2. They will provide us with a pipeline for students who come there until proficient, then transfer to us.
  3. CIBT has another huge center in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Korea, and China. Also in South America.
  4. We will talk about an agreement with them later, but they already verbally offered to do this.
  5. I baited Toby about purchasing apartments for us and opening them to students. He didn’t bite as he is working on a multi-million dollar deal in Miami to create a higher ed center there that includes multiple universities, housing, and an English Language Center.

It was quite a day, and that is just day one. Bedtime was midnight. Today is the recruiting fair, so more later. There is no time for jet lag.

Saturday October 22

Up for a breakfast meeting at 7 with everyone. Then shuttled to the convention center. One word to describe it: massive.

The booth was all set up and looked great. Pic will be sent. Brochure was wonderfully translated and printed. We were rock stars…

People were in and stopping by in a steady stream. Most stopped and talked at length and asked a lot of questions. We had cards filled out and info swapped. Not sure of the count but will get that tomorrow morning at our meeting. Lunch was brought on site and the booth closed around 4. Not sure how many brochures we gave away, but will estimate that tomorrow as well.

I went to dinner with Shuai and the VP from Jiaotong U in Beijing and the VP from Haibin College south of Beijing. A senior in high school student also came with his parents, both profs at Jiatong. He is interested in coming to USFSP in Graphic Design.

Long dinner, but in summary:

  1. Jiaotong will do a general agreement and exchange for students and professors. Their international campus is in Shandong province in a gorgeous seaside resort small city walled Weivei. They have scholarships to offer our students for a semester abroad to cover housing, food, and tuition/fees. They teach in English, but their 6 degree programs are mostly engineering related. We may wish to send students there to take two courses in English from them and the rest online from USFSP.
  2. They would welcome USFSP profs to come teach just as NWU in Xian. Same kind of deal.
  3. We may work on a 2+2 with them down the road for transferring. For now…exchange and semester abroad is a sure thing.
  4. The student who came to talk with me has an outstanding record and will apply to USFSP. Everything seemed right on for him to be admitted and get a scholarship. He only needs to take the ACT or SAT.

Some insights from today:

  1. Most US U’s do NOT require the SAT or ACT for international students.
  2. We need intensive English offered at USFSP…even without the English Language Center need since we can funnel through Vancouver, we will have students come in who will need to start with intensive English in summer and then move to full schedule in fall…or start in fall with intensive English and then move to full in spring..etc. Even with a high TOEFL or IELTS, some will need this. The student I met today WANTED it…despite a 7 on the IELTS.
  3. We need to adjust our recruiting strategy a bit to compete in Asia. Scholarships are needed. Agents are needed. And we need the articulation programs for transfer.
  4. We need a summer month long ‘camp.’ Everyone asked about it…a month with intensive English and activities scheduled for new and potential students to experience. We could fill the dorm in July if we did this.
  5. We need a visiting scholars program with home stays. Everyone wants to send a couple of profs to us each semester.
  6. There are other insights Holly, Wendy, and Serge may have, but I haven’t seen them since noon when I left to work on the presentations for Weifang and Huaihua and go to dinner with Shuai and company. David took them for dinner to experience Peking duck.

Tomorrow…back to the convention center for the final day.

Sunday October 23

Sunday was the last day at the expo. We were up and meeting together at seven in advance and then picked up and taken to the convention center. It was not as busy as Saturday yet we still had people stopping by interested in us and talking with us steadily.

We have a good number of cards filled out with contact information and I think we gave out over 500 brochures in the two days. We also had a lot of agents dropping by the booth and giving us card but it is not likely that we will follow up with them since we already have the two in Beijing that we are going to work with. It was interesting that we had quite a few people asking about graduate programs yet this was supposed to be an undergraduate fair. The graduate expo is in the spring.

No one seemed too surprised about the tuition rate. They thought it was competitive with other public state universities in the US. And I think being in Florida help a lot because people recognized Florida as a destination state. Although they really did not know where St. Petersburg was or even Tampa. Next year we will put up more pictures of the location in a map of Florida on the back wall pointing to where we are located. We also could point to Orlando and the distance to Orlando and Disney World because that would be something most of them know.

The booth looks great compared to the other ones. We learned a few things to do to be more appealing if we do this again next year. It has been a great start to get us on the map with people and to start recruiting students using two very good agencies in Beijing and relationships with two highly ranked universities. I am pleased that the international school of Jiaotong U is going to work with us and northwestern Polytechnic in Xian. Both are 211 universities in China which means they are in the top tier of universities.

At the end of the day we left to go visit Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city. Then came back to find somewhere to eat. We tried a Chinese hot pot restaurant where everyone had to get up and dance with a singing group…except me who filmed the whole thing. We met together for a while to make sure everything was OK since Holly and Serge fly back Monday afternoon. Wendy flies back Wednesday. I get on a plane at six in the morning Monday to go to Weifang.

The next phase is to establish a partnership with Weifang University and Huaihua University. Both are tier 2 universities in China. But both are very good locations for our students to have a semester abroad or to work abroad. Weifang U is a great group of people; friends for 8 years now with what will be the 3rd university where I have worked with them to set up programming and it is all still in place and working.

Monday October 24, 2016

Up at 4:30 to go to the airport for the morning flight to Weifang. We arrived at 8 and had a Weifang hamburger for breakfast. In the morning, I met with the current VP and the International Office director and staff. We signed the general agreement and began talking about their ideas for a partnership. They are interested in the following in priority order:

  1. Special education training for their faculty. They would like to send over 5-6 faculty in August for 3 months to observe public special education classrooms where they see best practices put into place gained from teachers in our special education program. Those faculty would also take a special education class from us to learn about current practices in special education.
  2. They would like a faculty member or two from USFSP to come to Weifang U in May for a month to teach a short course (or two) to their students and to continue the relationship built with their faculty who came in the previous fall. Expenses paid over and back plus housing and local transportation. They would pay a local stipend for the teaching as they would like the course to be a Weifang U course but with content from the faculty members.
  3. Begin a 3+1 or 2+2 program in special education for their students. We would set the standards for admission and acceptance of coursework in transfer.
  4. They are interested in cooperative research between special education faculty.
  5. A semester abroad program for students on site at WFU:
  6. Student pays air fare, housing, visa and for food
  7. WFU provides two courses for free: Chinese language and Chinese culture
  8. Students are USFSP students who are registered for USFSP online courses to keep full time status
  9. Students may work part-time teaching English and/or tutoring

Other conversation items:

  1. USFSP hold a summer session in July with intensive English offered along with activities to learn about US culture, Florida, etc.
  2. High school students come to participate along with FTIC Chinese students who come into the same camp to practice their English before fall semester starts. It is an early start for them.
  3. USFSP creates a two-week pre-China experience for anyone in the US going to teach or spend a semester abroad in China. We hold it in June or July and promote it nationally. CIBT provides us with the curriculum material for teaching English. We hire someone to prep everyone on Chinese language, culture, etc.
  4. USFSP creates a visiting scholar program.
  5. USFSP creates a program for Chinese teachers to come to USFSP and get a Florida teaching certificate, creating a funnel for Chinese teachers wishing to teach in Chinese immersion schools and programs in the U.S.
  6. We use Vancouver CIBT English Center as a funnel for Chinese students needed English to be admitted.
  7. Develop Ameri Can Academy Services package for international schools.
  8. Offer education abroad that includes one month at each location: Weifang, Xian, Beijing.

We were then taken to lunch…the eternal rotating food glass holding over 15 separate food items of course. I was then taken back to the hotel for an hour to nap…which I didn’t. I typed this instead.

At 3, David and I met with other members of the AIA board to review and update everyone on the status and future plans of the Academy. They are purchasing 6 acres of land to build a new …a grades and will need teachers. We talked about how to establish a good pool of people for the positions.

We then went to dinner as a board and was joined by Courtney, a BSU student I encouraged to come teach in Weifang…two years ago. She loves it and doesn’t want to leave. They love her as well and I believe she may become an ex-patriated.

Back at the hotel and it’s only 8 p.m. What to do?????

Sleep.

Tuesday October 25

Forgotten items I found in my notes:

  1. NWU, Jiaotong International and Weifang U will gladly host faculty on sabbatical if they wish to teach a class or two and do research. Airfare and housing paid. Stipend for teaching available.
  2. TESOL teachers. Many opportunities to teach English for those with TESOL certification. No experience teaching needed if they have TESOL.
  3. There are some internship opportunities with CIBT Weifang. Paid…airfare, housing, visa and local insurance.

This morning I was picked up at 8, which means I was able to sleep in until 7! Much needed and much appreciated. David took me to the Ameri Can International School where we met together with the principal, then the assistant principal, then the Chinese teachers, and then the American/Canadian teachers. It felt good to visit with two students who came over last year when I recruited them from BSU to teach here and they are still there teaching and loving it. One says, “I live like a princess over here so I may never go back to LaPorte.” She loves the work; loves the students; loves the city.