HLG president visits China

Hannibal – Woodrow Burt, president of Hannibal-LaGrange College (HLG), visited China June 18-26, thanks to a grant from the Consortium for Global Education (CGE). Burt participated in a Sino-American Education Summit which was co-sponsored by the CGE in conjunction with Qingdao University of Qingdao, China. Qingdao University is one of the 100 key universities in China with 25 colleges serving 34,000 students.

The education summit objectives were to highlight the internationalization for American and Chinese faculties and students, to explore private university potential in China, and to develop American and Chinese partnerships between educators and professionals. There were speakers from America as well as China addressing issues such as leadership, international business, public health, language and technology. There were approximately 70 Americans in attendance representing approximately ten American colleges and universities.

While in China, Burt also had the opportunity to be involved in a student recruitment program and was very impressed by the Chinese students. “We hope that we will have one or more of these students to attend HLG in the near future,” said Burt.

Also on the agenda for the trip, Burt visited the building site for the first American-owned and operated university in China. It will be located near Qingdao and will be operated by the CGE member schools.

The faculty will be American faculty from CGE member schools. Most of the students will be Chinese with some American students attending for a semester or a year.

Burt summed up his trip by saying, “This was my first trip to China and I must say that I was more impressed with the country than I expected to be. Qingdao, in particular, is a very progressive city with a large amount of construction going on. China is preparing to host the 2008 Olympics and as a result you see a lot of construction.”

Consortium for Global Education (CGE), of which Hannibal-LaGrange College is a member, is a non-profit organization of 43 accredited private universities and colleges with 241 overseas universities in 80 countries united by a commitment to international education, service and sharing.