Groundbreaking Shanghai New York University Closing in on Grand Opening

The Shanghai Daily reports that Shanghai New York University, the first Sino-U.S. joint venture university, soon will begin admissions for the inaugural undergraduate freshman class for the 2013 fall semester, university officials announced Tuesday.

Graduates of NYU Shanghai will get a double bachelor’s degree from both the local branch and the New York-based main campus.

“The establishment of the university is significant to the opening of Shanghai’s higher education to the outside world,” said Shen Xiaoming, vice mayor of Shanghai, at a ceremony for launching the university.

The university is expected to develop a new model for China-foreign cooperation in higher education, he said.

“In many ways it is as if we — together — are giving birth to a new child,” said John Sexton, president of New York University.

“It has been a long labor — not without pain — and we know we have a tender child we need to raise together over the coming years,” he said.

About half the students will be Chinese applying through the national college entrance exam, and the rest will come from around the world. The tuition for Chinese mainland undergraduates will be about 100,000 yuan ($15,948) a year, making it the most expensive university on the Chinese mainland. But it’s much cheaper than the tuition of New York University, which is about three times that.

“We reduce the tuition for mainland students because it is a government-backed university,” said Yu Lizhong , president of NYU Shanghai.

Overseas students will pay according to the tuition of New York University.

The university will launch a foundation to provide scholarships to underprivileged students who are extremely bright, Yu said.

Different from other Chinese universities, there will be no compulsory courses on ideology featuring Chinese socialism. Yu hopes overseas students will be enlightened and attracted by the specially designed Chinese-element curriculum modules, such as “China’s social evolution and Chinese culture in global perspective.”

Though courses are taught in English, all the students must learn Mandarin, Yu said. Admissions details are expected on the website of NYU Shanghai this month.