China Partnerships

The American Experience Initiative is a multi-platform collaborative model for education and engagement to build greater cultural understanding between American and Chinese universities. The initiative aims to enhance Chinese knowledge of American society and culture by broadening the curriculum and resources available to students, faculty, business executives and the general public. Chinese faculty develop multidisciplinary modules on American culture, society, religion, and more—broadening the scope of existing American studies curriculum while improving their pedagogical methods and creating more impactful courses. This initiative, funded by the Luce Foundation, will result in a digital sharing network for higher education scholars.

ASU offers three dual undergraduate degrees on the campus of Hainan University, a top-tier college in China. The program is led by Kathleen Andereck, director of the School of Community Resources and Development. In fall 2017, 253 freshman from China started their academic year. Students' ASU degrees will be paired with Hainan degrees. This college gives ASU a physical presence in China, where the university already has many partnerships.

Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute pursues a number of research partnerships in China, most recently these include relationships with China’s Sichuan University, Soochow University and Huaxi Hospital. Among the Biodesign Institute's strengths to expand with China are new technologies for vaccine discovery and delivery, including breakthroughs efforts made with Ebola, and the early detection and treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.

A cohort of 22 undergraduate students from Sichuan University will come to the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus in July 2019 to participate in the Global Health Innovators Program, which Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation developed specifically for the participants. The program will focus on entrepreneurship and innovation in health and health care, cultural exploration and English language experiences for the students.

ASU's Chinese Language Flagship Program students achieve a superior level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese while strengthening pre-professional development in their chosen fields of study. Chinese Flagship and Flagship-ROTC programs are rigorous, honors-level undergraduate programs of study designed to create global professionals who can work bilingually and bi-culturally in the U.S. and the Chinese-speaking world. Student studies include a capstone year in China and offer a path toward careers in government, education, the private sector and non-profit organizations.

The Confucius Institute at ASU is a source of knowledge about Chinese language and culture for Arizona residents. Located on the Tempe campus, its staff trains about 600 teachers each year and hosts summer programs for high school and elementary school students, in addition to lectures, conferences, faculty exchanges and cultural activities. The institute is also an official testing site for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) and the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) and funds 14 Confucius classrooms in Arizona school districts. More than 4,000 elementary, middle and high school students have participated.

ASU's Social Science Research Council's InterAsia program and partnerships have built international and interdisciplinary scholars’ networks, transformed scholarly approaches and research agendas, and promoted the development of innovative comparisons on a number of cross-regional and transregional themes. Fellowships are also provided for Transregional Research Junior Scholars. 

The School of International Letters and Cultures’ study abroad programs are among the longest-running and most prestigious at ASU. Founded in 1981 and directed by knowledgeable, world-class faculty, the programs offer students the opportunity to experience and study international humanities and learn languages firsthand while earning credit toward their degree. Sichuan University hosts a summer Chinese language program and more extensive study abroad experiences. The summer program is particularly unique in that students, supervised by the school's faculty of Chinese, complete one full academic year of Chinese language coursework in just eight weeks.

ASU's W. P. Carey School of Business partnerships in China include the Executive MBA in Shanghai  and the Master of Science in Management (MiM) offered in partnership with the Shanghai National Accounting Institute (SNAI), and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in Global Financial Management, developed in collaboration with the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF).