It Is Difficult for Us to Become a Household Word in China

People’s Daily Online
January 20, 2009
By Yong Tang


Small is beautiful. This is no longer true at least for universities in China. Colleges are disappearing. Universities are merging. Institutions of higher education are expanding at an alarming speed. However, in the United States, there are a large number of institutions of higher education who still believe firmly in the beauty of smallness. They are called Liberal Arts Colleges.

Liberal arts colleges are undergraduate institutions known for being residential and for having intentionally smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. Their curriculums are aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. Liberal arts colleges also encourage a high level of student-teacher interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student Teaching Assistants who teach some of the classes at Research and other universities like Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

The existence of small residential liberal arts colleges is distinctively American. No other country has schools committed so clearly to the highest quality of undergraduate education. Though small in number when compared to America's large public universities, liberal arts college graduates are represented disproportionately among leaders in the arts, education, science and medicine, public service and business. A 1998 study found that even though only 3 percent of American college graduates were educated at a residential liberal arts college, alumni of these colleges accounted for:

Ï8 percent of Forbes magazine's listing of the nation's wealthiest CEOs in 1998
Ï8 percent of former Peace Corps volunteers
Ï19 percent of U.S. presidents
Ï23 percent of Pulitzer Prize winners in drama, 19 percent of the winners in history, 18 percent in poetry, 8 percent in biography, and 6 percent in fiction from 1960 to 1998
Ï9 percent of all Fulbright scholarship recipients and 24 percent of all Mellon fellowships in the humanities
Ï20 percent of Phi Beta Kappa inductions made between 1995 and 1997

On a per capita basis, liberal arts colleges produce nearly twice as many students who earn a Ph.D. in science as other institutions. Liberal arts graduates also are disproportionately represented in the leadership of the nation's scientific community. In a recent two-year period, nearly 20 percent of the scientists elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences received their undergraduate education at a liberal arts college.

It is no wonder someone considers liberal arts colleges as the envy and essence of American higher education. However, liberal arts education also faces challenges. For most Americans, the residential liberal arts colleges lack visibility. They have neither famous athletic programs nor large numbers of alumni. The media tend to ignore them As more and more young people tend to have a purely materialistic motivation for getting an education, there is increased need for career-directed education while the need for liberal arts education is on the decrease. A critic of liberal arts education even asked: "Can liberal arts colleges be saved or are they becoming like high end passenger trains that went out of business because no matter how well they performed, consumers had come to prefer traveling by plane and automobile?"

What is the point of liberal arts education? How do the liberal arts colleges respond to the globalization and decreased demand for liberal arts education? How do liberal arts colleges increase their visibility? Where will liberal arts colleges go in the future? With those questions in mind, Yong Tang, People's Daily Online Washington-based special correspondent, went to Salt Lake City and conducted a face-to-face and one-on-one interview with Dr. Michael S. Bassis, Westminster College President.

Westminster College, founded in 1875, is a private, comprehensive, independent liberal arts college dedicated to students and their learning. For the 12th consecutive year US News and World Report ranked Westminster College a top tier institution. The magazine ranks Westminster 20th in "Best Universities-Masters in the West." Westminster was also recognized as a great value, ranking 14th on the report's list of "Great Schools, Great Prices" in its category. The Princeton Review added Westminster College to its list of "The 361 Best Colleges" in America. The Princeton Review ranks also Westminster College as one of the nation's Best Values for undergraduate education. Kaplan/Newsweek recognized Westminster College in "America's Hottest Colleges" 2006 Edition, as one of the "most interesting schools" in America.

About Globalization

Yong: Before coming here I did a lot of interviews with presidents from those big national research universities.

Bassis: Is there anything interesting?

Yong: The most striking thing is that all university presidents I interviewed, including those from Yale, Princeton and Michigan, are emphasizing the globalization. They said institutions of higher education should adapt themselves to this revolutionary change. I just want to know how Westminster College and other small liberal arts colleges here are doing to cope with the challenge of globalization.

Bassis: I think we are doing the same type of things that larger universities are doing. We develop relationships with universities in other countries. We start to exchange students and faculty members. Some liberal arts colleges here are having branches in different parts of the world. We haven't done that yet. That can be very expensive. But we do send our students abroad with programs we organize and programs other universities organize. For example, at the end of every spring semester we have a month period in which our students may take one course for a three-week period. Faculty members only teach one course. Often times those courses involve international trip. Our MBA program has a requirement for international experience for our students, which also involves three or four weeks trip to different countries. Sometimes it is to Asia, sometimes it is to West Europe, sometimes it is to East Europe. They also go to South America and Central America. During those trips our students meet with local businessmen and government officials, learn about the local economy and how the business is done in those countries. So even small schools like Westminster are very active internationally. That is because our students will be living in a world which is different from the one we grew up in.

In 2006 I went to Tianjin and signed a sister school relationship agreement with Nankai University School of Economics. Nankai is ranked number ten and its School of Economics is number three in China today. Since then we have exchanged our students with each other. Currently we have seven Nankai students on our campus. In the same year I went to Shanghai and signed an exchange agreement with Donghua University. Right now we have five Donghua Students on our campus who are enrolled in our MBA program. In November 2008 we visited India and developed relations with universities there. That is basically for students exchanges.
Yong: Most universities are trying to diversify themselves in order to cater to the trend of globalization. For example, they are trying to recruit faculty members from around the world. How is Westminster doing in this regard?

Bassis: We have not really done any faculty exchanges with foreign universities. Nor have we been able to recruit many international faculty members. Currently we have only two faculty members with Chinese background. One is Professor Chris Tong, Director of Center for China-America Business Studies. He earned his undergraduate degree from Westminster College.

Yong: Two is a not a big number. You need to hire more professors from China and Asia.

Bassis: We are just in the beginning stages of very internationalizing Westminster College. We have had a slower start than other universities. But even though we've had a slow start, we are pretty fast and we will finish strong. So I suspect in the next few years we will have more people like Professor Tong on our campus.

Yong: How do you overcome financial burdens imposed on most small liberal arts colleges? Big research universities don't need to worry about financial resources needed to fund the globalization effort.

Bassis: Most of international ventures we do, we try to make them financially self sufficient. For example, our students participate in the exchange programs with Chinese universities. We send a certain number of students to China while Chinese universities send the same number of students to our campus. Our students pay tuition to us while Chinese students pay tuition to their universities. The exchange program doesn't cost those students any more and doesn't cost us any money.

About Visibility

Yong: When Chinese people are talking about American higher education, universities that often come to their mind are Harvard, Yale, Princeton and other big research universities. Few Chinese people are familiar with small liberal arts colleges here. But as a matter of fact, those liberal arts colleges are very good and the admission to top liberal arts colleges is very competitive. Sometimes it is even harder to get into Williams College than getting into Harvard. Liberal arts colleges are quite new for me too. I have done a lot of interviews with presidents from many large research universities. I have never interviewed a president from a liberal arts college before.

Bassis: I am honored to be the first to be interviewed!

Yong: Chinese universities are becoming larger and larger nowadays. Princeton University President once said to me: "small is beautiful". Princeton is one of the smallest research universities in the United States. Of course liberal arts colleges are even much smaller than Princeton. Is small really beautiful?

Bassis: Yes! If the goal is student learning then it is better to have a small environment where there are more interactions among students and between students and faculty members. It is a richer learning environment. You can have a larger university that is breaking into smaller clusters. But that doesn't happen very often. Because undergraduate learning isn't the highest priority for those schools and research is where prestige comes from for them. Every research university is looking to be more prestigious. With prestige coming in there will be more money from research and donors. There are also small liberal arts colleges that are prestigious as well. That is because of the power of the learning environments rather than the eminence of their research.

Yong: So in today's world small is still beautiful?

Bassis: That is right. What is pushing Chinese universities to grow larger and larger?

Yong: I don't know why. It seems that Chinese Ministry of Education is trying to create some flagship universities in order to catch up with the world class universities in the West. How do you predict the future size of liberal arts colleges here? Will it remain the same in the future?

Bassis: Williams College has stayed the same size for the last one hundred years. Westminster College has grown. Actually we are larger than Williams College right now. We will grow a little bit more over the next five years and then proudly stabilize and not grow so much. There is a big difference between William College and Westminster College. Their history has been such that many of their alumni become very successful and become philanthropists to their school. So Williams has a huge endowment. They charge very high tuitions as well. That is not true for Westminster. We are moderately wealthy. Our endowment is still small. It is about 60 million dollars. I guess Williams College's endowment probably is close to 1 billion dollars. There are a lot of liberal arts colleges in the United States. Some are very wealthy like Williams College. Some are in the middle range like us. Some have fewer resources. Despite those differences you can have a very powerful learning environment. Students learn and grow up in a very significant way.

Yong: Frankly liberal arts colleges are generally not very visible in the world higher education market. What have you done and what will you do to change this situation?

Bassis: It is not easy. Our strategy is to continue to develop relations with schools in other countries. For example in August 2008 the head of a private university in Australia was here talking to us about student and faculty exchanges and even talking about how we can deliver some kind of academic programs together. That is a very encouraging sign. We will now have small circle visibility in Australia. It is difficult for us to become a household word in big countries like Australia, China. But I am not sure it is as important to us as being able to bring international students to our campus to enrich the learning environment and have opportunities for our students to go all around the world. Whether many people in China or Australia or anywhere else have heard about Westminster College or not is less important although we would love it.

Yong: Before coming here I did some homework. To my surprise I found several universities are called Westminster College. One is in Missouri, one is in Pennsylvania and one is in Salt Lake City. Does this one in Salt Lake City have anything to do with the other two Westminster Colleges?

Bassis: They were all founded in the same way by the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church started on the east coast and then moved westward. They founded colleges along the way. The first one was founded by the Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania. They called it Westminster College. When they moved to Missouri, they did the same thing. But our relationship with the Presbyterian Church ended in 1970s. So it is just a historical tie. We are fully independent right now. We have no relationship at all with the other two Westminster Colleges.

Yong: It is very likely to cause confusion, isn't it?

Bassis: Some people do get confused. In the past there wasn't too much confusion in the United States because each Westminster drew its students from fairly defined regional areas. There wasn't too much overlap. But we have increased significant number of students from across the country and from the world. So the opportunity for confusion is increasing. We are trying to figure out how to retain our identities as Westminster College and end the confusion. But we have still not figured out yet. We did have an idea that we thought hard and long about it two years ago. That was to change our name from Westminster College to Westminster University. There were some very powerful arguments for doing that. Some people were insisting to hold on to the original name. There were heated debates on both sides. Ultimately we have decided to keep the original name for this period of time. I think it won't be too many years, five or ten years at the most, when Westminster College in Salt Lake City will become Westminster University.

About Life

Yong: What makes you happy everyday?

Bassis: The happiest moments I have are when I sit and talk with students about their experiences. I do meet with students on a regular basis. As a matter of fact this afternoon there will be ten or twelve students coming to my office. I have seen so many students' lives transformed. They blossom in so many important ways. Watching that process and having some influence on it has been my life's work.

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