I am also surprised at closing down the study abroad program there.
China is one of the few places where there is growth in the world and strong innovation in mobile software, city planning, robotics, automation, auto industry, aerospace industries and pharmaceutical industries. 6% growth is nothing to sneeze at.
The MOOC Stanford Entrepreneur classes had some of their biggest student numbers from China. Perhaps the focus could be with one of the engineering or start up niche cities in China.
Perhaps Shenzhen could be a good niche. Here there are still street of mum and pop electronics where you can bring in a drawing and ask them “can you build this for me.” And a few days later you have your prototype and the supplier to ramp up your indiegogo product launch if needed.
Another option might be Hangzhou and the land of Ali Baba. Here software and high tech inventors with a piece of code or a patent can be set up with an office, sped up registration and pre arranged presentation to angel investors, often while still finishing their graduate degrees.
Or else the unknown Changzhou city in Jiangsu. Here the government organized the 5 vocational technical universities in a big horse shoe around a robot and high tech center just so R and D start up could have easy access to cheap engineering grad student engineers. Ninebot the purchasing company of segway hoverboards and drones has R and D and manufacturing along with many of China’s top tier science university labs.
In the end it is likely Stanford will follow it’s successful alumni to Shanghai and join the 100 plus universities that have cooperation with Fudan Universities.
I studied at Nanjing University lived off campus and found the interaction with regular people really helped motivate me. Let’s face it, Chinese language can be a bit trickier to learn than Spanish.
As the reason for the closure was low enrollment, I hope it is not yet another sign of pull back from the closer ties of US to China.
Simon Laing <slaing4@gmail.com>