Last December JI was recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education as the model of international education and reform for Chinese universities. Since then, JI has been overwhelmed by the requests from universities all over China and even from foreign institutes to share the secrets of its success. In order to meet these demands, a press conference was held at SJTU’s Xuhui campus on June 13, 2012. More than thirty reporters showed up, including major media such as Xinhua Agency, People’s Daily, China Daily, Shanghai Radio Station, Shanghai TV Station.
Dean Ni first welcomed the media and gave a brief introduction of JI’s history, characteristics, educational system, and management model. He highlighted JI’s accomplishments in producing outstanding students and recruiting high-caliber faculty. The placement statistics of this year’s graduating students were presented to the press: 81% are going abroad for graduate studies, half of which have been admitted to University of Michigan, and the majority of the other half were admitted to top US universities such as MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UCLA, Georgia Tech.
Executive Dean Robert Parker recounted his experience of joining JI at its early stage, helping build JI, and witnessing its extraordinary growth within the last few years. He remarked that the reason why he gave up his successful career and comfortable life in the US to work at JI is “to do something big.” He compared the six-year old JI with the world’s oldest universities such as Oxford, and Cambridge. He concluded, “With JI’s amazing achievements in such a short time, imagine what it will be in 5, 10, or 20 years! “
Senior faculty Prof. Olivier Bauchau emphasized that JI’s faculty and curriculum are as good as University of Michigan. JI’s goal is to ‘educate’ but not ‘train’ future global leaders who will work in the fields that have not existed today. He reported that, to pursue international education, JI is considering exchanging distance learning with a Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland next year. JI is actively recruiting international students.
Through video clips, a representative from Intel confirmed the outstanding quality of JI’ s students. Through corporate-sponsored Capstone Design projects, Intel is impressed by JI’s students’ creativity and innovative spirit, communication and presentation skills, persistence and diligence, and strong support from excellent faculty.
Ms. Xu Qing, the mother of a junior currently studying for dual degree in UM, on behalf of JI’s parents, expressed their gratitude to JI for educating their children, not only to be successful academically, but to be creative, well-rounded, independent, and confident through the unique JI experience.
Student representative senior Liu Zong Chang thanked JI for giving him a rich and fulfilled undergraduate experience through rigorous curriculum, free research environment, and well organized innovative entrepreneurship training programs. He was the president of the JI Student Union and the vice president of SJTU Alumni Association in UM. He plans to build an association for JI’s alumni.
During the Q & A session with the press, issues on 2012 students recruiting, tuition, and financial aid were raised and answered in detail. The press conference concluded with group photos and a lunch at the SJTU faculty club.
