Upcoming Webinar: The Trajectory of Higher Education in China

Time: March 9th, 2021 at 8pm ET
Platform: Zoom
Language: English
To Register, Click Here

Webinar Description: 

Dr. Denis Simon has just completed five years as Executive Vice Chancellor of a highly regarded Sino-Foreign joint venture university in Kunshan, China. He has spent the last four decades working inside and outside of the PRC dealing issues related to China’s talent development and utilization, the internationalization of higher education, and the development of the Chinese national innovation system. In this presentation, he will discuss the challenges that Chinese universities are facing and the role that the university sector is playing in China’s drive for national economic, technological and research pre-eminence, the evolving political pressures that shape and constrain the development of tertiary education in China, and the extent to which China is willing and able to work with international partners. In addition, he will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of research conducted at Chinese universities and the extent to which US institutions are likely to find opportunities for cooperation in future. Professor Qiang Zha of the York University will be the discussant.

Speaker: Dr. Denis Fred Simon

Dr. Denis Fred Simon is Senior Adviser to the President for China Affairs at Duke and Professor of China Business and Technology at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Simon has more than four decades of experience studying business, competition, innovation and technology strategy in China. In 2006, he was awarded the China National Friendship Award by Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing. Prior to returning to Duke, Dr. Simon served as Executive Vice Chancellor at Duke Kunshan University in China (2015-2020).  Simon’s career included spells as senior adviser on China and global affairs in the Office of the President at Arizona State University; vice-provost for international affairs at the University of Oregon; and professor of international affairs at Penn State University’s School of International Affairs. He also has had extensive leadership experience in management consulting having served as General Manager of Andersen Consulting in Beijing (now Accenture) and the Founding President of Monitor Group China.

Discussant: Qiang Zha

Qiang Zha is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, York University (Canada), where he served as the Director of Graduate Program in Education 2017-2020. He holds a PhD (Higher Education) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto. His research interests include Chinese and East Asian higher education, international academic relations, global brain circulation, internationalization of higher education, globalization and education, differentiation and diversity in higher education, theories of organizational change, and liberal arts education in China and elsewhere. He has written and published widely on these topics in journals such as Compare, Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, Higher Education in Europe, Harvard China Review, China Quarterly, and as books or book chapters. His published books include Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the Move to Mass Higher Education (co-authored, Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong and Springer, 2011), Education and Global Cultural Dialogue (co-edited, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Education in China: Educational History, Models, and Initiatives (edited, Berkshire Publishing, 2013), Canadian Universities in China’s Transformation: An Untold Story (co-edited, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016), China’s University-Industry Partnership, Cooperative Education, and Entrepreneurship Education in a Global Context (co-edited, Routledge, 2017), and International Status Anxiety and Higher Education: The Soviet Legacy in China & Russia (co-edited, Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong and Springer, 2018).

Moderator: Ray Wang

Ray Wang currently is Chief Information Officer and Dean, at the University of New Orleans. He is also a tenured professor of English. Before joining UNO, Ray Wang was Dean, University Library, at California State Polytechnic University Pomona since 2009. Prior to that appointment, he served as Dean, University Library at Humboldt State University for three years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in Library Science and a doctorate in Education. Before his tenure at CSU Wang worked at United Nations, Northwestern University, and Binghamton University. In 2010 he was elected Chair of the Council of Library Deans, for the California State University system. Wang is CoChair of CALA Leadership Training Task Force and an invited presenter at various leadership workshops at home and abroad. He is president of International Association for East-West Studies, and was instrumental along with other teaching faculty members in making the publication of its journal, the Journal of East-West Thought a reality. He is also a film producer with two feature films and a number of documentaries to his credit.