NYU Shanghai isn't wasting time.
This weekend, NYU and its Chinese partners finalized the budget and funding of NYU's new portal campus in Shanghai. Sunday night, the university announced that its plans to build a campus in Shanghai had been approved, and by Monday morning, construction on the academic center began. Shanghai has already allocated two completed apartment buildings to be dormitories.
NYU Shanghai will be NYU's second degree-granting campus outside of New York, and it's set to welcome its first freshman class in 2013.
"Each of these portals creates its own identity," associate vice chancellor for Asia May Lee said. NYU Shanghai won't be competing with Abu Dhabi as a "world honors college," but instead will find its own place — though Lee said she isn't sure what that will be. "That's a discussion that we need to have."
Lee did note that the portal will be instrumental in drawing China and the United States closer together. "Bringing mutual understanding to both countries is something we really aspire to," she said.
40 to 50 percent of NYU Shanghai's student body will be Chinese nationals, though administrators are quick to note that there will be a large number of international students.
Chinese nationals will pay a reduced, 'in-country' tuition. Lee likened the model to in-state and out-of-state tuition rates. She said that it was really important to NYU's Chinese partners to make NYU Shanghai more accessible to Chinese nationals by reducing the tuition rate, because higher education fees in China are significantly lower. Lee said that NYU has a "clear track record of being committed to giving financial aid to any needy student."
In opening NYU Shanghai, NYU is securing itself as a global network university — a network of portal campuses and study abroad sites that tap talent from all over the world that will then move through NYU's campuses, creating a circulatory system of talent. With Shanghai, NYU will tap into the talent pool of Asia.
"This is us in and of the world," Lee said. "Chinese students going to New York. New York students going to China."
According to NYU President John Sexton, this will also enable NYU New York to continue hiring new talent. As Washington Square professors opt to spend semesters abroad at the Abu Dhabi or Shanghai campuses, NYU will be able to bring in new professors to fill their spaces.
Despite these affirmations, some worry about how this new portal will affect NYU in New York.
"But I believe it's possible that the new outposts in Abu Dhabi and now in Shanghai will erode — indeed, I believe they are already eroding — the quality of instruction and of university life here in New York," CAS English professor Martin Harries told WSN in an email.
Two newly constructed buildings have been allocated for dormitories. They are part of a five building complex constructed to attract young professionals. The academic center, which the university broke ground on yesterday, will be a 550,000 square foot, 15 story building, with a six-story annex and two underground floors. It will include dining halls, a bookstore, community space and public space such as an auditorium with public events.
But for some, the global network university idea is still just too foreign. "It's ridiculous that you can go to NYU for four years and never leave China," Jacob Watkins, a CAS sophomore, said.
