Mainland China university to open Laos branch in 2012
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/education/09iht-educBrief.html?_r=1

Dressing the Wounds of Government Cuts (May 9, 2011)
China has long been a favored destination for foreign universities seeking to export their programs, but now a Chinese university is preparing to open the mainland’s first overseas campus.

Soochow University, in Jiangsu Province, is expected to open an affiliate in Laos next year, according to People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.

The report, posted late last month, called Soochow the first foreign education institution to receive approval from the Laotian government to offer undergraduate and graduate programs. The university plans to provide courses for about 5,000 students in Laos, a country of more than six million where only 13 percent of the undergraduate-age population is enrolled in higher education, according to 2008 Unesco statistics.

A university official quoted in the report said Soochow would offer 12 majors, including Chinese language and literature, economy and trade, and engineering. Soochow University, which has about 50,000 students in China, expects the Laos campus to begin enrolling students next year, the report said.

While the university will initially send Chinese academics to the Laos campus, it plans to gradually employ more local teachers. The campus is estimated to cost $25 million.

Kudos to China .  'We all live under the same sun and walk under the same moon'.

llX wrote on 9^th May, 2011 at 4:58am:

13%........Not good?

Seems quite high to me.

Certainly much higher than when I was undergraduate age in England.

Anyway, the way things are going it's going to get much higher.

Old Man

In the US alone, I know in the past years some Institutes or Colleges affiliated to a University has been very successful creating this program option to students.  Today, the business is booming.  I see more and more Universities getting involved.  Basically, students don't  have to travel long distance to an actual campus anymore to get their education or degree (depending on the location availability).

I'm glad Laos accepted this offer from China.  This without a doubt be a boost to the education level.  I'm sure in the future other countries will bring in their affiliates as well, once, they see the success result.