By Helene Ullero

　

　

　

Helene Ullero, head of the International Relations Office at the University of Oslo, and her colleagues, Professor Even Hovdhaugen, dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and Professor Olav Bjerkholt of the Department of Economics, traveled to China in April 2001 to visit Chongqing University in western China and Fudan University in Shanghai. Their trip was funded by an AFEX award. Helene writes about their experience.

　

　The University of Oslo was awarded a generous SYLFF award on April 1, 2001, to pay for me and two other faculty members to visit our university's partner institutions in China. The purposes of the visit were to consolidate our ongoing projects with Fudan University and to explore possibilities for cooperation with another institution in the Sichuan region, where we now have research in progress. The universities that we chose to visit are both participating in the SYLFF Program and have been selected by the Chinese government to be among the top 100 institutions with key national status for the 21st century, with special attention on the development of internationalization.

　The University of Oslo, with its well-established Department of East European and Oriental Studies, for many years has had the privilege of having exchanges with China: accepting Chinese students and scholars; seeking to develop language modules in China for our own students; and cooperating with Chinese university researchers on projects in a variety of disciplines. However, these activities have to be financed through the university's regular budget or by project money. This means that in the past only staff members who were closely involved in such exchange activities have been able to travel to China.

　Thanks to the SYLFF award, I and Professor Even Hovdhaugen, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, gained an invaluable experience of 10 days in Shanghai and Chongqing. We gained firsthand knowledge of the projects that our Department of East European and Oriental Studies is conducting, while gaining valuable insights into the structure of Chinese universities. The third member of our delegation, Professor Olav Bjerkholt of the Department of Economics, has visited China several times. He was able to forge new links for his own projects, which include curriculum development and student exchanges in the field of environmental and developmental economics, while consolidating already existing links within his research.

　We were overwhelmed by the warm hospitality with which we were received at both Fudan University and Chongqing University. The attention, the friendliness, the effective schedules of meetings with faculty and administrative staff, the possibility of participating in lectures and meeting both Chinese and foreign students, the lavishness of meals, and the programs of cultural visits or such activities as walks in town cannot be praised sufficiently. In particular, we are thankful to Associate Professor Chen Yin Zhang, deputy director of the External Office at Fudan University; Professor Yansun Wu, director of the Foreign Affairs Office; Professor Chengping Zhao, vice-director of that office; and Mr. Zhiming Liu of Chongqing University −all of whom contributed their own time so generously, giving us unforgettable experiences.

　

　The application for SYLFF funding required a detailed description of the outcomes that we expected from our study visit. The following is a brief list of the activities that we were planning to develop further at Fudan University.

　

　

　Our main aim at Chongqing University was to get acquainted with another large Chinese university. We selected Chongqing province because of the challenges rising from its unprecedented growth during the past few years due to its status as a province and from the impending construction of the Three-Gorges Dam. To help us understand the likely strategic importance of Chongqing in the years to come, our hosts compared the coast of China to a bow, likening the Chongqing-Shanghai axis to an arrow, with the tip of the arrow being Shanghai and its back end being Chongqing.

　Professor Bjerkholt wanted to explore the possibilities for cooperation within the field of environmental economics and environmental studies and research. Based on the model of what has been achieved in Fudan, we discussed various possibilities for scholarships and exchanges of students and scholars.

　A presentation of the summer school programs, which Chongqing University arranges for various groups of foreigners according to their needs, was arranged.

　We were impressed by the vastness and beauty of the campus. At the university museum, we were shown both the considerable importance of the city of Chongqing as the capital of the country during World War II and the specific role of the university during that period. As in Fudan, we were taken to a building reserved for foreign students and were particularly impressed by the high standard of the accommodations.

　Thanks to the SYLFF award, we have now gained concrete, first-hand knowledge and awareness of China. We have subsequently been able to support and publicize our projects with China with a totally new spirit and motivation.

　In conclusion, I wish to mention the ease of the application process. It was simple and nonbureaucratic. The main SYLEF requirements, as we perceived them, were for each of us to provide a detailed statement about what we intended to achieve, a proposed budget, and a realistic schedule. Throughout the entire process we received excellent assistance from the Scholarship Division personnel, to whom we are deeply grateful.