China: Sun Yat-sen University

IUPUI and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), a top-ten University in China, have established a strategic partnership.  In April 2007, Vice President Qingyan Liang of SYSU visited IUPUI and signed a MOU with Chancellor Charles Bantz, which officially started the collaborations  between the two institutions.  The Confucius Institute in Indianapolis is the first product of this collaboration. One of the missions of Confucius Institute is to facilitate collaborations between IUPUI and SYSU.

In Sept. 2007, following the visit of Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing, Craig Brater, the Dean of  School of Medicine, and Susan Sutton, the Associate Vice Chancellor of IUPUI led a 14-member delegation that consisted of deans and directors from different schools and centers to SYSU.  Members of the delegation had meetings with their counterparts at SYSU to discuss future collaborations.

In Dec. 2007, Executive Vice Chancellor Uday Sukhame visited SYSU after attending the 2nd Confucius Institute World Conference in Beijing.  EVC Sukhame met Vice President Ningshen Xu of SYSU and discussed the potential for collaborations and exchange programs between IUPUI and SYSU.

Patrick O’Meara, the Vice President for International Affairs of Indiana University also visited SYSU in Dec. 2007 and met with VP Xu of SYSU.  He also visited the Ophthalmic Hospital and Eye Center of SYSU to discuss collaborations to develop a Ph.D. program in Optometry. Dean of IUPUI School of Liberal Arts Bill Blomquist attended the 3rd Confucius Institute World Conference in Beijing in 2008.

Currently, many schools at IUPUI have established or are developing faculty and student exchanges as well as research programs with their counterparts at SYSU.