East China Normal University (ECNU) and New York University (NYU) signed an official agreement to jointly establish New York University (Shanghai). This is China’s first international university to be jointly operated by Chinese and US partners. The signing ceremony was followed by a ground-breaking ceremony. China’s Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng and other leaders attended the ceremonies.

The creation of NYU (Shanghai) is a major step taken by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the City of Shanghai to jointly create a national level education reform pilot, and it serves as a landmark symbolizing Shanghai’s efforts to internationalize its higher education. It also would help to explore diversified ways to introduce high-quality foreign education resources to China. NYU (Shanghai) is an independent legal entity aiming at building itself into a first class research-oriented university operating under modern university system in the near future.

A training program for high-level financial professionals would be initiated in 2012, and at the same time dual-master degree programs would also be offered in many disicplines. NYU (Shanghai) will start enrol undergraduates in September 2013. The syllabuses and curricula would be designed following the examples of the New York University. NYU (Shanghai) will feature a low student-faculty ratio, small classes, and a teaching philosophy encouraging critical thinking and discussion. NYU (Shanghai) will offer a comprehensive whole-person education to its students, educating them in different disiciplines such as humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences before they start pursuing in-depth study in a particular major. Almost all classes will be conducted in English.

It is reported that NYU (Shanghai) plans to build itself into one with a total enrolment of over 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the majority of whom would be Chinese. NYU (Shanghai) will also recruit international students through the admission system of New York University to provide a multicultural environment for the students. NYU (Shanghai) allows its students to spend as many as three semesters studying in other campuses in places such as New York or Abu Dhabi within NYU’s global network.

For ECNU, the purpose of establishing NYU (Shanghai) is to learn from the school-running concepts and experiences of a world class university and to explore new approaches in terms of human resource development, research, community service, and university administration.