Tony Basil, Ohio State’s director of the Office of Continuing Education, recently returned from a two-week trip to China where he spoke to Chinese businessmen and educators about OSU. Basil was part of a group of Columbus residents who made the trip to speak about business and education opportunities available in Central Ohio.
Bob Hsieh, who works for the City of Columbus in the Office of Financial Assistance, organized the trip.
“Part of my job is to entice Asian-owned businesses to locate in Columbus,” Hsieh said.
Basil said he was surprised when he got the call from Hsieh.
“My wife and I were about to go on vacation when Bob called me up,” Basil said. “Suddenly, I was on my way to China.”
The first stop was in Shanghai where Basil spoke at a seminar about the Office of Continuing Education. In addition to being the director of the Office of Continuing Education, Basil works with the university’s contractual outreach program , which seeks to expand the walls of the university, said Latina Rockhold, spokeswoman for the Office of Continuing Education.
Another speaker at the seminar was Charlie Shu, an engineer in telecommunication at Lucent Technologies in Columbus.
“There is a huge telecom market in China that has yet to be explored as more and more people get on the technology wagon,” Shu said.
Next, the group traveled to cities and universities across China, Basil said. The trip included stops in Hefei where Basil said he met with representatives from Hefei University and Anhui Xinhua University.
“I was treated like royalty,” Basil said. “The amount of respect I received was unbelievable.” Hsieh said Hefei has been the official Chinese sister city of Columbus since 1989.
“I can’t believe how much [the people of Hefei] are like the people of Columbus,” Basil said.
He also said he was impressed with the University of Hefei, which had 30 institutions of higher learning.
Despite the similarities, Shu said there are many differences between universities in China and those in America.
“Enrollment in Chinese universities is almost exclusively through the annual national entrance exam held each June,” Shu said. “Only high school students whose scores on the exam exceed the minimum level set by a university get admitted. It generates enormous stress for both students and their parents.”
No matter the differences, Basil said many faculty members at the universities were interested in visiting OSU.
“The chairman of the English department at the University of Hefei wants to bring teachers and students to OSU so they can learn English from people who live here,” Basil said. “I think Chinese universities are interested in setting up these programs because they want to gauge where they stand compared to American universities.”
Basil said he also made stops at Lianyungang University in Lianyungang and at Ezhou University in Ezhou. In total, he said he met six different people with which he said he hopes to set up studying program at OSU.
The trip was not all work however. Basil said he took sightseeing tours of Beijing and of a famous Chinese landmark.
“The Great Wall of China was amazing,” Basil said. “The history and culture of China is fascinating.”
Basil said there is a lot China can learn from America and vice-versa.
“One statistic that fascinates me is that Chinese is the third most common language spoken in American households,” Basil said. “Learning from China is something that would be good for our students as well as our faculty.”
