Peking University, June 19, 2012: Debora Spar, president of Barnard College in the U.S., paid a visit to Peking University (PKU) on June 14.

President Debora Spar

As entrusted by PKU President Zhou Qifeng, Vice President Li Yansong met with Spar in the afternoon, and introduced the status quo of the University. “PKU takes it seriously to cooperate with Western peer institutions, in order to cultivate talents with a globalized vision,” Li described the international relations of PKU, “and we hope that every PKU student would have a chance to study abroad.”

PKU and Barnard are both acclaimed for the leading systems of general education in their respective cultures. Yuanpei College, which best represents such a system at PKU, is supposed to expand student exchanges with Barnard, according to Xia Hongwei, director of Office of International Relations at PKU.

President Spar expressed her willingness to send more Barnard students to PKU. She hoped the Chinese language teaching of PKU could remove their language barrier and help them immerse into the local culture.

Later, Spar delivered a lecture at the School of Government, offering a set of professional opinions on some outstanding issues of contemporary higher education.

Background Info:

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college in New York. Founded in 1889, the college was named for Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, former president of Columbia University. With 2,390 students, it now has 50 majors, the top six of which have been English, Psychology, Political Science, Economics, History, and Biology.

Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900, yet the partnership between the two sides is unique in American higher education. Barnard students receive the diplomas of the University signed by the presidents of both institutions, and the College is represented in the University Senate. At the same time, Barnard is legally separate and financially independent from Columbia.

Barnard is unequivocally dedicated to the success of women. Women make up more than half of Barnard’s faculty, and have led Barnard from the beginning. Its graduates have gone on to become world leaders in literature, science, commerce, law, and the arts.

President Debora Spar graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and then received her doctorate in government from Harvard.

Spar became the seventh president of Barnard College on July 1, 2008. Prior to the inauguration, she was the Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, and had served as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at Harvard Business School. At Harvard, she taught courses on the politics of international business, comparative capitalism, and economic development.

Spar’s scholarly research focuses on issues of international political economy, examining how rules are established in new or emerging markets, and how firms and governments together shape the evolving global economy.

President Spar is also a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and currently serves as a trustee of the Nightingale-Bamford School and a director of Goldman Sachs.

Written by: Li Xiaomeng

Edited by: Zhang Jiang

Source: School of Government and Office of International Relations