VCU and Fudan sign dual master’s degree agreement

By Tom Gresham

International partners Virginia Commonwealth University and Fudan University this week finalized a new dual master’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in strategic public relations during a Fudan delegation’s visit to campus.

The degree was formally approved on Sept. 15 in a signing ceremony at the President’s House on the VCU campus. Eugene Trani, Ph.D., president of VCU, and Qin Shaode, chancellor of Fudan, each signed documents in English and Chinese cementing the agreement.

“Today will be a very important moment in our two universities’ histories,” Qin said.

Trani said: “I am honored with our partnership. We have made significant progress in collaborating between our programs. We are taking one more step today.”

The dual master’s degree will take three academic years to complete. Students completing the program will be issued diplomas from both VCU and Fudan.

First-year graduate students in Fudan’s School of Journalism are eligible to apply for the degree program. They must successfully complete a minimum of three semesters of full-time graduate coursework at Fudan and a minimum of 18 credits hours of strategic public relations coursework at VCU. Students participating in the degree program are required to write a thesis and will have two thesis advisers – one from VCU and one from Fudan. 

The new graduate degree already has its first student. Lexin (Mona) Lin, a Fudan graduate student, is taking three courses at VCU this semester toward the dual degree. She said she has enjoyed her first weeks of class, which she has found intensive. She has been impressed with the level of professional experience many of her classmates already possess and has reveled in the active interaction encouraged in class sessions – an adjustment from the classroom culture in China, she said.

Lexin said she jumped at the dual degree opportunity when she heard about it.

“I thought this was something I really needed to take advantage of,” Lexin said. “I can get some very practical skills and training here.”

In addition to Qin, other representatives of Fudan to visit VCU included Chen Yinzhang, pro-vice president and director of the Foreign Affairs Office at Fudan; Zhu Chouwen, director of the Fudan Medical Center and assistant director of the Foreign Affairs Office at Fudan; Yu Zhenwei, dean of the Fudan School of Journalism; Jiang Peizhen, director of the Campus Development Office at Fudan; and Xu Yefang, assistant director of the Foreign Affairs Office at Fudan.

The delegation’s visit to campus featured several meetings with VCU officials, including tours of the VCU School of Mass Communications, the VCU School of the Arts and the VCU Brandcenter.