On November 4, Dr. Elizabeth Kiss, CEO of the Rhodes Trust and Warden of Rhodes House, visited Yenching Academy at Peking University along with her delegation. During the visit, they met with YCA Dean Dong Qiang, Associate Dean Brent Haas, and Assistant Dean Chen Changwei at Jingyuan Courtyard 3. Earlier in the day, Dr Kiss met with PKU Vice President Fang Fang at Linhuxuan by the Weiming Lake, discussing modes of future cooperation and exchange.
Other members of the delegation included Mr. Robert Harrison, Trustee of the Rhodes Trust and former Chairman of Board of Trustees at Cornell University; Jeffrey Holzgrefe, Associate Member of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University; Tang Meijie, Chairman of the Rhodes Scholarships for China; and Zhong Yutong, Assistant Chairman of the Rhodes Scholarships for China.
Dean Dong Qiang warmly welcomed Dr. Kiss and her delegation, expressing his appreciation for their first meeting in the UK last year. He acknowledged the Rhodes Trust as a model educational charity and expressed his hope to gain further insights into its operational model. Dean Dong also shared plans to lead a YCA delegation to the Rhodes Trust at the University of Oxford in mid-November, aiming to enhance communication and foster closer cooperation in the future.
Dr Elizabeth Kiss expressed her happiness at meeting Prof Dong again at Peking University, particularly her visit to Yenching Academy. Established in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship is one of the oldest and most prestigious international scholarship programs in the world, enabling outstanding young people from around the world to undertake full-time postgraduate study at the University of Oxford. Dr Kiss noted that since the Rhodes Scholarships opened to China’s mainland in 2015, twelve PKU graduates were awarded and Peking University is home to the most Rhodes Scholars in China. She pointed out that the Rhodes Scholarship would focus more on China, awarding at least eight Chinese students a year. Dr Kiss hoped for more cooperation and mutual support between the Rhodes Trust and Yenching Academy in multiple sectors, to jointly promote international higher education.
Associate Dean Brent Haas presented an overview of the Academy’s philosophy, highlighting its interdisciplinary and intercultural program, curriculum, extracurricular activities, and the diverse backgrounds of its students. He also discussed the Academy’s focus on fostering career development among its Scholars. Emphasizing the importance of core courses such as Field Study and China in Transition, Haas noted that first-year Scholars were currently participating in a one-week study trip to Zhejiang. These courses are designed to immerse Yenching Scholars in the everyday life of Chinese people, providing them with firsthand experiences of the country’s economic, cultural, social, and historical development.
Haas also shared insights into the Academy’s enrollment, particularly its strong connections with British students and Oxford graduates. Over the past decade, Yenching Academy has welcomed 37 Oxford alumni, comprising both bachelor’s and master’s degree holders, making the University of Oxford the Academy’s second-largest source school, surpassed only by Peking University. Haas emphasized that the outstanding and diverse backgrounds of the Scholars contribute to the Academy’s vibrancy and dynamic learning environment.
After Haas’s introduction, the guests engaged in a detailed discussion about the academic progress of second-year students, the exchange programs jointly organized by YCA and its partners, and the Academy’s scholarship opportunities.
At the end of the meeting, Dean Dong Qiang highlighted that Yenching Academy aims to provide opportunities for outstanding young students from all over the world to see and feel China in their two-year master’s program, hoping that this “China experience” would inspire greater opportunities and new possibilities in their lives and careers.
