Peking University Announce Plan For 2nd International Program Modeled For Rhodes Scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

An elite Chinese university announced plans for China’s second international program modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship, as the country seeks more influence in global education and greater international prestige befitting its economic rise.

Beijing-based Peking University said it will launch the Yenching Academy to recruit top scholars from China and the world to study in a one-year master’s degree program.

The announcement came one year after the founder of American private equity and financial advisory firm Blackstone, Steve Schwarzman, set up a program at rival Tsinghua University and led a $350 million endowment campaign.

Both schools said their programs are modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship, an elite award for students to study at the University of Oxford.

Yenching scholars will get full scholarships, free accommodations and living stipends to study literature and culture, history and archaeology, philosophy and religion, public policy and international relations, economics and management, law and society. The first classes are to begin in fall 2015. (The Associated Press)