McRobbie departs on East Asia trip

IU President Michael A. McRobbie left IU May 18 for a 15-day trip to East Asia to strengthen IU’s ties to South Korea, China and Taiwan, according to a press release.
 
This will be McRobbie’s third official visit to South Korea and second visit to China since becoming IU’s president in 2007. IU Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret and IU First Lady Laurie Burns McRobbie will be joining McRobbie on the trip and will be presenters at a special gathering for incoming IU students from Korea as well as alumni, according to the release.

“Korea is home to some of our strongest institutional partnerships, and I am excited about the prospects for further strengthening our ties there,” McRobbie said in the release. “We live in an increasingly global society, where forces that originate beyond our borders affect virtually all aspects of our lives. If IU is to effectively prepare its students to succeed in such a society, we must continue to build bridges around the world.”

McRobbie noted that students from South Korea and China accounted for more than half of IU’s international enrollment of 7,700 students this past academic year.

The Institute of International Education ranks IU 11th among U.S. universities in the number of international students, according to the release.

More than 4,700 students from East Asia were enrolled at IU, including more than 3,250 students from the People’s Republic of China, plus 90 students from Hong Kong, 1,025 from the Republic of Korea and nearly 240 from Taiwan.

Roughly 100 students from IU Bloomington studied in China last year.

IU has several active alumni chapters in Asia, including the Korea Alumni Club in Seoul, South Korea. With more than 1,000 active members, this makes it one of the university’s largest international alumni groups.

“These countries also are home to some of our strongest institutional partnerships,” McRobbie said in the release. “Likewise, I am very pleased about the new partnerships we’ll be initiating during this trip with top universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan.”

While abroad, McRobbie will meet with alumni and business and government leaders, attend two special receptions for IU’s newest students from China and South Korea and renew or sign several agreements between IU and leading higher education institutions in the region, according to the release.

McRobbie will sign a renewal agreement between IU and Ewha Womans University, a top research university recognized by Leiden University’s evaluation index.

The agreement extends the relationship between the IU Maurer School of Law and Ewha Womans University. It is a collaboration that allows up to five Ewha law students each year to enroll in the Maurer School’s two-semester LL.M. program.

The Maurer School holds similar agreements with other Korean universities, such as Chung-Ang University, Chungbuk National University, Hongik University, Sungkyunkwan University and Yonsei University.

Several other schools at IU have also established ties with their counterparts at Jesus University, Pukyong National University and Sungshin Women’s University, according to the release.

McRobbie’s trip is one element of IU’s international engagement plan, according to the release, 30 countries have been identified by the university as priorities in the plan in which the university hopes to strengthen institutional ties, increase research opportunities and provide greater access to study abroad opportunities for IU students, according to the release.

Trip updates will be available through official IU social media channels on Facebook and Twitter as well as at a new website, Global Engagement and Partnerships, global.iu.edu.

Updates will also be available on the Global Engagements and Partnerships blog.

— Makenzie Holland