Two of Missouri's public universities will be partnering with a college in China to open a new university in the central part of the country.
The University of Missouri-St. Louis and Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla will work with Tianfu College in Mianyang, in Sichuan Province, to open Sichuan Missouri University.
The Chinese partners will cover the full cost of establishing the university, said UMSL chancellor Tom George. The two Missouri schools will provide only intellectual capital.
"They're going to give us $1,000 per FTE," George said on Wednesday after his annual State of the University address. "They want to ratchet it up eventually to 8,000 students, so that's $8 million that they're going to distribute back to the University of Missouri-St. Louis annually, ultimately when this gets up and running, and Missouri University of Science and Technology. We're players now on the higher education market."
UMSL will select some of the faculty and design courses in business, nursing, graphic design, social work and gerontology.
