Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, and Educational Challenges of Administering a Sino-US Joint Venture Campus in China

This qualitative study explored the political, economic, socio-cultural, and educational challenges of administering a Sino-U.S. joint-venture campus in the People's Republic of China. China American University (CAU) is an educational joint venture between China Investment Company (CIC) and American University (AU) in the U.S. that resulted in naming CAU a branch campus of AU. Data were acquired through semi-structured interviews, surveys, and participant observations. The researcher interviewed, surveyed and observed U.S. administrators and executives, American teachers, Chinese students, and Chinese staff. This study concluded that there are many challenges of administering such a Sino-U.S. joint venture campus in China. Administering a Sino-U.S. joint venture campus in China requires a broad understanding of the host country and a significant amount of flexibility. More research is needed to understand how American the so-called American education is in China, including what the standards are and who is, as Knight (2004) says, "monitoring" and "assuring the relevance and quality" of such programs (p. 84).