US universities target foreign markets. Can core values survive?

By Peter Ford. The dismissal of an outspoken academic at China's top university has sparked renewed debate over the degree to which US universities abroad can maintain their core values. When outspoken economics professor Xia Yeliang was dismissed by Peking University (PKU) last month, 136 faculty members at Wellesley College, an elite all-women's school outside Boston, took it personally. They had reason to believe Professor Xia had been fired for his political opinions. And since Wellesley had recently signed a partnership with PKU, the latest in a flood of US universities to set up bridgeheads in China, they figured that made Xia a colleague of theirs. More...