An exchange program between Yale and Peking University (Beida) is to be cancelled because of “lower than expected enrollment”, to which dissent among Yale faculty may have contributed. From Gavan Gideon at Yale News:
In a statement Yale released Wednesday afternoon, the University cited “lower than anticipated enrollments” as the reason for the program’s cancellation. With only four students confirmed to participate in the program this fall, administrators decided that “the PKU-Yale experience would not be optimal for either students or faculty.”
“It is disappointing to all of us that after six years we could not attract a critical mass for this outstanding program,” Edwards said in the statement.
[…] An email sent by a faculty member on the program’s advisory committee alleged that the was “extremely expensive for Yale,” and that its language component was “notoriously weak,” making it difficult for Yale students to re-enter the Chinese language curriculum upon returning to New Haven.
The program came under fire in December 2007 after ecology and evolutionary biology professor Stephen Stearns ’67 sent a strongly worded email to his students at PKU criticizing the widespread plagiarism he witnessed among students and faculty while teaching two courses at the university.
