Dean Dirk Messelaar: A Visionary Builder of Bridges to China

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Barbara Macaulay

[Editor’s Note: Dirk Messelaar is Dean of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston.]

Next month, accompanying UMassOnline CEO David Gray, Dean Messelaar will be making his fifth trip to China on a ten day mission that continues a visionary journey of cultural and academic discovery he started in 2001 and has championed throughout the UMass system ever since. The result: by all accounts, he has established the strongest and most promising ongoing relationship of trust and mutual benefit with the Chinese government, its universities, and its students of any American university system in a league with UMass.

Dean Messelaar, who has served UMass for more than 30 years, was one of very few academic leaders in Massachusetts and throughout the nation who in 2001 listened to, clearly heard, and came to believe passionately in a vision for a cross-cultural exchange first proposed by a delegation from China’s University Distance Learning Association. In fact, all of the other leading colleges and universities in Massachusetts that were entertained to the same presentation either deferred or declared it of little practical value. In contrast, under Dean Messelaar’s sponsorship and leadership, in collaboration with academic leaders on opposite sides of the world but on the same side of the visionary objective, UMass Boston has innovated a powerful blueprint for the University of Massachusetts and for all other American and Chinese universities seeking to build strong bridges spanning two cultures with an increasing number of common academic, corporate, industrial, and economic goals.

We caught up with Dean Messelaar on the eve of his trip. The Q&A with him follows:

Q: While this has been six years in the making, is it fair to say other major American universities would be surprised at the progress you’ve made, the status you have achieved for UMass in China and the many programs you already have underway?

Dean Messelaar: Without a lot of fanfare we have made amazing strides especially given the bad experience China had years ago with less reputable and for profit institutions. In the midst of that, already five years ago now, we traveled to Beijing to secure Ministry of Education approval as a creditable US partner and we signed institutional agreements with 11 Chinese universities… in fact 11 of the very best Chinese universities. Competitively speaking I think anyone at a major
US college or university who is made aware of the broad scope of our initiative and where it stands today would be nervous about a major missed opportunity.

Q: Well, so everyone knows, can you briefly summarize the evolution of the initiative and tell us a bit about the programs evolving from this today?

Dean Messelaar: In 2004, China’s top-ranked university, Tsinghua, named UMass Boston its only US partner for its Bridge Program, which prepares Chinese college students to transfer as a cohort to foreign partners. Thanks to this distinction and through this program we have 100 Chinese students on campus right now. A year later, the Ministry of Education awarded UMass one of 18 Confucius Institutes in the US and among 155 in the world. In its first year, the UMass Confucius Institute supported faculty in the creation of a BA program in Asian Studies, created a licensure program in the teaching of Mandarin, developed a Chinese Resource and Media Center, developed 36 credit, non-credit and online courses, opened an international student center, granted scholarships for UMass students and teaching candidates to study in China, paid stipends for faculty exchanges with Chinese partners, and held numerous conferences, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances on campus and in the community.

Since then, the UMass Confucius Institute has become one of New England’s major resources for teaching and learning about Chinese culture, language, and business, especially in meeting the need for secondary school Mandarin teachers. Why is that important? Because in New England alone there is an estimated demand for 300 to 400 Mandarin teachers… the nationwide demand is for a number in excess of 2,000. That’s just one of many clues implying the growing US presumption of China’s emerging global importance and dominance.

In 2006, we signed a further agreement with Tsinghua University, to collaborate in the research and teaching of nanotechnology and its applications, new energy technology, and environmental conservation and, at about this time last year, we hosted the first Continuing Education Forum between the leadership of the University Continuing Education Association and the Chinese Continuing Education Association of Higher Education based in Beijing and representing 118 of China’s most prestigious universities.

Q: Wow!
Dean Messelaar: Wait, I’m not done. Within our East Asian Studies Program, UMass Boston’s Department of Modern Languages is working with UMassOnline in the development of online Mandarin courses. We’re adapting the licensure and our MEd degree for teachers of K-12 students from our Graduate College of Education to permit fluent Mandarin speakers with college degrees to become qualified teachers of Mandarin in elementary and secondary schools in some 38 states with which we have reciprocal agreements. Through UMass Boston’s College of Liberal Arts, with the help of a grant from the Phelps Stokes Fund, we’re sending qualified Afro-Americans from UMass to study in China. And currently, we’re developing a course to help college professors in China become expert in the development of online delivery. That’s not everything… you wouldn’t have the room.

Q: What factors influenced your decision to champion this opportunity?
Dean Messelaar: That’s a common question. Many people are simply not familiar with the modern China. Some of these facts will astonish you. Today, 450 of the Fortune 500 have a significant presence in China. In 2008 in China the pool of college-age students will be 124 million. The Chinese government has announced that public spending will focus on elementary education and that higher education must rely on foreign universities to meet demand. Experts in the field say China has an ability to graduate five times more scientists and engineers with bachelors degrees than we can in the United States. And, in the past 20 years, China has established collaborative relationships with 154 countries, sent 300,000 students to study abroad in over 100 countries, received 210,000 foreign students from 160 countries, sent 1,800 teachers to teach abroad, and employed 40,000 foreign teachers and experts. Currently, China hosts more than 60,000 foreign students and is the most popular destination for US students who want to study in Asia.

In 2001, an experienced and successful international Chinese entrepreneur who also had been a former Chinese provincial government administrator gave a presentation in which this future was predicted and justified on the basis of then current trends. Partnering with China for the purpose of an educational and cultural exchange seemed to me then, and now, an obvious opportunity for the University of Massachusetts.

Q: I have to ask this question because it is sure to be on the minds of everyone reading this: Can the free-flow of ideas common to the US college experience be truly replicated in China where still today centralized government control and censorship exists dominates the process?
Dean Messelaar: There are 30,000 censors in China. Courses are individually vetted by the Ministry of Education. There’s an audit process by the central authorities. If you’re asking me what level of intrusion is acceptable, that probably sounds like quite a degree of intrusion. There are topics that are off limits or can’t be discussed freely… things like Japanese and Chinese relations during the World War II, the Tiananmen Square protests, individual rights and so forth. There’s no doubt that websites are censored and blocked. Of course, many Chinese are aware of the tools available in the West to circumvent censorship. But the real answer to your question is this: By working in close collaboration with Chinese professors on the development of quality online offerings for students in China, we learn how far the current policy will let us go. It’s a learning process… a learning moment if you will… an almost diplomatic process. In working with a foreign culture, can US professors be diplomatic, can they learn, will they continue to push the envelope? Of course.

Q: The intellectual trade with China that is spawned by this initiative must make for a very diverse campus?
Dean Messelaar: It adds to the diversity of course, but UMassBoston is already the most diverse campus in New England and possibly throughout the entire US. Some 90 different languages are spoken on the campus of UMass Boston. About 40% of our students speak a language other than English when they return home. Nine percent of our students are international.

Q: If you don’t object to a somewhat related question, weren’t you one of the first faculty members at the University of Massachusetts to teach an online course?
Dean Messelaar: Yes. I taught a web-based technical writing course on both the Lowell and Boston campuses and I authored the manual An Instructor’s Guide to Developing Web-based Courses, used to train UMass cyber faculty.

Q: Last question and this one is on behalf of all us would-be world travelers who have yet to visit China. How long is the trip, how is the food, and in general, what is it like there?
Dean Messelaar: It is 13 hours in the air from here and that typically requires 23 hours to complete due to stopovers. That’s going to change though. Non-stop flights from Boston to Beijing are coming. The cuisine is terrific. The Chinese eat more fresh seafood and produce than Americans and there is no where near the obesity in China that exists here. In the major cities, day and night, large neon lights display huge corporate brand names and if you didn’t know you were in China you could easily think you’re in New York since all the names are familiar brands and icons. The Chinese are proud of this, of their cities, of their growing participation on the world stage.

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One Response to “Dean Dirk Messelaar: A Visionary Builder of Bridges to China”

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