Alexander Luzula | Assistant News Director
FIU’s international partnership with several Chinese universities has been terminated, following revisions to state university funding policies.
This decision brings to an end several relationships and dual enrollment programs held between FIU and various Chinese universities, most notably the Marriott Tianjin China Program.
First established by former president Mark B. Rosenberg in 2006, the program was one of the first of its kind. A new campus was built to accommodate 1,200 students in Tianjin, China, costing the Chinese government $100 million to complete at the time.
The Marriott Tianjin China Program offered degrees in hospitality management, overseen by the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, in partnership with the Tianjin University of Commerce.
Other programs terminated in the wake of this decision were a Spanish language program offered in relationship with Qingdao University of Qingdao, China, as well as engineering programs throughout several other Chinese universities.
According to media relations director Madeline Baro, the programs were terminated following revisions made by the State University System’s Board of Governors.
“The FIU hospitality program in Tianjin was established as a self-supporting program, where the tuition revenues covered all costs associated with delivering the program,” said Baro.
“In the spring of 2023, the Florida Board of Governors revised its Self-Supporting and Market Tuition Programs regulation, which precipitated the closing of the FIU hospitality program in China, as well as two other smaller programs.”
The administration notified its Chinese counterparts in the spring of 2023. Freshmen and sophomore students were given the option to either change programs and remain in Tianjin or study at FIU in Miami, while juniors and seniors were still able to finish their coursework and receive an FIU degree at the end of the year.
Baro also acknowledged the recent “countries of concern” law passed by the state legislature, stating, “Given the foreign countries of concern law, which we anticipated would go into effect by the end of 2023, we also would have been required to revisit the programs.”
Signed into law last year, the new law forbids state universities from engaging in business with several “countries of concern, including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. A hiring pause on candidates from these countries was implemented during the break until the BOG could draft a new hiring process.
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