November 4, the University of Southern California (USC) and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) signed an official contract to co-build the “SJTU & USC Cultural and Creative Industry Institute”. By adopting new management model and training system, this institute will become the third special organization of SJTU. The former two are the UM-SJTU Joint Institute (JI), represented a strategic global partnership between the University of Michigan (UM) and SJTU, and the SJTU-ParisTech Elite Institute of Technology (SPEIT) which was established under the cooperation of SJTU and Paris Tech.
As we all know, Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in China, however, the cultural and creative industry here is not developed as people expected. For example, its productivity index only ranks fourth in China. The main reason of this phenomenon is lacking of high-level talents. In contrast, the University of Southern California is playing a leading role in this field around the world. By integrating the resources of the two universities, the new institute hopes to cultivate more high-level talents and help improve the core competition of the cultural and creative industry in Shanghai.
The new institute will break through the traditional Chinese education mode, using the dean responsibility system under the leadership of the Joint Management Committee (JMC). The JMC is the highest organization of the institute, making all the great decisions. The president of SJTU and the academic dean of USC serve as the director of this JMC. Members are from both universities as well as specialists from distinct enterprises and foundations.
The main mission of SJTU & USC Cultural and Creative Industry Institute includes education, research, training and think tank. According to the plan, the institute’s scientific research base and advanced training center will be located at Qiantan International Business Zone in the Pudong New Area near “Media City”, while its teaching center will be situated at the Zizhu International Education Park in the city’s Minhang district, to jointly establish a “Dream Oriental Institute”. In the beginning phase, it will offer courses from three different aspects, which are cultural innovation and entrepreneurship; special effect, new media technology and cultural engineering; as well as knowledge of cultural industries and market management. The institute will use the education mode and cultivation plan from USC, and introduce quality core curricula and education resources.
As reported, at least half of the faculty will come from USC. Graduates will obtain diplomas from both universities. The institute plans to enroll the first batch of students next year, initially with masters’ program, followed by potential PhD and bachelor projects in the future. The total number of students in the first 5 years will be controlled less than 1000.
