New partnership provides accelerated master’s degree option

The University of Michigan Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the School of Environment at Tsinghua University (China), are entering into a partnership to establish an Accelerated Master’s Degree Program (AMDP) at U-M in Environmental Engineering for students from the School of Environment at Tsinghua. On October 1, 2019, representatives from both universities formally signed the agreement in a ceremony during the US-China Environment and Sustainability Forum.

The AMDP aims to recruit and retain highly motivated and exceptionally qualified students to the University of Michigan’s Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.E) in Environmental Engineering, and train the next generation of leaders in environmental engineering in China. The program is designed to combine the requirements for the student’s bachelor’s degree at Tsinghua University with requirements for CEE’s M.S.E. in Environmental Engineering to be completed within a total period of study of five years.

The program awards an M.S.E in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan for Tsinghua University students who concurrently work toward both their undergraduate (from Tsinghua) and graduate (from U-M) degrees during a two-year residency on the University of Michigan campus. The benefit for the students is that the program provides them with deep cultural experiences in Ann Arbor while facilitating their admission to the University of Michigan graduate program. In turn, the University of Michigan benefits by enriching the student community with top-talent from the Asia-Pacific region while helping the program establish stronger research linkages with international colleagues to tackle complex environmental issues in China. The program will also facilitate a wealth of opportunities for U-M students to study abroad at Tsinghua University in the summers, thereby enhancing global educational experiences.

“We are extremely excited by the opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues and friends from Tsinghua University to enrich our programs in environmental engineering,” states CEE Professor and Donald Malloure Department Chair Jerome Lynch. “Offering our students opportunities to study abroad and to learn within a global context is a core value of both or our programs and ensures our graduates are capable of tackling complex environmental challenges that do not recognize international borders.”

The goal of the ADMP is to nurture future leaders of the environmental engineering field in China in hopes the experiences gained at the University of Michigan will empower these students to be at the vanguard of finding solutions to very complex environmental challenges facing both China and the globe. In addition to CEE’s partnership with Tsinghua University, U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability also has an ADMP in place with Tsinghua University.