Universities welcome foreign staff with open arms

In the 1990s Jeffrey S Lehman, then dean of the University of Michigan law school, began visiting Beijing to help open a programme for members of his faculty to teach at Peking University's law school during the summer. But Lehman, a former president of Cornell University, did not expect to work for a Chinese university himself, writes Liz Gooch for The New York Times.

In 2007, the leaders of Peking University, with whom he had developed strong relationships over the years, asked him to help establish a school teaching American law to Chinese students on their Shenzhen campus. That summer he became the chancellor and founding dean of the school, called the Peking University School of Transnational Law.

The number of foreigners working at the law school has increased since it was established, with American, German, British and South Korean academics. As institutions in Western countries continue to suffer from budget cuts, academics looking for opportunities farther afield are finding that China is welcoming foreign professors with open arms.
Full report on The New York Times site