BackBlackstone chief endows Rhodes-like scholarships in China
Stephen Schwarzman is giving $100 mn to a scholarship fund at China’s Tsinghua University
Premium(Eric Piermont/ AFP)
Blackstone Group LP chairman Stephen Schwarzman is giving $100 million to set up a Rhodes Scholarships-like program at China’s Tsinghua University, the alma mater of senior officials including President Xi Jinping.
An additional $200 million of donations are also being sought for the Schwarzman Scholars program, which will support 200 students annually for a one-year Master’s program at Tsinghua in Beijing, according to a statement. Li Daokui, a former academic adviser to China’s central bank, will oversee the program that will enroll students mainly from the US, as well as from Europe, South Korea, Japan, India and other nations, it said.
The 66-year-old Schwarzman said he was endowing the program to spur a greater comprehension of China by the US and other Western nations, just as the program established by Cecil J. Rhodes at the University of Oxford facilitated understanding between the US and Europe. China’s international relationships will play as great a role in the world this century as US- European ties did in the 20th, he said in the statement.
The American people, as the Chinese proverb goes, are at risk of having a ‘frog’s eye view of the world’—the isolated perspective of the frog at the bottom of the well, Schwarzman said at a ceremony in Beijing announcing the donation. People in the US know next to nothing about China, he told reporters at a separate briefing. Schwarzman has an estimated net worth of $7.3 billion, ranking him 163 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of 21 April.
Advisory Board
A residential building designed specifically for the program will also be built, with the first group of students slated for 2016, according to the statement. The advisory board for the Schwarzman program includes former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, former UK prime minister Tony Blair and three former US secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.
Former Chinese central bank adviser Li said the program’s curriculum would include taking students to far flung areas and the countryside to learn about the real-life experiences and thinking of average Chinese people.
Other donors to Tsinghua have included Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, who funded the Future Internet Technology Center. John L. Thornton, who retired as president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2003, provided money for the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center, which has its headquarters in Washington and an office at Tsinghua.
The Rhodes Scholarships selects 32 Americans each year to study at the University of Oxford. The first American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904, according to the program’s website.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
