Pace's China Connection

by Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 2/19/2007

Under a new directive from its university president to give its students more international exposure, Pace University recently inked partnerships to expand the school's ties with and focus on Chinese publishing. The Manhattan school, which has a longstanding Master of Science in Publishing program, has signed agreements with a Chinese university and a Chinese publisher to meet those goals.

According to Chris Cory, Pace's executive director of communications, the school's president, David A. Caputo, returned from a trip to China two years ago impassioned by the notion of "internationalizing" the school's student body. Since then various professors and university officials have gone to China and, from those visits, a relationship was established with one of the country's largest publishers, Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG). Located in Jiangsu province, PPMG has crafted what Cory dubbed "an alliance" with Pace's publishing grad school.

In 2006, Pace worked with PPMG and Nanjing University to establish the Sino-American Publishing Research Center in China. Dedicated to student and professor exchanges, the center will host executive training sessions for both Chinese and American professionals in the publishing industry.

In the U.S., Pace will launch the Confucius Institute later this year. With seed money provided by the Chinese government, the institute—which will offer intensive Chinese-language and culture courses—will provide a place for corporate training in New York.

PPMG has already inked agreements with three U.S. publishers—McGraw-Hill, ETS (Educational Testing Service) and Springer Publishing—to release titles in the U.S. and China. According to Cory, the PPMG executives were able to make those deals after graduate program faculty members—many of whom work in publishing—introduced them to industry people in New York.

Speaking to the goals of Pace's agreements, Cory said they are threefold, with a focus on making contacts, corporate training and education.