On November 5, 2019, Professor ZHOU Jianzhong from Sacramento State University, USA delivered a lecture entitled “Chinese Students’ Bilingual Education Experience and Harvard Minority Admission Policy” for IICE’s International Education Podium. The lecture was chaired by IICE Professor LIU Baocun and attended by faculty members and graduate students from the IICE.

Prof. ZHOU shared his thorough analysis of data on Harvard admission over the past few decades, especially those data on priority and differentiation that students of ethnic groups experienced during the admission process. He found that White students enjoyed more privileges in all aspects of admission procedures, while Black students enjoyed preferential treatment due to certain special policies. Comparatively speaking, Asian students had to work much harder to gain the equal opportunity of access. Prof. ZHOU shared three cases of Chinese American students’ learning experiences in the bilingual environment in US as a validation of his findings. Finally, Prof. ZHOU discussed with the audience the admission procedures of American universities, frequently emerging issues, and higher education equity.

Prof. ZHOU Jianzhong is an alumni of BNU. He worked as a faculty member in a number of US universities including the Business School of Northwest University, University of Delaware (where he got his tenure), and Sacramento State University. He won a special award by American Library Association for his outstanding research performance in 2012.

Prof. ZHOU is sixth from the left