Recently, the East Texas Baptist University formed a partnership with the Lanzhou University of Technology in Lanzhou, China, after a visit by ETBU officials to China in hope of expanding research work.

According to Jerry Summers, history professor at ETBU, ETBU and other Texas universities will collaborate with Chinese scholars and hold an academic conference in Lanzhou in summer 2005.

Under the agreement, which was signed by Paul Sorrels, ETBU vice president for academic affairs, there is also going to be an exchange of students and faculty between the two universities.

"The trip also helped to show new ways for ETBU students and faculty to gain international experience and understanding, in accordance with the university's goal of providing 'a world of opportunity in a community of faith,'" said Summers, who traveled to China twice before. "As the world's most populated and most quickly developing country, the People's Republic of China presents unlimited opportunities for educational and cultural exchange." Summers is currently teaching a course on Chinese history.

Sorrels and Summers are making efforts to form similar relationships with other universities in China. So far they have met with representatives from the Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou, and will soon be visiting the Guangdong Teacher’s College of Foreign Languages and Arts and Hong Kong Baptist University to form a new relationship.