Peking University, Jan. 4, 2013:  Aiming at attracting PKU’s top engineering graduate students to UCLA, PKU and UCLA signed a pilot integrated PKU BS—UCLA MS program in computer science or electrical engineering.

The novel recruiting program, signed by Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, during his working visit to the PKU School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, allows PKU undergraduate students to complete the fourth year of their PKU bachelor’s program at UCLA as an Undergraduate Student Visitor, and simultaneously to be conditionally admitted by the Graduate Division to the MS program in either Computer Science or Electrical Engineering.

According to the contact, PKU undergraduates in the fields of science and engineering can apply for graduate admission at UCLA in their third year, and those students who successfully obtain their bachelor’s degree from PKU and meet the conditions laid out in the Conditional Admittance for the UCLA Master’s Degree program would matriculate into the Master’s program the following year. After completing the program coursework, students will receive a Master’s Degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering at UCLA.

Selected students should complete at least 12 units of course work toward their MS degree at UCLA with a GPA3.0 or higher, and also complete their independent research (CS199 or equivalent) with a UCLA faculty member and produce a research report, which may be used as the basis of their Bachelor thesis at PKU.

Further, the goal of the program is to attract those graduate students who may be able to bring with them the scholarship from the international government scholarship programs that fund PhD students at international top notch universities. It would have the added benefit to leverage the funds currently available to UCLA departments for graduate student support with international resources.

“If this program works, we are considering other international universities with a history of providing top students,” said a UCLA official.

Written by: Ji Fan

Edited by: Zhang Jiang

Source: PKU News (Chinese)