Alba signed a new exchange program agreement with Sias International University, which is in Central China, at Henan Province.
Founded in 1998 by a naturalized Chinese-American, Shawn Chen, with an enrollment of less than 300 students, today Sias has an enrollment of over 27,000, and employs over 1,200 full-time faculty members, including 138 full-time foreign teachers. The rate of foreign faculty to students ranks first in China.
It offers 75 undergraduate degree programs, 15 associate degree programs, and 6 dual degree programs with Fort Hays State University from Kansas, USA. It also has 5 graduate programs. The fields of study offering degrees include liberal arts, science, engineering, economics, management, medicine, law, education, and the performing arts.
As an international university, Sias enjoys partnerships with 114 international partner schools in 35 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand and Indonesia.
It has international students from more than 20 countries as well as faculty members whose expertise and training embrace both Chinese and Western educational philosophies.
Situated in the heartland of central China near the Yellow River in Henan province, the town of XinZheng houses the Sias campus and is the birthplace of Chinese history dating back over 5,000 years. Numerous archeological sites are in close proximity to the Sias campus including the dynastic ruins of several ancient Chinese capitals such as ZhengZhou, Luoyang, Kaifeng, and others. Unlike many of the other international programs in China, the location and environment surrounding Sias retains much of traditional Chinese culture, allowing the student to experience the "real" China.
Just outside the campus, students can still see ‘rural' China and village farm life, while also witnessing in the same panoramic view the current industrialization of modern China in nearby cities and the emerging middle class urban neighborhoods.