It is also challenging for the overseas teachers giving lectures there. Each overseas teacher will be rated at the end of each semester by the students and poor results could lead to dismissal, says Tang.

Mohan Gogineni, a US lecturer at Arizona State University, has been teaching under the cooperative program at Wenzheng College for two years. His course in electrical engineering is a difficult subject that requires a great deal of "abstract thinking". The challenge is even greater for Chinese students as it is given in English, he says.

But it was to his great delight to see students getting in tune with the US style of education-asking questions of the teacher whenever necessary. It was a major marker of progress, as Gogineni found out, for most of them were initially neither comfortable nor confident in asking questions.