On 19 December, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in Philadelphia by Professor Roberto S Mariano, Dean of the School of Economics & Social Sciences (SESS), SMU and Professor Samuel Preston, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), in relation to the SMU-Penn SAS collaboration program in the social sciences. Following the management and research programmes between SMU and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, this agreement further solidifies the academic partnership between the two universities. This MOU has an initial duration of five years, commencing on 1 January 2003 and ending on 31 December 2008, and may be extended by mutual agreement between SMU and Penn SAS.
The main objective of the collaboration programme under this MOU is to establish a strong SMU-Penn SAS presence in the arena of social science research and teaching, with specific focus on business and economic applications in Asia. Initially, the main activity
in this MOU will concern the refinement of the
Bachelor of Social Science (BSS) degree
programme at SMU, as well as faculty recruiting at SMU in the social sciences – especially political science, psychology and sociology.
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Subsequent activities under this MOU involve visiting professorship programmes for Penn SAS faculty to participate in the development and conduct of the social science programme in SESS – both at the undergraduate and graduate degree levels – as well as joint research activities involving participation of both SMU and Penn SAS researchers, and student exchange programmes in the social sciences between the two universities.
Through this MOU, an advisory group of Penn SAS faculty will be formed to provide counsel
advisory group will be chaired by Herbert Smith, Professor of Sociology and Demography and Associate Dean of Penn SAS. Professors Mariano and Preston envisage the following activities from their joint effort under this MOU:
• Visiting professorships at SMU for Penn SAS
 faculty (regular semesters or summer terms at
SMU) in the social sciences and the humanities
• Short-term visits to SMU by Penn SAS faculty to give research seminars or to explore/perform research collaboration with targeted SMU
faculty
• Collaborative research projects in the social
sciences between SMU and Penn SAS faculty – with special focus on business/economic
applications in Asia – that may involve researchvisits to Penn by SMU faculty
• Special summer programmes at Penn for SMU
students
• Participation of SMU students in special summerprogrammes arranged by Penn
• Student exchange programmes in the social
sciences and the humanities between SMU andPenn.
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