Regional Studies Program Adds East Asian Section

Increasing problems in East Asia and "the need for training people to deal with them" have led to the formation of a Center for East Asian Studies, John M. Fairbanks '29, professor of History, stated yesterday.

The Faculty Committe on Regional Studies has set up the Center to give "cohesion and stimulus" to graduate training and research programs concerned with the area. Plans call for more intensive study of Japan, Korea, and other potential trouble areas.

Administration of the Center is carried on by the Committee on East Asian Studies, headed by Edwin O. Reischauer, professor of Far Eastern Languages. Like the center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Russian Research Center, it is under the overall supervision of the Regional Studies Committee.

Programs leading to the degrees of B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in East Asian Studies are being direced by the Center. Because the Center has no departmental status, however, undergraduates who want a degree in Asian Studies must concentrate in Far Eastern Languages or in an appropriate field of History.

Provides Contact with Scholars

Advantages of grouping East Asian studies in one Center include the contact of graduate students with visiting scholars from abroad, and coordination of the following graduate training and research programs:

1. The two-year training program for M.A. candidates in Regional Studies--East Asia (formerly China).

2. Administration of the Ph.D. Degree in History and Far Eastern Languages

3. Two research programs in Chinese Economic and Political Studies.

The economic studies are assisted by a five-year grant from the Ford Foundation, and the political studies by an allocation of part of an eight-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation for general international studies.