University of the West - Extended Studies News

The lectures will trace the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism as a literate tradition in India and its subsequent spread through Central Asia into the capital of the Han dynasty. The focus will be on the ways in which writing of texts was done and used by the differing communities. This will be followed by a discussion of how the Buddhist canon in Chinese came into existence, the nature of it, and the use over the centuries in political and social life. The final two lectures will be a summary of how the Buddhist tradition traced through its written materials took root among the people of East Asia who engaged in the process of adding their own original works.

Dr. Lewis Lancaster, professor emeritus UC Berkeley and Internationally renowned Buddhist Scholar, will be on campus for a series of lectures on the Spread of Buddhism into China. These lectures update and revise his approach first presented in the online course “Spread of Buddhism to Central Asia & China.”

Introducing Open Campus

Thursday, 19 March 2009

The Extended Studies team is proud to announce Open Campus. Open Campus is an online virtual classroom that makes available for viewing various lectures and lessons offered in our campus by our professors at University of the West.

In this day and age, there's a growing presence of contribution. In the good nature of learning we're happy to share our knowledge of various topics to the world. Currently, the topics we support are in religious studies. However, we're growing and we plan to expand upon our offerings.

What's the catch? There's no catch. Open Campus is freely available to the public. As reflected in its multidisciplinary educational objectives and culturally diverse faculty and student body, the University of the West is deeply committed to the interaction of diverse cultures and the comparative teaching of international perspectives. At University of the West, students and faculty come together as a community of scholars to participate in an ongoing dialogue between Eastern and Western perspectives to advance knowledge, address societal and cultural issues, and promote education and understanding across cultures.

Extended Studies original team member leaves for Canada

Thursday, 21 August 2008

We recently said good bye to our long time cohort here in Extended Studies, Eldor Choriev. Eldor has been at UWest since December of 2004, and working with Extended Studies since January of 2005.

Coming from Uzbekistan to complete an MBA and Post-MBA, Eldor has played an integral part in the development of the distance education pilot program started in 2004 by then-President Dr. Lewis Lancaster. Much of the business material that is or has been developed at UWest reflects the finger prints of hard work and attention to detail that are Eldor’s strengths. Eldor is in the process of moving his family to Edmonton, Canada, where we wish him much luck, success and good health for his family.

Renowned Buddhist Scholar Dr. Lancaster Returns to UWest via Extended Studies

Thursday, 21 August 2008

On June 21, 2008, Dr. Lewis Lancaster (former professor and President of UWest) returned to the University of the West campus to hold the first introductory seminar for a class in Advanced Research Methodology which begins in Fall Semester 2008.

With 24 students in the classroom, and four more students attending live online through Web conference, the seminar was well attended and quite beneficial to the students in the process or embarking on dissertation research and writing. UWest is very fortunate to be able have Dr. Lancaster on campus once again sharing his expertise and knowledge with our graduate students.