UNLV's William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration recently signed a cooperative agreement with the University of Macau in China to promote academic, scientific, and cultural exchanges between the two institutions.

Stuart Mann, dean of UNLV's hotel college, said the new agreement will provide for a variety of collaborative activities, including joint research projects, data exchanges between academic staff and students, and the development of joint lectures, seminars, and symposiums.

"We're really looking forward to working with the University of Macau as they establish themselves as an academic leader in Asia in the area of gaming management," Mann said.

The initial joint research projects, which are slated to begin this summer, will address several relevant gaming topics, including the relationship between academicians and casino operators, the practical problems in gaming operations, and the training needs of gaming personnel.

Mann and several UNLV faculty members attended a signing ceremony in China last month marking the agreement with the University of Macau. During the event, Mann was also named as a member of the advisory board of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macau. The UNLV delegation, which was representing the university at a gaming management symposium there, was composed of hotel college professors John Bowen, K. Pearl Brower, Andy Nazarechuk, and Ed Polivka.

Macau, which is 40 miles west of Hong Kong, is one of Asia's most popular gaming destinations and enjoys a similarly beneficial relationship with the University of Macau as Las Vegas shares with UNLV.

The William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at UNLV is the largest hotel college in the United States with approximately 2,000 undergraduates, 80 master's students, 20 doctoral students, and nearly 7,000 alumni, representing all 50 states and more than 50 countries.