Clarification: A story in Tuesday's City & Region section reported that the University of Massachusetts was on the verge of becoming the first foreign university whose online education courses and degrees will be officially recognized in China. But after the UMass announcement, Southern New Hampshire University said it had received permission from the Chinese government a year ago to offer an online MBA program, beginning this fall. While both schools produced documents on their agreements with China, it could not be independently verified which school was the first to have online degree programs recognized by China. There are other US colleges and universities offering online programs in China, but some are either not sanctioned by the government or part of a degree program.
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