By Dane Gibson
Vancouver Island University’s international presence will soon be enhanced by upcoming trips to India and Vietnam by the university’s president as well as administrators from VIU’s Faculty of International Education.
“International education is vital to VIU’s success. We look forward to strengthening our presence in Asia with innovative partnerships and an engaging outreach strategy,” said Ralph Nilson, president and vice-chancellor. “We’re also excited to visit with some of our key partner institutions.”
On Friday (March 17), Nilson will visit partner institution Chitkara University at its Chandigarh campus in northwest India. While there, Nilson will sign a new articulation agreement for VIU’s hospitality management program which will allow students to take the first two years of a hospitality program at CU, and then transfer to VIU to complete an undergraduate degree.
VIU has worked with Chitkara University for about five years. The schools already have two other articulation agreements in place, for computing science and the bachelor of business administration degree, respectively.
VIU has had an office in New Delhi, India’s capital, for about seven years. Nilson will also meet with Canadian High Commission officials in Delhi and Chandigarh to discuss recruitment and partnership opportunities. He’ll be joined by Bruce Condie, VIU’s director of international marketing, recruitment and business development, and Sumit Agarwal, VIU’s recruitment officer for India.
The following day, Nilson and Graham Pike, VIU’s dean of international education, will be in Vietnam to host a reception for the official opening of VIU’s East Asia office in Ho Chi Minh City.
“International education is very popular in Vietnam, and Canada is seen as a highly desired education destination,” says Condie.
In the following days, Nilson will travel to Tra Vinh University, located in southern Vietnam. While there, he plans to meet with professors and students who are part of a collaborative engineering design project that includes VIU students in the fundamentals of engineering certificate program.
Throughout mid-March, Pike will also be joined by two colleagues from the Faculty of Management on a trip to China. They will visit eight partner institutions in Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong province, including Shandong Technical and Business University in Yantai. VIU is celebrating a successful 10-year partnership with the school.
Dane Gibson is a writer with VIU’s communications department.