By Katherine Gibson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: June 4, 2014
Starting this fall, UFV will look to expand its global partnerships to include China.
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada (BCCSC), UFV has agreed to discuss Chinese students taking part in the university’s aviation program.
Although nothing official has been decided, the MOU reflects UFV’s desire to not only partner with China but also to strengthen its current partnership with Coastal Pacific Aviation.
“[Aviation] is certainly a flagship program. It’s not something that’s offered everywhere,” notes UFV International executive director David McGuire. “We really hope that the ‘i’s can be dotted and the ‘t’s can be crossed so that we can get off to a good start recruiting for it in the fall.”
As McGuire explains, ideally, Chinese schools will recruit students as early as grade 10 for UFV’s aviation program. These selected high school students will come to UFV during the summer to upgrade their English and take part in a “junior aviation camp” — an opportunity that will give these individuals both a taste of the program and a leg up on the intense coursework that they will face should they choose to enter the program after graduation.
Beyond giving Chinese students the ability to obtain their commercial and private pilot licences, this partnership will help UFV competitively recruit more international students to the university.
“We traditionally think of the UK, Australia, and the US as being our major competitors but what people don’t realize is that countries like Malaysia … are now bringing in all kinds of students,” McGuire notes. “[Those countries are] recruiting internationally as well. So we’re not competing with just the Western countries … international education is now international.”
The addition of international students from China will also add a unique diversity to UFV’s campuses, which McGuire believes is an important part of university life and student education.
“We owe it to our students … to outline the different cultures around the world that they will undoubtedly be exposed to,” McGuire continues. “If we don’t prepare our students for a globally engaged world, then we’re not giving the best undergraduate education that we can,” he concludes. “More international students here, as long as students work and engage together … it benefits everybody.”
