**NORTHERN COLLEGE NEWS RELEASE**

Northern College is pleased to announce the signing of two new agreements with one of its Chinese partner schools.

Northern College has been partnered with Hunan Industry Polytechnic, in Changsha, Hunan Province since 2015, allowing the colleges’ Mechanical Engineering Technician program to be taught overseas, bringing cutting edge educational methods and curriculum to Chinese classrooms.

“As part of these agreements, not only are students studying our curriculum in China, but we have had several exchanges of faculty over the course of the year,” said Northern College President Dr. Fred Gibbons. “Where faculty come here and can be taught the instructional techniques that we use in our classrooms, visiting faculty can then bring that back with them and begin to impart those methods and techniques in their own classrooms.”

This new agreement will allow more than simply an exchange of information and methodology, they continue the tradition of providing teacher education training as well as faculty and student exchange opportunities. The two new programs include Electrical Engineering Technician and Motive Power Technician – Automotive Service, both programs are two year diploma programs.

“We import the most advanced vocational education from Canada to China.” said delegation member Peng Yuexiang, Director of the Education Administration Office. “The agreement is mainly about student exchange from China and into Northern College, including faculty exchanges as well.”

This growing partnership with nine Chinese post-secondary institutions has not only raised Northern College’s profile in international education, it has a growing impact throughout our catchment region.

“I think this is very important work that the College is doing, expanding their international ties throughout the world,” said Timmins Mayor Steve Black. “The College is one of the most important institutions we have in the city from a community perspective and we’re always talking about youth retention and attracting people to the community and the College is definitely one of our key assets in that respect.”

Northern College is committed to providing a learning gateway for the countless international students drawn to Canada by the quality of our post-secondary educational system, a quality that the College is vigilant about maintaining, even overseas.

“We conduct quality assurance audits as part of our relationship, to ensure that the program learning outcomes are being achieved, that the teaching standards are being elevated to our level of expectation” said Dr. Gibbons. “To ensure that the Chinese students are receiving the same quality of education that Canadian students would be receiving in the same programs. We want our Northern College diplomas, in China, to have the same level of respect and integrity as they would here in Canada. This is part of our commitment to our partner institutions and to our Chinese students”

Both signed agreements will have to be reviewed by the Chinese government before the programs can commence, the first intake is expected to take place in early 2020.

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