Five years and counting, Algonquin’s China initiative is still going strong.
In May and June instructors from Algonquin went to Ninjang, China to teach 3 week intensive courses for the business and administration program.
In what was its fifth iteration, students at Jiangsu Maritime Institute have had the option to study under a handful of Algonquin staff, from the business and administration program.
Once completing what is available in China, students are given the option to continue their last year of the program at the Woodroffe campus in Ottawa.
“We each teach for three hours a day, excluding weekends. It’s very intense and high-energy,” said Noni Stukel, a professor and co-ordinator within Algonquin’s marketing program, “There’s lots of role-playing since it’s a second language to them.”
Stukel has been to China twice to teach for the partnership, but will not be returning in 2016 since the marketing courses that she teaches are finished for the session. The students will be learning from other professors within the business and administration program next spring.
In what has been a mutually beneficial program so far, students learn in a second language in what is one of Algonquin’s most popular programs. The professors also get to experience a new culture and visit some of the lesser-visited areas of China.
“It’s a lot greener than I expected,” said Stukel. “You expect to see the cities but where we were it felt safer and I saw a lot more of the country than I expected. It’s not the country you think it is.”
Put together by Algonquin’s manager of international partnerships and programs, James Wang, the program will look to continue its success for the foreseeable future.