President McPhee tours new Zhenjiang institution
before its fall opening
ZHENJIANG, China — Organizers of a China college opening this fall to help the country
meet its demand for aerospace professionals approached Middle Tennessee State
University on Wednesday (July 20) to form one of its first foreign
partnerships.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee opened negotiations
with Jiangsu Aviation Technical College in China’s Jiangsu province, which will
open its doors in September. The college hopes to link with MTSU for expertise
in air traffic control and aircraft maintenance education.
China’s central government is expected to open
general aviation space to private enterprise, which will create a demand for
aerospace facilities. Jiangsu officials anticipate as many as 500 airports will
be built in the next five years — and more than 3,000 will open within 10
years.
“It speaks to the international reputation of our
Aerospace department to be asked to be one of the first partners of this new
college,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. “We look forward to exploring
opportunities with Jiangsu as they prepare to welcome their students.”
McPhee invited Sun Jia Zheng, a vice president of
the college and a local economic development official for the region, to visit
Murfreesboro this year to meet with the aerospace faculty and explore
opportunities for collaboration.
“There will be so many new general aviation airports
in China,” Zheng said. “Construction isn’t the hard work. We feel our key focus
needs to be in the training for the operation of these new facilities,
including maintenance and air traffic control.”
Jiangsu will open this fall with an enrollment of
600 students and six aerospace degree programs. China’s central government
built the campus to handle many times that initial enrollment, with gleaming
white marble buildings assembled in a large area in an aerospace research park.
McPhee toured several of the new college’s
facilities, including a Boeing 737 cabin simulator that will be used to train
students on passenger safety and service.
“It’s an incredible campus and it’s well poised to
serve the needs of China’s emerging general aviation industry,” McPhee said.
“MTSU can help this college develop programs and processes it needs to help
meet their needs.”
McPhee is in China along with a 28-member delegation
that includes several Rutherford County schoolchildren, parents and teachers
who are part of a unique educational exchange organized by MTSU.
The delegation will visit classrooms, participate in
enrichment activities and go with Chinese families for home visits as part of
the reciprocal exchange with Dongcheng Education Group of Hangzhou Normal
University.
MTSU's Confucius Institute, a joint effort between
the Hangzhou and Murfreesboro universities, oversees the annual exchange.
Families paid their travel expenses to China, but most housing and travel costs
were covered by the institute and Dongcheng.
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