VIU Pursues International Opportunities

International opportunities: Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU’s President and Vice-Chancellor, will visit partner institutions in India and Vietnam. He’ll be joined by other University colleagues, including Dr. Graham Pike, Dean of International Education and Bruce Condie, Director of International Marketing, Recruitment and Business Development.

March 13, 2017 - 12:00pm

President Ralph Nilson and colleagues bolster VIU’s presence in India, Vietnam and China

Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) 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,” says Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU’s 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 (CU) at its Chandigarh campus in northwest India. While there, Nilson will sign a new articulation agreement for VIU’s Hospitality Management Program; this allows 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 Dr. 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. Guests include officials from Canada’s Consulate General and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, along with representatives from long-time partner Tra Vinh University (TVU), including its Rector, Dr. Pham Tiet Khanh.

Condie will also be there, as will Rasha Abu Ramadan, VIU’s new Recruitment Officer for East Asia (she represents VIU in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea).

VIU has had an East Asia office for about five years; it was previously based in Seoul, South Korea.

“International education is very popular in Vietnam, and Canada is seen as a highly desired education destination,” says Condie (VIU also has international offices in Beijing, China and Mainz, Germany; last year, more than 2,100 international students attended the University).

In the following days, Nilson will travel to TVU, 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 – Dr. Dave Twynam, Dean, and Dr. Andy Lin, Chinese Partnerships Coordinator – 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.

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