New agreement set to bring more Chinese students

Professor Marcus Lane, Dean of College of Science and Engineering, attended the signing ceremony held recently in Shanghai with Shanghai Ocean University.

The deal lets students from the university spend two or three years in Townsville studying aquaculture, with the guarantee their study will be recognised once they return to China.

JCU’s Associate Professor Chaoshu Zeng said the dual degree agreement was nearly a year in the making.

“At the moment it only applies to aquaculture, but with that arrangement now established any further co-operation will happen faster. We’d definitely like to see it extended to other majors at JCU,” he said.

Shanghai Ocean University has around 16,000 students, with more than 150 students enrolled each year to study aquaculture.

Dr Zeng said the Shanghai aquaculture students will find hands-on focus of aquaculture teaching at JCU benefit their career aspiration to work within industry.

“JCU has strong industry links and a network of aquariums right on campus, so in that respect we have a teaching advantage,” he said.  

The scheme is expected to begin operation at the beginning of JCU’s second semester in 2017. It’s thought around half a dozen students from Shanghai will be in the initial intake.

Dr Zeng said discussion is also underway to cover post-graduate exchanges between the two universities.

Link to pics: http://bit.ly/2g8OHF9