Celebrating a milestone

 

UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science recognizes its first class of Chinese graduates in a unique collaboration with Chongqing University.

By Michael Miller
513-556-6757

April 25, 2018

This year’s graduation will mark a significant achievement in the University of Cincinnati’s partnership with a Chinese university.

UC's Joint Engineering Co-op Institute will graduate its first class of engineering students from China since a partnership agreement between the universities was signed in 2013. The first fifth-year class of Chinese students arrived on UC's campus in August last year and worked and studied alongside other fifth-year engineering students at UC. This year, 56 students from Chongqing University (or CQU) will graduate with engineering degrees from both universities.

“It’s a huge milestone. These first students are the real pioneers. They’re the ones who prove it can be done,” said Paul Orkwis, interim dean of UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.

He supervised the program for UC for four years as its American director. The advantage for Chongqing students is participating in UC’s top-rated co-op program, Orkwis said. UC invented co-op in 1906 and introduced the experience-based learning program to China.

“They tell us that it’s their leading international program and it is for us as well,” Orkwis said.

The advantage to many UC students is working alongside students from another culture, he said. One of China’s biggest cities, Chongqing is known for the Yangtze River, its rainy climate and its love of spicy food.
 
“We have a more diverse pool of students as a result. It provides an international experience that all of our students can experience right in Clifton,” Orkwis said.

The new president of CQU, Zhang Zongyi, is scheduled to attend UC’s commencement on April 27. UC Provost Kristi Nelson will host a reception for the Chongqing delegation.

Under the Joint Engineering Co-op Institute, the Chinese students take all of their classes in English at Chongqing for four years before they spend their final year at UC. Students in China receive virtually the same engineering education as their UC classmates, Orkwis said.


“We exported our curriculum. Our faculty are taking their expertise to the classrooms at CQU. But they’re also letting their Chinese partners teach it. It’s our syllabi, our topics, our labs. We try to have the same lab equipment there,” Orkwis said.

Orkwis said he sees the program expanding outside electrical and mechanical engineering, perhaps even to other colleges at UC.

“There is interest to engage the other colleges such as Arts and Sciences and the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning,” Orkwis said.

UC assistant professor Alex Wouden is heading back to China in a few weeks to resume teaching mechanical engineering at CQU. He practices a “flipped” classroom where students study course material on their own and perfect what they learned in the classroom. But that holds some challenges in China where the traditional teaching style involves formal lectures.

“The students are very respectful to the professor. That usually means the professor speaks for 45 minutes and the students are there to listen,” Wouden said. “So asking questions in a public setting can be intimidating.”

Thomas Huston, interim American director of the Joint Engineering Co-op Institute, said most of the students in the program will continue their education in graduate schools. Huston is a professor at CEAS and has taught mechanical engineering at Chongqing for the past two years.

“My Chinese is getting better. It’s different from the Romance languages. My students help me out,” he said.

Program Coordinator Xiaoqun “Sherry” Liao said no other Chinese university has a co-op program to rival the one UC established in 2013 for CQU.

“Some Chinese universities now have co-op programs, but they’re nothing like our mandatory co-op program. They see us as a model for cooperative education,” Liao said.

Liao said the visiting students have made the most of the past year in America. They shared photos of their trips with friends to New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

Now UC and CQU are considering expanding the engineering courses offered under the program. China’s employers have embraced co-op since UC introduced it there, Huston said.

“The advantage of co-op is it gives the student the opportunity to see if it’s a field in which they’re interested,” Huston said. “And the advantage to the business is that it’s like a yearlong interview so they know whether the student is someone they want to extend an offer to. And it helps the student financially.”