The Canadian institution ‘Centennial College’ has opened a campus in China. Suzhou Centennial College is the first Canadian institution to be approved by the Education Ministry of China to deliver Canadian programs.

Suzhou Centennial College is located around 100 km north-west of Shanghai. It will provide pathways for Chinese students to study at Centennial College in Toronto, as well as provide Canadian students with the opportunity to spend time abroad in China. Centennial College in Canada already hosts around 1,300 Chinese students a year.

Operating in association with Suzhou University of Science and Technology, the campus has opened with 1,000 enrolled students, and in the next two years, its target is to reach 1,000 international students with 2,500 Chinese students. It will aim to expand its capacity to 5,000 in five years, according to Virginia Macchiavello, executive director, international education at Centennial College.

“The college aims to facilitate two-way mobility in order to internationalise the experiences of student bodies through study abroad, research, projects, and internships. There will also be professors from the Canadian campuses in China, as well as exchanges of faculty between the two countries,” Macchiavello asserted.

“The Suzhou programs will be linked to industry, replicating the Ontario, Canada model is known for the partnership between governments, industry, and education to produce graduates that meet industry needs include business foundations, financial services and business accounting,” Macchiavello added.

This is not the first time Centennial College has worked in China, with the college celebrating 20 years of educational partnerships between the two countries. The college is also celebrating its 50th anniversary, making it the oldest publicly funded college in Ontario, and has recently started a campaign to encourage environmental clean ups around the globe.