Chinese scholars will study at local college
A partnership between IT Carlow’s Wexford Campus and a top Chinese University will see students from the Far East come to Wexford to complete their studies.
Three years in the making the partnership will see students at Jilin Normal University (JNU) in Siping, North China, undertake an equivalent course of the BA in Visual Communications and Design at the Wexford Campus, which is a graphic design course incorporating drawing, printing, photography, typography and other graphic processes.
At the end of their third year of study the Chinese students will have the option to come to Wexford to do fourth year and complete their honours degree here.
Course Director Patrick Morgan and Lecturer in Art & Design, Culture & Heritage, Ciara Healy-Musson, travelled to JNU to witness the official launch of the programme which saw 100 first-year students begin a course which will mirror that of their fellow design students here in Wexford.
‘It’s a collaboration between the two colleges,’ said Patrick. ‘We’ve mapped modules from our course onto theirs so that, at the end of their third year, they will be able to come here and do their final year at our campus.’
While at JNU Patrick gave two presentations, one which outlined the types of careers available to those taking courses in design and another discussing the benefits of studying in Wexford and the logistics of spending a year in the Model County.
And the prospect of a visit to Ireland and the sunny South
East is something which appeals to many students at JNU, a college with a student body of 29,000.
‘Chinese students are very excited at the prospect of coming here. they look at Ireland as a very safe country to come to,’ Patrick says. ‘ They love to expose themselves to Western education system. And they’ll bring multicultural influences of their own, which will benefit our students.’
Since the Visual Communications and Design course began in 2010 Patrick says that between 70-80% of those graduating have ended up in some form of design-related employment.
‘Not all of them have ended up in graphic design but they’re using their design skills, it could be in digital marketing but they are utilising the skills they learned in their degree courses,’ he said.
‘Our design course is unique in that it has a very strong creative stream and very strong technical stream. It includes standard web design but has a multi-strand approach, and is very strong in business, our students study the same modules as those doing business and marketing.’