December 4, 2001 – More than 500 Chinese post-secondary students are studying College of the North Atlantic’s Electronics Technology program through two different universities in China. College of the North Atlantic President Pamela Walsh and Danniel Wong, the college’s Chair of the School of Engineering Technology, recently traveled to China and visited the students at both universities. “We have more than 400 students at Jilin University and another 130 at Southern Yangtze University in China using our curriculum in the Electronics Technology options of communications, computers and IT,” says Pamela Walsh, President of College of the North Atlantic. Six students from Jilin University have come to Newfoundland and Labrador and are completing their programs at the college’s Ridge Road campus. Seven more are expected to arrive in January and another 10 are in the process of applying to the Canadian government for student visas in order to attend classes here. “I would expect in addition to the students from Jilin, we will have students from Southern Yangtze coming to the province to attend College of the North Atlantic in 2002,” says Ms. Walsh. Also while in China, Ms. Walsh signed an Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation with another Chinese institution, Sichuan University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The new agreement states both institutions will continue to collaborate for teacher and student exchange, academic interchange, research cooperation and joint ventures. The first example of that collaboration will be the College of the North Atlantic’s facilitation of a conference in Sichuan in November of 2002 to raise public and government awareness of the importance of energy conservation. College of the North Atlantic has been involved with SUST for the past three years, developing an energy management project. CNA faculty are training SUST faculty on how to use energy-related software and apply energy conserving techniques in building construction, operation and maintenance. The university gave Mr. Wong his Visiting Professor Status in recognition of his contribution of training for SUST faculty. Also, the Design and Research Institute within SUST granted him Senior Engineer status formally approved by the Sichuan Provincial Construction Bureau. This latest visit to China has also led to the possibility of opening a college within SUST using College of the North Atlantic’s curriculum. -30- For more information contact: Stephen Lee Communications Officer (709) 643-7928