On March 16th, the 6th International Classes for maritime studies officially opened. This year three majors are arranged, namely Marine Transportation, Marine Engineering, and International Maritime Business. We have altogether 41 exchange students from America, Poland, Ukraine, Korea, and Denmark, Egypt and Indonesia, among them students from Egypt and Indonesia for the first time participates in this program. Chairman of the University Council, Prof. JIN Yongxing, the head from International Education College and International Office, and teachers from Merchant Marine College and College of Transport and Communications attend the opening ceremony.
During the ceremony, Prof. Jin delivered a welcome address for the coming of all the international students of this program. He said that the international classes have become a significant platform of international communication and cooperation. This program starts from the cooperation between MMA and SMU in 2010, and now it has developed to an exchange program for several maritime universities, and it has been recognized by China Scholarship Council and financially aid from CSC Scholarship. From this program, international students could not only gain professional knowledge, but also learn about Chinese history and culture. Prof. Jin also encouraged the students to strengthen communication with each other so as to become an academic-exchange and cultural-exchange envoy between SMU and other maritime colleges.
Representative teacher from Merchant Marine College, Associate Professor Chen Yuli, representative student from MMA Adam Szloch also expressed their expectation on life and study at SMU.
International students and Chinese students of SMU showed us a wonderful performance in the welcome dinner.
To help the international students to get used to life at SMU, IEC organized the orientation for twice, inviting teachers from security department and library to let students know the laws of China, security issues and how to use the library resources, etc.
