USQ and Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to sign MOU

Four senior executives from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture will visit USQ to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) tomorrow (Friday 31 August 2007).

The senior executives will meet with the University's Vice-Chancellor Professor Bill Lovegrove to sign the MOU, which will enable employees from the Ministry to study at USQ.

'The MOU will allow groups of up to 20 delegates to come to the University and do an intensive English course, as well as business, international trading law and HR management courses,' English Language Culture Program Co-ordinator Kate Kuzma said.

'Each of the delegates will spend 10 weeks studying at USQ, with the program set to start from next year.'

Although the University has run initiatives like this in the past they have not incorporated as many delegates.

'In 2003 one of the people who is part of this delegation came out to USQ on a similar program,' Mrs Kuzma said.

'She has since been promoted and thought that the program would be valuable for others in the Ministry so she contacted me and we organised the MOU.'

While at USQ, the delegation will also tour the Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments (ACSC), in the hope of building links between the Ministry and the Centre.

'Originally the group were just coming to sign the MOU but when they heard about the ACSC they were interested in our rural capabilities,' ACSC Co-Director Dr Jerry Maroulis said.

'I will talk to them about what we do here and it is an opportunity for us to exchange ideas.

'This will be the second delegation from China that has visited in the last week and shows that USQ is more than one dimensional.'

The delegation will be at the University today (Thursday 30 August 2007) to visit the ACSC. USQ Vice Chancellor, Professor Bill Lovegrove will sign the MOU with the senior executives on Friday 31 August 2007 in the Vice-Chancellor's Conference Room at 9:30am.

Media are welcome to attend either or both of the events.

Media Contact: Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 1628