Nursing students and faculty from Jinhua University in Jinhua, China, wrapped up a week-long stay in Bemidji on Sept. 24. The group, which included six of the university’s leading students and three faculty members, toured the nursing programs at both Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College and visited health care facilities throughout the Bemidji community.

The ambassadors were visiting Bemidji to explore a potential degree-completion agreement between Jinhua and Bemidji State, which would allow Jinhua students to spend two years at BSU completing bachelor’s degrees in nursing after finishing their three-year program in Jinhua.

“They were very impressed by the quality of what they saw in our classrooms and labs,” said Dr. Martin Tadlock, BSU/NTC provost and vice president for academic and student affairs. “They loved meeting American students and felt like they had made quick friends.”

Tadlock says the next step in the relationship will be to determine BSU courses and workshops that the Bemidji School of Nursing could deliver on campus in Jinhua beginning as soon as the summer of 2016. He said the university was exploring material that might be delivered in programs lasting around three weeks by BSU faculty traveling to China. Those courses would provide some college credit that Jinhua students could bring with them to support their degree-completion efforts. BSU faculty also will be working to identify Jinhua-taught courses that could be accepted by BSU as transfer credits, Tadlock said.

“The idea would be to introduce Jinhua students to BSU and to our nursing program while they are still in China,” Tadlock said.