Purdue University Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen returned from a recent trip to China that generated several partnerships with international universities and an honorary professorship.

Cohen; his wife, Patricia; and Purdue Calumet Professor/Mechanical Engineering Department Head Chen Zhou, a native of Changsha City, Hunan Province, returned last week from a 12-day trip to China that included visits to four universities: Central South University, Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and North China Electric Power University.

The trip served to establish faculty research and student exchange opportunities between Purdue Calumet and the Chinese universities, as well as advance Purdue Calumet’s “English Training in Engineering” program. The program attracts to the Hammond campus Chinese engineering students in their final year of undergraduate study who desire to strengthen their English literacy skills as they complete their engineering course work.

Before addressing faculty and students at Central South University, a 51,000-student, national institution in Hunan Province, on the topic, “Leadership at the Intersection of Expediency and Stewardship,” Cohen was awarded an honorary professorship.

“I am extremely flattered to have been honored with such a gesture of distinction by colleagues and students at Central South University,” Cohen said. “Purdue Calumet enjoys warm, rich relationships with peer universities in China; those relationships have nurtured vital learning opportunities, cultural exchanges and other experiences that have proven to be mutually beneficial.”

The growing Purdue Calumet-Chinese partnerships have contributed to international student enrollment at Purdue Calumet that increased last fall to nearly 465 students, more than half of whom reside in China.