Chinese IEP

BS with double minor, internships & study abroad

Study Mandarin alongside Engineering!
(No prior Chinese is required.)

Earn minors in Chinese & Asian Studies along with your BS in an engineering field!

Complete a 6-month professional internship in China!

Study abroad!

Become a Flagship Scholar!

Be recruited by top global companies!

Chinese IEP students take a Chinese course each semester alongside their chosen engineering curriculum. Most students begin their studies at the initial beginner course, CHN 101. Because URI does not yet offer a major in Chinese, students in the program work toward a BS degree in any engineering discipline and minors in both Chinese Language and Asian Studies. Chinese IEP students complete Chinese language study at both URI and ZU and enroll in additional appropriate Asian Studies courses in departments such as history and philosophy. They are advised and guided in their choice of courses by the IEP and the Asian Studies Program.

As early as the semester prior to freshmen year students intending to study Chinese have the opportunity to travel to China for an intensive, four-week Mandarin language and culture program. Visits to several manufacturing and research institutes in Hangzhou are also included.

In the fourth year of the program students spend eleven to twelve months abroad. During the first semester they study full-time at our exchange partner university, Zheijiang University (ZU)in Hangzhou, China, where they take coursework towards their major or minors, as well as towards URI general education requirements.

Following the semester of study at ZU students are placed in six-month, full-time engineering internships in China. Interns receive a cost-of-living stipend and housing assistance, and are under the supervision of a person or team in one of the many IEP corporate partner companies. Each intern regularly writes internship reports of his or her experience in Chinese, which are shared with the students and faculty of the IEP back in Rhode Island, and for which they earn credits toward the Chinese minor.

Students return to complete their fifth and final semester back on the Kingston campus, where they have the opportunity to participate in special recruitment visits from corporate partners. IEP students are highly sought after for their combination of strong engineering skills and extensive cross-cultural experiences.

Our IEP alumni network is strong and continuously growing. Begun in 1987, over 300 students have graduated from the program. Many opt for employment based in the United States, but with varying levels of cross-cultural interaction and foreign travel. Others have chosen to seek employment overseas, some with permanent positions and others on "ex-pat" assignments. Many have been selected for management and leadership-track opportunities. With strong encouragement from business and industry and grants from the Texas Instruments Corporation, Sensata Technologies, and the Hasbro Corporation, the Chinese IEP was developed in 2005 - 2007 by IEP founder and executive director, John Grandin.

The Chinese IEP was given a considerable boost by the Chinese government whose National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, which supported a full-time faculty member in Chinese for three years (2006-2009.) This professor, Dr. Wen Xiong, has since been hired as a full-time tenure-track faculty member at URI. In 2007 URI was also selected as a site for a Chinese-funded Confucius Institute, which will be a center for Chinese language and culture at URI and in the greater Rhode Island community. Over 20 engineering students are now studying Chinese at URI and preparing for both further language work and professional internships in China.

In August of 2008 a major outgrowth of the Chinese IEP was born. Supported by The Language Flagship, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, the URI Chinese Language Flagship Partner Program is an intensive undergraduate program for highly motivated students preparing for global careers. Flagship Scholars earn a Bachelor’s degree in a chosen academic discipline (engineering, business, political science, textiles, etc.) while working to achieve superior language proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.