IT Carlow is to establish a new college in China, becoming the first Irish institute of technology to formally launch a campus in the far-eastern country.
The first batch of 280 students will be welcomed to the Carlow International College of Technology in the city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province in September of 2022.
Within four years, it is planned to have 1,120 students who will be undertaking degree courses in three fields offered by IT Carlow - brewing and distilling, software development and farm management and economy.
The institute already has hundreds of international students in its 'home' campus in Carlow, including many Chinese, and it has long-standing links with education in China, but this is the first time that it will open a new bricks-and-mortar presence on foreign soil.
"This is a hugely important development in international relations for Institute of Technology Carlow," vice-president for development and research, Declan Doyle, said.
"We have been working in China since 1995, during which time more than 1,000 Chinese students have graduated from the institute across all of our faculties," he added.
The college will be based on the campus of the Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy in Zhengzhou and its foundation follows a years-long process of application, visits over and back by Carlow and Chinese academics, followed by approval by the Chinese ministry of education.
While IT Carlow is the first Irish institute of technology to make this move, Irish universities have already been establishing growing links with Chinese partners in education.
The development has caused some controversy, with some in the academic community here questioning such partnerships, given ongoing concerns about human rights in China, and academic freedom.
Mr Doyle said that the Irish Government's policy on international education is "Irish educated, globally connected" and IT Carlow is looking at global connections, including with China.
"We've had thousands of Chinese students coming here, some of those have settled down, got married here, some have gone back.
"Education and co-operation is about communication and opening the doors on those things, so if academic freedom becomes part of the debate, let it be a debate and let us find out what's going on and let us have a discussion on it but it's not something that's stopping co-operation or stopping partnerships at this point in time."
Donal McAlister, IT Carlow's international affairs manager, said that as an institute they want to internationalise.
"Part of that is bringing our programmes abroad, not just trying to recruit international students to come here.
"It's also a deepening of relationships with current partners and that's really what the spirit of internationalisation is all about."
