NECC partners with college in England - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

A new partnership will open up opportunities across the Atlantic for one Siouxland school.

Northeast Community College officials joined officials from North Lindsey College in Scunthorpe, England via teleconference in Norfolk Tuesday to sign a memorandum of understanding between the two schools.

The agreement will establish a program of international study between the two institutions that are over 4,000 miles apart.

North Lindsay will be sending six to eight business students as well as an instructor and administrator next spring then the same number of Northeast students and staff will head to Scunthorpe the following fall.

School officials say the agreement will benefit students and staff both academically and culturally. Dr. Michael Chipps, NECC President says, "This is not really about a trip to England or bringing English students here. It has to do with how they inculcate that into what they do for a living and how they live their lives."

Northeast's president has a previous relationship with North Lindsey, who had a similar agreement with his previous school Mid-Plains Community College four years ago.

Northeast Community College signed a similar agreement with a Chinese college earlier this year, which school officials say now gives them inroads across both the Pacific and Atlantic.