Partnering with Marshall University in Aviation Training Program
Published: February 28, 2019 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The East will meet the Southwest in aviation training as Southern Utah University and Marshall University explore options to jointly offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in aviation at Marshall’s South Charleston campus in West Virginia.
Marshall and SUU have signed a memorandum of agreement to cooperate to develop a curriculum. Marshall and SUU will be looking to create synergy in programming while building off each other’s strengths.
The agreement involves an exploratory process into an array of aviation programs on the South Charleston and Huntington campuses by working with Yeager Airport and Huntington Tri-State Airport. These include helicopter (rotor wing) and airplane (fixed wing), maintenance, aviation safety, and aviation management programs.
Marshall President Jerome A. Gilbert and SUU President Scott L Wyatt signed the MOA during a recent visit to SUU by Marshall personnel.
“Southern Utah University is one of the nation’s leading universities in delivering rotor wing programs,” Gilbert said. “The possible joint academic program with them will give us a chance to expand our programming and offer other opportunities for students in West Virginia and the East Coast.”
“Not only is it the first time two Universities have partnered together on these types of flight programs, but the ability for us to expand the program and service the industry needs for helicopter, airplane, and maintenance will be multiplied,” said Executive Director of SUU Aviation Michael Mower. “Our industry partners are very excited about what this means for the training world and aviation industry as a whole.”
Boeing and Airbus, comprising the majority of the commercial airlines, projects that over the next 18 years they will need over 1,100,000 pilots and 1,200,000 maintenance workers. Furthermore, these two companies anticipate estimate needing around two million cabin crew members.
SUU’s President Wyatt echoed the benefit of the partnership: “Marshall University has a great reputation and will be an ideal partner for us to expand our reach to the East Coast by having a partner in West Virginia. I visited the Marshall campus and was very impressed with the campus, its facilities, its leadership, and its programs. Together, we will be able to do some amazing things in aviation.”
Marshall University is located in Huntington, West Virginia and has a student population of about 13,000. Gilbert and Wyatt agree that their universities will be stronger together than they will by themselves.
Southern Utah University is located in Cedar City, Utah and has a student population of more than 10,000 students. SUU Aviation’s university flight training program has the largest collegiate helicopter fleet in the nation and robust airplane and helicopter flight training.
Photo caption: Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert (center) signs a Memorandum of Agreement with Southern Utah University President Scott Wyatt (right) to explore options to jointly offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in aviation to teach students to fly helicopters. Seated to Gilbert’s left is Jaime Taylor, Marshall’s provost. The second row is comprised of representatives from both schools.
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