Faculty, staff and visiting American students at the University's Study Abroad Office have welcomed visitors from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) to celebrate one of the longest running student exchange programmes in the UK.
The visitors joined Professor Jon Roper, Director of Internationalisation, School of Arts and Humanities, Study Abroad Office staff, and visiting American students on an occasion which marked 21 years of the UTK exchange programme.

Noah Rost, the Senior Co-ordinator for International Programmes at UTK, the  first director of the scheme 21 years ago, Professor Paul Pinckney and current director, Dr Sebastien Dubreil and Dr. Fred Pierce and Dr. Roger Parsons, the Directors of Undergraduates within the Colleges of Business and Engineering at UTK respectively were in attendance.

Professor Pinckney, director of the UTK programme between 1988 and 2009 said: "The partnership with Swansea is UTK's longest-running exchange programme and was Swansea University's first semester programme with an American university. Professor Pinckney has this year launched a scholarship for students who wish to study in Wales. The Paul Pinckney History Scholarship is available to UTK students and funds a student to participate in the fall semester programme at Swansea University.  Professor Pinckney said: "For most US students, the exchange programme is their first trip abroad, and when they return to the US, they immediately start talking about their next visit to Swansea.  Staff in the American Studies Department here at Swansea have been endlessly accommodating, and we look forward to another 21 years of fruitful exchanges between our two institutions."

Professor Jon Roper said: "We place enormous value on the link between Swansea and Tennessee: it has been a model of how international relationships can develop over time and has provided life-changing opportunities for students and academics on both sides of the Atlantic".