The Lancaster University Confucius Institute (LUCI), an institution co-founded by SCUT and Lancaster University, has been named as a 2019 "Confucius Institutes of the Year" after being selected from more than 563 global institutions for the title.
The announcement was made by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) at the International Chinese Language Education Conference last week held in Changsha, Hunan province, in recognition of LUCI's outstanding performance during the year of 2019 and its leading Confucius Institute position in the UK.
In honor of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Confucius Institute, the conference attracted more than 1,000 representatives from more than 160 countries, while LUCI, among 30 Confucius Institutes based in the UK, was the only one that received the title of "Confucius Institute of the Year".
Professor Steve Bradley, Interim Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University, said that winning the title was a significant recognition of the work that LUCI had done in the past year, and a great success that was accomplished by Lancaster University and SCUT together.
The title is a top and highly competitive award for Confucius Institutes, and, out of 550 CIs across the world, only 25 have achieved it this year. It was presented by Chinese Vice-Minister of Education Tian Xuejun to LUCI Director Professor Jinghan Zeng during the awarding ceremony on December 10.
Opened on December 20, 2011, the LUCI aims to offer Chinese language and culture courses to individuals, local schools, communities and businesses, as well as to support enterprise in the North West region of the UK through the themes of China, innovation and sustainable development. In 2019, the institute has over 5,000 students.
SCUT is currently running three Confucius Institutes with overseas partners, including LUCI in the UK, the University of Idaho Confucius Institute in the US, and the Audi Confucius Institute (Audi Konfuzius Institut Ingolstadt) in Germany.
Source from the School of International Education
Translated by Xu Peimu
Edited by Zheng Yifei
From the SCUT News Network
