Plans for UK Confucius Institute in the works

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By Emilie Rymer

Officials from Shanghai University, located in China, met with UK’s provost yesterday to sign agreement papers in the first step toward establishing a partnership between the two schools.

Establishing a Confucius Institute — a program sponsored by the Chinese government to bring together Chinese and foreign universities — is the main goal of the partnership with UK.

Bob Haven, co-director of UK’s Asia Center, said the teaching of the Chinese language and culture outside of China is the primary purpose of a Confucius Institute.  The establishment of this institute would also allow for student and faculty involvement, Haven said.

“This platform opens the doors of both UK and Shanghai University to allow for both student and faculty exchanges,” he said.

The acceptance process will involve a visit by officials from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., in January. The Confucius Institute should be running by next fall if all goes as planned, Haven said.

The potential Shanghai University partnership is part of UK’s desire to have a more global presence, and one area of interest has been expanding academic partnerships with Chinese universities in a variety of fields including journalism, said Zixue Tai, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications.

“There is certainly the hope to expand relations and exchange programs in journalism education,” Tai said.

Beth Barnes, director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, said Tai has had preliminary talks with three universities in China that have journalism and mass communication programs and might be interested in doing student and faculty exchanges with UK. Shanghai University is one of the three.

”We have not worked out any details yet, just mutually agreed that we would like to find ways to work together,” Barnes said.

The focus of the Confucius Institute would be a strong relationship between UK’s College of Fine Arts and Shanghai University’s College of Fine Arts, Haven said.

“Of all the Confucius Institutes around the world, and of the 40-plus ones already in the U.S., ours is the first one to have this major fine arts component,” he said.