New Orleans LA – Xavier University of Louisiana and Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology (HNUST) have signed a cooperation agreement to promote Mandarin instruction at Xavier and support faculty and student exchanges between the two institutions.
The agreement is an important milestone in the university’s efforts to establish a Confucius Institute at Xavier.
The two universities formalized the agreement upon the conclusion of a three-day campus visit by a small delegation of HNUST administrators, during which the delegation toured campus facilities and departments that are specifically targeted for Xavier’s CI programming, including the Department of Languages, the Division of Education, the College of Pharmacy and the Art Department.
XU will start offering Mandarin courses in the spring of 2012 concurrent with the anticipated official opening of the Confucius Institute at Xavier.
“HNUST and Xavier share the same vision for a Confucius Institute at Xavier,” said Professor Qianfeng Shi, Chairman of the HNUST University Administration Committee. “The campus has been impressive and your hospitality is as warm as the weather.”
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to partner with Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology and to share with our students China’s remarkable language, history, and culture,” said Dr. Loren Blanchard, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Xavier. “We are confident that this exchange will be beneficial to both institutions as we strive to foster greater mutual understanding between these two nations.”
XU has begun its preparations to send a six-member delegation to HNUST in the first week of July. With 24,000 students, HUNST is among the smaller universities in China and was selected to partner with Xavier due to its size and similar academic programs which include five research centers and 19 schools or departments. HNUST has also partnered with Troy University in Alabama and established Confucius Institute there in 2007.
During the upcoming visit to China, a delegation of Xavier and HNUST representatives will attend meetings at Hanban, the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing where they intend to solicit approval for the joint application.
Upon the approval of its application, Xavier is positioned to be the first Confucius Institute at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and the first in the State of Louisiana. There a more than 300 Confucius Institutes worldwide, including 87 in the United States.
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