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Confucius Institute to open at UWI St. Augustine

For Release Upon Receipt - June 4, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – Last Saturday, June 1, the Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Professor Clement Sankat, hosted a six-member delegation from Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters in China for a guided tour of the Campus. This was followed by the official signing in Parliament of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a Confucius Institute at the St. Augustine Campus. This Confucius Institute will be the second of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, with one other established at The UWI Mona Campus in Jamaica in July 2010.

Professor Sankat and Madame XU Lin, Director General of Hanban, Chief Executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters were the signatories of the agreement in relation to the establishment of the Confucius Institute at St Augustine, so as to strengthen educational cooperation between China and Trinidad & Tobago, support and promote the development of Chinese Language education and increase mutual understanding among people in China and Trinidad & Tobago. Through The UWI, the Confucius Institute will teach Chinese language and provide Chinese Language teaching resources; train Chinese language instructors; provide information and consultative services concerning China’s education and culture; conduct language and cultural exchange activities and serve as the centre for the HSK Examination (Chinese Proficiency Test) and tests for the Certification of Chinese Language Instructors.

This is a follow on to a three-year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), signed on December 10, 2010 between the Confucius Institute of the People’s Republic of China and The UWI St Augustine Campus, in which the Government of China provided a lecturer in the Mandarin language and Chinese culture to The UWI Centre for Language Learning from January 2011.

The delegation included JING Wei, Deputy Director General of Hanban, Deputy Chief Executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters; XIAN Hui, Division Chief, Division of General Affairs, Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban; CAO Diefeng, Division Chief, Division of Confucius Institute Affairs in Americas and Oceania, Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban; and REN Shifang, Programme Coordinator, Division of Confucius Institute Affairs of Americas and Oceania. They were part of the delegation visiting Trinidad and Tobago led by China’s President, Xi Jinping.

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About the Confucius Institute

Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, as a public institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, is committed to providing Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, it goes all out in meeting the demands of foreign Chinese learners and contributing to the development of multiculturalism and the building of a harmonious world. Please visit http://english.hanban.org/ for more information.

 

About The UWI

In just over six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 (Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news

 

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