University celebrates signing of Confucius Institute Agreement

The signing ceremony was undertaken on the first day of the award ceremonies in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to the UK

TWENTY students at the University of Huddersfield are to be awarded scholarships that will enable them to study in China, gaining valuable insights into its language and culture.  The announcement was made by the country’s ambassador to the UK when he made a return visit to the University to take part in two ceremonies.

The first was the signing of an agreement that will establish a Confucius Institute at the University of Huddersfield, in partnership with the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in Shanghai.  The second was a degree ceremony at which the Ambassador, His Excellency Liu Xiaoming, received an Honorary Doctorate.

Confucius Institutes – named after the famous Chinese philosopher who lived 2,500 years ago – began in 2004.  Established at 515 universities around the world, they are supervised by the Office of Chinese Language Council International, known as Hanban.

Huddersfield will be the 30th UK university to acquire an Institute, but the first that will concentrate on innovation in science and technology, stated the Ambassador when he spoke at the signing ceremony.

He said that the Huddersfield Confucius Institute marks the beginning of a new stage in China-UK co-operation.

“Globalisation has led to a highly inter-dependent and deeply integrated economic trade system,” said the Ambassador, describing this as an “an irreversible trend” and criticising “headwinds of protectionism and unilateralism” that made it all the more crucial to uphold the spirit of openness and “choose wisely between collaboration and isolation”.

The Ambassador was then greeted with applause when he announced that the Chinese Government will offer scholarships to 20 University of Huddersfield students for short-term study in China.

“I hope that more young British students will choose to study in China, see the country and get to know the real China,” said the Ambassador, who was looking forward to “closer bonds between the people of our two countries”.

Honorary Award for the Chinese Ambassador

Later, after the signing of the agreement to establish a Confucius Institute, His Excellency was one of four distinguished people who were conferred with Honorary Doctorates of the University, bestowed by the Duke of York.  The Ambassador spoke again about his hopes for the Institute and repeated the announcement about the scholarships.

He praised Huddersfield as the first foreign university to become involved with a charity that raises money to care, foster and educate children and teenagers in less affluent and remote regions of China.

“I hope and believe that the University of Huddersfield will continue to play a major role in UK and Chinese collaboration,” said His Excellency.

An oration for his Honorary Doctorate was delivered by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, who also spoke at the ceremony to establish the Confucius Institute.  He said that the link with ECUST in Shanghai would lead to significant collaborations, especially in the areas of biology, chemistry and linguistics.

“We will work together to create new knowledge for the benefit of China and the UK,” said Professor Cryan, adding that the Confucius Institute would allow Huddersfield staff and students to study Chinese culture and language in preparation for increasingly frequent exchange trips. 

“We also hope it will support the local business community who are hoping to trade with China,” said Professor Cryan.

“We are very proud of our links with China, not only through the 1,000 plus students that we have on campus, but also the tens of thousands of Chinese alumni we now have around the world.”