Party Secretary Liu Presents the Keynote Speech at the

The Fifth Confucius Institute Conference, sponsored by the State Office of Chinese Language Council International, was held in Beijing from December 10-12, 2010. Chinese and foreign leaders from 322 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius classroom settings in ninety-six countries and regions around the globe attended the conference, the theme of which was The Confucius Institute: Next Steps.
The Secretary of the Party Committee of our university Liu Chuansheng attended the conference as a special guest, and she made a keynote speech entitled Confucius Institute and the Students Future Career Development. In the speech, Secretary Liu stated that our university provides an occupation-planning platform to students through the establishment of Confucius Institutes around the globe, demonstrating the sustainable development for the Confucius Institutes themselves.
According to Secretary Liu, the Confucius Institute has set up an international educational platform, which has facilitated international communication and strengthened student competitiveness, thus creating opportunities for student cultivation and future career development. The Confucius Institute has also set up a diversified practice platform, which has expanded the areas of student employment, created opportunities for Chinese language teaching for students, and offered students more choices for future career development.
Given the more impressive function of the Confucius Institute on the development of students future careers, Secretary Liu proposed that the institute improve the quality of education needed to train students to become international talents. In light of meeting these differing needs, the institute should attach more importance to creating an innovative setting for distinctive education. Therefore, the Confucius Institute should become a platform for cross-cultural communication, a window for academic cooperation, and a bridge for student communication and friendship. Secretary Liu stated that Beijing Normal University is willing to further cooperate with universities in China and abroad in order to improve the educational quality and advance our service ability for student development, all of which will serve to accomplish the sustainable development of the Confucius Institute.
Our university is one of the earliest Chinese universities to set up a Confucius Institute, and for 45 years, the institute has taught Chinese to the speakers of other languages and has trained Chinese language teachers. At present, we have established five Confucius Institutes in cooperation with San Francisco State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, Universit du Qu bec, and University of Aalborg in Canada.