Alaska's first Confucius Institute at UAA
 

Alaska's first Confucius Institute at UAA

By: Staff   May 15, 2008

ANCHORAGE, AK – A delegation from the People’s Republic of China and officials of the University of Alaska Anchorage will inaugurate a new relationship this month with the signing of a cooperative agreement between UAA and the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The agreement is the first step in what is intended to be a rich, rewarding interchange that includes the establishment at UAA of Alaska’s first Confucius Institute and further agreements that lead to a partnership between UAA and China’s Northeast Normal University (NENU), with the two institutions sharing in teacher training and similar programs.

“We’re internationalizing our university,” said Dr. James Liszka, dean of UAA’s College of Arts and Sciences, which is spearheading the UAA half of the new partnership.

A signing ceremony is scheduled for midday Thursday, May 15, at the UAA Commons. At noon, the delegations from NENU and the Chinese Ministry of Education – including four professors, a dean and a section chief – and officials from UAA will come together. UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer and her NENU counterpart, President Nigzhong Shi, will speak on the meaning of the new relationship. The parties will then sit down to lunch.

Northeast Normal University, in Chungchun, China, is the third highest-ranking normal university in China (a normal university is one whose original mission was teacher training) and is among 100 universities that receive special support from the Chinese government. It prides itself on its training of teachers, especially math teachers. NENU’s delegation will visit UAA after visiting U.S. schools in Minneapolis and Michigan with the goal of setting up similar links.

The Confucius Institute, of which there are 32 elsewhere in the United States, would provide UAA students and faculty the opportunity to acquire the Chinese language, learn more about Chinese culture, and partake in cultural exchange and study-abroad programs. A Confucius Institute at UAA would benefit the Anchorage School District and its new Chinese immersion school opening in Fall 2008, and it would be an important facilitator for Alaska-China trade and an aid to Alaskans who want to learn how to do business in China.

The establishment of a Confucius Institute at UAA is supported by the Chinese Ministry of Education, which intends to donate to the Consortium Library 3,000 volumes covering numerous aspects of Chinese culture and history. NENU is giving UAA $80,000 in support of programs related to Chinese language and culture.

The first director of the Confucius Institute at UAA, which is to be housed in the International Support Office in Rasmuson Hall, will be Dr. Paul Dunscomb, associate professor of history. The institute will initially have one faculty member who will teach Chinese.

UAA already has a formal agreement for intellectual exchanges with Beijing Technical University, which has the largest seismic lab in China. The UAA-NENU partnership and Alaska-China interchanges have been in the works for some time. Dr. Mary L. Snyder, Dean of the College of Education, has visited China to begin work on the partnership agreement, while Russell B. Howell, director of UAA’s American Russian Center, and Dr. Yong Cao, an associate professor in the Department of Business Administration, have worked to set up the Chinese consulate in Anchorage.

For more information, please contact CAS Dean Dr. James Liszka at afjjl@uaa.alaska.edu or (907) 786-1708.