University Times

The Chinese Ministry of Education’s Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) named Pitt’s Asian Studies Center’s Confucius Institute (CI-Pitt) as one of 20 Confucius Institutes of the Year last month.

Established in 2007, CI-Pitt was the first Confucius Institute in Pennsylvania. Since then, CI-Pitt has experienced rapid growth — expanding from two to 10 Chinese language teachers, from three to 25 partner schools, from three to 69 Chinese classes and from 49 to about 1,200 students.

Confucius Institutes are a joint effort of 12 national-level ministries and commissions in China. The institutes promote the understanding of Chinese language and culture worldwide.
There are 295 Confucius Institutes worldwide.