New Jersey hosts another Confucius Institute

New Jersey City University (NJCU) on Monday held an opening ceremony for a Confucius Institute, a learning center for Chinese language and culture.

Following Rutgers University, NJCU became the second university in the U.S. state to host a Confucius Institute.

Opportunities resulting from this international partnership are valuable for the students, faculty, and the university community, NJCU President Sue Henderson told the ceremony.

"The Confucius Institute will enable the NJCU community to learn more about Chinese language and culture," she said.

"This relationship will bolster NJCU's standing as a center for academic excellence and will facilitate economic and cultural exchange in the region and beyond," she added.

The NJCU faculty will have the opportunity to visit and study at the partner university, the Jilin Huaqiao University of Foreign Languages in Northeast China, while NJCU students will also have the opportunity to study in China in special programs arranged through the Confucius Institute.

A library of 3,000 books has been donated by the Chinese partner university, and five Chinese teachers, fully supported by the partner institution, will begin work at the NJCU this fall.

The NJCU will host summer programs promoting Chinese language to communities and high schools throughout the city. The Confucius Institute will host cultural events and offer non-credit language courses.

Some 100 universities host Confucius Institutes across the United States, and there are more than 400 Confucius Institutes throughout the world. Endi