Culture & Education | Wednesday 31 January, 2018 10:04 am |

The 2018 Year of Zayed Celebrations march all the way to China, Zayed University join hands with the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Cultural Centre and Mosque at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in China, to unveil a series of activities held in October 2018.

 

This came during the annual Confucius Institute board meeting, which was held at Zayed University Abu Dhabi Campus and attended by Prof. Reyadh AlMehaideb, Vice President of Zayed University and counterpart, Jia Dezhong Vice-President of BFSU, China.

 

The Year of Zayed Celebrations in China is expected to include a variety of seminars, panel discussions, and art exhibitions.

 

The Zayed University exhibition will be held in BFSU China to promote the university as a possible destination for Chinese students. “Zayed University is very international in terms of faculty resource. The facilities of Zayed University are very advanced”.  “If Chinese students can be drawn to study at Zayed University, it will then be more internationalized, diverse and dynamic,” AlMehaideb said.

 

He added, “We will coordinate plans that develop bilateral student exchange opportunities which allow students to enroll in both institutions to gain more learning experience either through the regular academic programs or extracurricular activities.”

 

For his part, Dezhong appreciated Zayed University's assistance in celebrating the Year of Zayed in BFSU China, “The legacy of UAE’s founding father glitters all the way to the far east. Known for his generosity and kindness, Zayed bin Sultan touched every beating heart all around the world”.

 

He mentioned that the celebrations will also include a special Arabic-Chinese literature translations display, as well as research findings by Zayed University’s faculties to be displayed and possibly be included as part of Sheikh Zayed resource project. “Books of related studies in the UAE in the field of economy, politics, history, and law will be published by the BFSU publishing house, which is the largest publishing house in China,” he said.

 

Celebrations will also include a ‘Teaching Skill Contest’ drawn from the 40 universities who offer Arabic study in China. “It is a good chance for them to know about the UAE, Zayed University, as well as other universities and research institutes, who are interested in the event.”

 

Moreover, The Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, a leading educational publisher in China focusing on foreign language teaching and learning, aims to publish journal articles and books issued by Zayed University scholars to enrich Chinese citizens with outstanding materials covering various fields.

 

It’s worth mentioning that BFSU is leading the Arabic language learning programs in China. Outstanding students are enrolled every year to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Arabic. The graduates with this degree are trained very well to fluently speak and write Arabic. They lead in this field among the 40 other Chinese universities which are offering Arabic study degree. Zayed University is now developing the same program, offering Arabic as a degree program.

 

International students who do not have Arabic as a first language may learn Arabic at Zayed University. BFSU aims to send some experienced Arabic language teachers to come to share their experience, teaching methodology, theories and practices of training students to learn Arabic as a foreign language. There are about 10 affiliated secondary schools in BFSU. Some grade 7 students already are offered Arabic language study.

 

Both sides also discussed the possibility of establishing a joint degree program in a different mode of cooperation. Students enrolled in College of Business, College of Arts, Department of Arabic, International studies at BFSU can for example, studying two years or three years in China, and spend one year at Zayed University, taking relevant courses, and will have the benefit of obtaining two degrees from both universities, which will greatly enhance their competitive strength in the job market, also contributing to the development of both countries given the prospect that The UAE and China now is experiencing the peak good relationships.