Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In January 2010, the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and Western Kentucky University signed an agreement to establish the Confucius Institute at Western Kentucky University. As part of the agreement, Hanban was obligated to provide $150,000 USD in start-up funds, teaching materials, namely 3,000 volumes of books, videos, and other materials, a multi-media exhibit valued at up to RMB 1,000,000 ($150,000 USD), an annual fund, and numbers of Chinese instructors. The funds are dispersed through a local Bank of China account or other approved bank account created by the institute. The agreement has a 5-year validity and automatically renews at the end of every 5-year term. North China Electric Power University was the cooperating partner for the Confucius Institute. The Confucius Institute began operations on May 19, 2010. The grand opening was on May 20, 2011. On April 22, 2019, WKU announced that the Confucius Institute would shut down because of U.S. defense spending legislation prohibited institutions from hosting Confucius Institutes if they received funding from the Department of the Defense (DOD) for Chinese language programs.