Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
In 2005, the First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell and Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji announced the planned establishment of a Confucius Institute at the University of Edinburgh. Then, on July 5, 2006, Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of Edinburgh to establish the Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh. Hanban agreed to provide $100,000 USD as a start-up fund for the institute and will provide programme and operational funding annually. In summer 2006, work began to refurbish the Abden House, a baronial mansion at the University of Edinburgh, to serve as the headquarters of the Confucius Institute. An additional implementation agreement was signed between the University of Edinburgh and Fudan University -- the cooperating institution -- at a later unspecified date. The Confucius Institute was officially opened in September 2007. The Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh was the first Confucius Institute in Scotland. On December 17, 2014, Hanban agreed to an additional grant of $1.2 million USD to designate the institute as a "Model Confucius Institute" for its successful operation. As a result, the addition of two buildings at Nos 79 & 81 Dalkeith Road to the Confucius Institute and the designation of the world's first "Confucius Campus" occurred in September 2016. This separate grant is recorded in Record ID#89967. There have also been calls by British academics to shut down this particular Confucius Institute over the allegations of influence operations run out of in support of Chinese Government policy. The Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh oversaw the following 4 Confucius Classrooms: - ID#90644: Confucius Classroom at Perth High School - ID#90772: Confucius Classroom at Hazlehead Academy - ID#90774: Confucius Classroom at Bathgate Academy - ID#90909: Confucius Classroom at St George's School Edinburgh
Staff comments
1. There is a dedicated website for this Confucius Institute: https://www.confuciusinstitute.ac.uk/. 2. Hanban's "Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh" entry has the start date of this Confucius Institute as December 15, 2005; while it may have been pledged at this time, the memorandum to establish it came in July 2006, per the Confucius Institute itself (relaying to the Parliament of Scotland; see source "Submission from Confucius Institute for Scotland"). Additionally, the tenth anniversary was held in September 2016 (see "Welcome to the expanded Confucius Campus"), even though the Institute was officially opened in September 2007; this is likely because unofficial operations existed prior to the opening in September 2007.