This new agreement with China converts the Universidad de La Frontera into the third university in Chile that will have a Confucius Institute, which is internationally recognized for the dissemination of the Chinese language and culture. In this context, the Chinese ambassador Xu Bu will be at the UFRO during this week for several activities.

This is an important step forward regarding internationalization that will convert the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) into the third university in Chile that will have a Confucius Institute. Amongst others, this achievement was possible thanks to the good relations with the People’s Republic of China.

The Confucius Institute has global presence and its objectives are the dissemination of the Chinese language and culture, the contribution regarding the development of partnerships in the academic field, as well as being a role model regarding international relations.

This achievement was possible thanks to an important agreement of international cooperation signed by Dr. Eduardo Hebel, the university president of the Universidad de La Frontera, during his recent visit in China, where he carried out a series of activities with the aim of strengthening the university’s international networks.

The agreement was signed with the General Office of the Confucius Institute (Hanban) – from where the Institute, which is present in 180 different countries, is managed – with the support of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Communication University of China (CUC) as a counterpart.

According to Dr. Hebel, “this is one of our most important agreements in the area of internationalization of the UFRO, not only because of the possibilities the academic and cultural activities of the institute imply, but also because we believe that this is an important step for our region, regarding the role of China in the world today.”

This important milestone for the international relations of the Universidad de La Frontera has been achieved with the commitment and management of the UFRO Office of Outreach and Community Engagement, which together with the International Affairs Office will assume the institutional responsibility of carrying out the establishment of the Institute.

OFFICIAL VISIT

One of the concrete actions of this new alliance is that the Chinese ambassador in Chile, Xu Bu, will visit the UFRO and participate in a series of meetings in order to activate the opportunities that come up from bilateral relations, and to initiate the coordination the establishment of the Institute implies.

This will be the second visit of the ambassador at the Universidad de La Frontera. His first visit was in April 2019.