Established in January 2000, the School of International Education of Tianjin University administers international student affairs of the whole university and is responsible for Chinese language teaching of international students. The School is responsible for international students’ policy formulation and monitoring, enrollment, entry and exit, logistics support, education, management, and degree-program international students’ academic affairs. The School also undertakes international students’ Chinese language teaching, as well as teaching and disciplinary development of international undergraduates’ Chinese language, international education of Chinese language and cross-culture program education. In addition, the School is responsible for Confucius Institutes of the University.
The School of International Education is composed of 7 administrative offices and 3 teaching departments. The administrative offices include the Office of the School, the Office of International Admissions, the Office of International Students to Study in China, the Office of Academic Affairs, the Office of Dormitory Affairs, the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Confucius Institutes. The teaching departments include the Department of Preparatory Education, the Department of International Chinese Language Education, and the Department of Chinese Language Studies. The School has 65 faculty members, including 35 teaching staff, 21 administrative staff, 6 counselors and 3 workers.
Tianjin University is one of the earliest institutions in China to carry out international student education. Since 1954, Tianjin University has cultivated more than 30 thousand international students from over 150 countries and regions. Many of them have become distinguished engineers and technicians, civil servants, corporate managers and diplomats in their host countries.
In 2001, Tianjin University set up undergraduate Chinese language program for international students authorized by the Ministry of Education, and Chinese Language and Culture Education Base approved by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. In 2005, Tianjin University was selected by the Ministry of Education as one of the first batch of Chinese government scholarship undergraduate preparatory education pilots for international students in China, and built the first complete "one-year starting from zero intensive Chinese education model for science and engineering students" in the field of preparatory education for international students in China. The textbooks compiled have been selected by the Ministry of Education as demonstration textbooks for preparatory education.
In 2009, Tianjin University established the "Multicultural Research and Psychological Counseling Center", the first psychological counseling institution in China dedicated to international students. In 2016, the University was approved by the Ministry of Education as the first batch of pilot institutions with China Quality Certification of Education for International Students. In the same year, the master's programs of "Intercultural Education" and "International Chinese Education" were approved. Tianjin University has established three Confucius Institutes overseas, namely the Confucius Institute in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Confucius Institute at the University of Queensland in Australia, and the Confucius Institute at University Nice Sophia Antipolis. In 2018, the Confucius Institute in Bratislava, Slovakia, was awarded "Global Advanced Confucius Institute".
In recent years, the number of international students at Tianjin University has increased steadily, and the quality of international students has improved year by year. In 2021, the University has a total of 3,189 international students from 138 countries and regions, including 2,064 degree-students, of whom 949 are master's and doctoral students. While undertaking the administration affairs of international students, the School of International Education also cooperates closely with relevant departments to actively carry out various forms of summer schools, Chinese language learning and cultural practice activities, and promotes the international influence of “international students studying at Tianjin University”.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, under the leadership of Tianjin University, the mission of the School of International Education is "serving the major country diplomacy, 'Belt and Road' initiative, and the goal of developing the university into a world-class university, and building a world-class education system for international students with 'Chinese characteristics, and Tianjin University character'". With the development vision of "striving to build Tianjin University into a university where outstanding young people from all over the world aspire to study, and shouldering the responsibility and contributing to the construction of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”, and the development policy of “stabilizing the scale, adjusting the structure, improving the quality and upgrading the level”, the School will actively promotes faster and better development of education for international students at Tianjin University!
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