The School of International Cultural Exchange was established in 2002, initially shared the same office with Foreign Affairs Office of Lanzhou University, then after it acquired the independent admission qualification for international students in 2008, it started to set up its own offices.
In 2009, International Students Affairs Office was established in order to manage the teaching and administration affairs of foreign students in Lanzhou University; in 2012, Confucius Institute Office was established in order to manage and coordinate related affairs of 3 Confucius Institutes abroad; in 2014, The Silk Road Economic Belt Research Center was founded so as to facilitate exchanges and cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions along the Silk Road Economic Belt, and be committed to the construction of new specialized "think tank" needed by our country to promote the development of silk road economic belt.
International Students Affairs Office, Confucius Institute Office and Silk Road Economic Belt Research Center are all affiliated to School of International Cultural Exchange.
In 2015, Lanzhou University endowed our school with new functional purpose---to develop cooperative education with foreign universities. Currently, our school has became a functional department which takes responsibility for international students education, co-construction of Confucius Institutes, development of new "think tank" for One Belt and One Road and promotion of cooperation with foreign countries.
Education of foreign students in Lanzhou University first started in 1983, and the self-supporting program begun to enroll foreign students in 1989. In accordance with the education history of Lanzhou University over 100 years and based on its profound schooling capability, our school earnestly implemented the national guideline for international students education and carried on innovative exploration, now we have made great progress in expanding the scale, optimizing the structure, guaranteeing the quality and improving the management. Over the past 30 years, our university has recruited over 4000 international students, currently; there are about 700 registered international students on campus from 64 countries and regions across 5 continents.
In light of the national guideline "expanding the scale, optimizing the structure, guaranteeing the quality and improving the management" in the area of international student education, the number of international students and nationalities has increased year after year, student subject has shifted from Chinese language learners to undergraduates, postgraduates of master's degree and doctoral degree.
Now we have a faculty of 28 teachers, among which, the number of Chinese language teachers is 17 and managerial staff is 11. We have formed a mechanism of international student education which has similar emphasis on teaching, scientific research and management, and formed a favorable environment where we share the same aspiration and make our own contribution to our school, in this way, we also created a platform for exchanges and cooperation for Lanzhou University with the outside.
Our school always stresses on the cultural cultivation of international students and the introduction and spreading of Chinese culture. In addition to various levels of Chinese language teaching, we also opened diverse courses ranging from Chinese culture, martial arts, calligraphy and painting, Chinese classical poems appreciation, ceramic experience, Peking opera introduction and paper-cut arts, in the meantime, we have organized and launched various activities for international students, for instance, Chinese Bridge Contest, Stay in China, Experience China, Cultural Festivals of international students and so on. At present, we have cultivated a lot of excellent international students.
Against the new time tide, with the strategic conception of One Belt and One Road, our school will continue to carry on the responsibility of promoting the educational opening-up in obedience to our school motto "Absorbing and Diversity; Exchange and Integration" in order to further the Characteristic Confucius Institute Construction and educational cooperation with foreign countries and to form a platform for the Confucius institute development and international student education. We will continue to make bigger contribution to enhance the internationalization level of our university and foreign communication and cooperation of the Western China. (Note: All data by Jul. 2016)
