Historical Back Ground
Confucius is a Great thinker, Educator, Philosopher and the father of Confucianism in Chinese history. His Doctrine has a very important influence throughout the world.
Confucius Institute is an education organization, with a mission of helping the people in the world to learn Chinese language and the culture of China.
Confucius Institute at University of Nairobi was launched, as the first Confucius Institute in Africa, on Monday, the 19th December, 2005. His Excellency, the president of People’s Republic of China, Mr. Hu Jintao, met the students and teachers on his visit to Kenya in 2006. The Confucius Institute at University of Nairobi has been voted top 20 Confucius Institutes with the excellent reward five times in succession from 2007 to the end of 2011.
Through the Confucius Institute, University of Nairobi and Tianjin Normal University, the two partners, have established a collaborative link which includes the exchange of students and lecturers; Chinese lecturers teaching the Chinese language at the University of Nairobi while one of university lecturers teaching Kiswahili language at Tianjin Normal University.
The program of standard Chinese is an acclaimed language course in Kenya, with its integrated focus on the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The training helps the learners to understand how the Chinese language works grammatically, and how it is used in real life
Confucius Institute’s Scholarships that develop through this link are usually given to the students of the respective schools and institutes in the University of Nairobi.
From 2006, over 200 students in Confucius Institute had a chance to study on scholarships in China. Particularly, in the last 3 years, there were 45 students in 2009, 40 in 2010 and 97 in 2011 and 17 in 2012 that got long-or-short-term scholarships and experienced the study in China. Currently, some of them are still studying on scholarship in China; 7 people for masters and 2 for bachelors and 13 for one-year certificate in Tianjin Normal University.
The students taking majors in journalism, business, international relations/studies and any other subjects that require a language also take a course in Chinese to suit their specialization.
Successful studies of Chinese course in the institute would be awarded scholarships to have further studies in China for masters, certificates of one year or one semester and summer training program which takes one month.
Confucius Institute at University of Nairobi has a very close connection with the Chinese government, organizations and companies and always acts as a link for the schools, institutes, and establishments between Kenya and China.
The institute has three intakes in a year, January, May and September.
Former & Current Heads of Department
Prof. Wang ShangXue: 2022 - Present
Prof. Xiao Shan: 2018 - 2022
Prof. Guo Hong: 2014 - 2018
Prof. Sa Dequan: 2007 - 2014
Prof. Song Lixian: 2005- 2006