Found on 18^th, November 2013, the ConfuciusInstituteat the University of Tirana, Albania was co-established by Beijing Foreign Studies University and University of Tirana. It is the first ConfuciusInstitute in Albania, and also the only one in this country.

Brief introduction

With 37 squaremeters of classrooms and 36 squaremeters of offices, covering 73 squaremeters in total, the ConfuciusInstituteat the University of Tirana is located in the teaching building of the University of Tirana. There are 1 Chinese director, 2 full-time Chinese teachers, 1 concurrent foreign director and 1 concurrent foreign secretary.

Chinese language teaching and examination

1. The institute offers optional Chinese courses in the department of foreign languages and the department of economics. there are 6 classes in total，with a class to social people. There are 116 students. Except 6 social people, all of them are sophomores and juniors from the department of foreign languages and the department of economics. Among the other 110 students, 97 need to get the credit, 13 do not need to, and the scores of the former will be included in the credit system.

2. There are a total of 216 students having registered in this course, with 110 undergraduates, 30 middle school students, 10 primary school students and 66 social people. 17 students of the short-term social part-time class have passed the exam and obtained the course-completion certificate.

Cultural activities

The ConfuciusInstitute has organized 6 cultural activities by the end of November 2014. The ConfuciusInstitute held the opening ceremony of the Vlore short-term Chinese part-time class on 10^th May, the first commencement ceremony of the short-term Chinese part-time class (co-organized with the university) on 10^th June, 5 rounds of 10th anniversary activities on 26^th September, and 1 lecture on Chinese culture covering over 280 people.

Features

The recent years have witnessed an overall development of Albania-China relations in politics, economy, education and culture. Albania-China relations especially on economy and trade are developing continuously. As a result, China has become the third largest trade partner of Albania. An increasing number of talents on Chinese thus is in need to maintain and develop these relations and they will serve as the bridge to promote the communications and cooperation in economy, trade and culture between China and Albania, creating a huge space for the sustainable development of the Confucius Institute at the University of Tirana.

Future goals

The ConfuciusInstitute has become a center for Albanians to learn Chinese language and culture, and a platform for the cultural communication between Albania and China. It will be a long-term and challenging goal to popularize Chinese, to promote Chinese teaching to a new level and to further stimulate the sustainable development of ConfuciusInstitute at the University of Tirana. After a hard period of initial stage, ConfuciusInstitute should develop rapidly to become a Chinese teaching institute with large scale and local influence. It should continue to provide Chinese teaching service to students and people of all social circles, and develop more individualized Chinese courses for different groups. It should offer Chinese optional classes, perfect the credit system, and achieve the ultimate goal of establishing a diploma system.

Address：KINO KLUBI, GODINA LIRIA,FUSHA E S PORTIT, QYTETI STUDENTI, INSTITUTI COFUCI, TIRANA, ALBANIA

• Contact: Chinese Director Zhang Shufang

• Email: zhangshufangal@sina.com

• Phone: 00355-06-99106695 (the Chinese director)

• Fax: Not available yet

(As of December 31, 2014.)