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Students make China connection
05/03/2008
Thirty-two Scottish students are to take part in Easter and summer schools in China, as part of a drive to build stronger links between Scotland and the world's fastest growing major economy, Fiona Hyslop today.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning's comments came as she met the students at Edinburgh's Confucius Institute ahead of her own trip to China next month to forge new partnerships between the two countries.
Ms Hyslop said: "We want to equip our young people with the skills and awareness necessary to live and work effectively in the global economy.
"China presents an enormous opportunity for Scotland and stronger ties in education, science research, culture and business between the two countries will benefit us both.
"That makes it especially important that Scottish students engage with China. We already have over 4000 Chinese students studying at Scotland's universities, and we are encouraging more Scottish students to spend time abroad as part of their studies.
"To help build on these links, in April I will lead to China a delegation of experts from the further and higher education sectors. We want to strengthen our engagement with China, with a particular focus on developing existing and new educational and research links.
"This is an exciting time, both for the students who are going out to China, but also for Scotland as a whole."
The students Ms Hyslop met are participants in two programmes, the DIUS China Easter Study Programme and the University of the West of Scotland Chinese Summer School. The Scottish Government has funded 20 students from Scottish universities to participate the Easter scheme, in which participants not only study Chinese language and culture during the three weeks but also have lots of exposure to Chinese business through lectures, visits to multi-national companies, state owned companies, talks by UK entrepreneurs and work placement with local companies. The University of the West of Scotland Chinese Summer School is a similar two week programme for 12 students to travel to Beijing to engage in a mix of language and cultural activity.
The Confucius Institute for Scotland is a national centre to promote economic, educational and cultural ties between Scotland and China. Structured as a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and Fudan University in Shanghai, the Institute was officially opened by First Minister, Alex Salmond, in autumn 2007.
As well as encouraging educational links with China, the Scottish Government is keen to promote cultural links. 'China Now in Scotland', the largest ever festival of Chinese culture in Scotland, was launched on 21st February and runs to St. Andrews Day. The festival aims to raise awareness and understanding of China and has made materials on Chinese history, language and culture available to every Scottish primary and secondary school. The Scottish Government has provided £20,000 to the Confucius Institute to encourage participation from the college and university sector in the China Now celebrations.