The University of Edinburgh is the only university in Scotland to offer an Honours degree in Chinese.
The Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies offers courses in Chinese at all levels, taught by three full-time members of staff and a Chinese Language Assistant. Staff research interests cover literature, translation, film, history and culture in both modern and traditional Chinese: the expertise of the teaching staff was reflected in an excellent performance in the recent Research Assessment Exercise. For anyone thinking further ahead, this expertise has led to the development of an expanding programme of postgraduate studies.
You will discover Edinburgh to be a cosmopolitan city with ever-increasing opportunities to engage with China on academic, professional and cultural terms.
The Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies serves as a platform to link China related research at University of Edinburgh and at other HEI's in Scotland. The Centre organises interdisciplinary research seminar series, and hosts the interdisciplinary Master of Chinese studies programme.
The Confucius Institute was established in 2006 as a partnership between the University and Fudan University in Shanghai. Within four years of operation the Institute has developed into a comprehensive cultural centre, providing non degree language training as well as a large outreach and knowledge transfer programme. In 2010, it has been honoured as ‘Institute of the Year’ by Hanban, sponsor of the global network of Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, for the fourth consecutive year, a recognition of its status as a world class Institute.
During the first two years of the MA in Chinese, students attend a range of classes which provide a solid foundation in the Chinese language (Mandarin). Together with courses on modern Chinese society and culture as well as outlines on China's rich history from earliest times to the present day students are well prepared for the third year of the programme, which is spent studying at a Chinese university. In the fourth year intensify their study on primary sources in courses on key notions of classical philosophy and literature as well as courses on modern and contemporary China.
The programme is taught within the Schools of Literatures, Languages and Cultures and Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.
The main programme aims of the programme are
- to enable students to understand, evaluate and compare a range of theoretical and methodological frameworks.
- to enable students to develop and apply their knowledge and skills to the understanding and evaluation of issues and problems in the contemporary world.
- to enable students to develop and apply key generic skills in critical thinking, research, oral and written articulation of information and argument.
to equip students for progression to a wide variety of careers or to further academic study. |