Focus on Portugal Investment Immigration and Portugal Education: The University of Minho (Universidade do Minho), established in 1973, is a comprehensive university offering various departments including Architecture, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Business Management, Sociology, Humanities and Literature, Psychology and Education, Early Childhood Education, and Basic Education. The Chinese language teaching affairs are managed by the Institute of Arts and Humanities.
The University of Minho has two campuses, with the main campus located in Braga, in the northwest of Portugal, and a branch campus in Guimarães, where the Institute of Arts is situated.
The University of Minho has approximately 16,000 students, including 1,900 postgraduates; there are 1,200 faculty members, of which 850 hold doctoral degrees; and 600 administrative and technical staff.
Chinese Language Education at the University of Minho
The Institute of Arts at the University of Minho began offering "Open Courses in Chinese Language and Culture" in 1991, with a duration of 2 hours per week. The course content includes Chinese characters, calligraphy, modern Chinese grammar, listening and speaking, and Chinese folk culture, with three levels available for students of the University of Minho and the general public to choose from. At that time, the number of new enrollments reached 80 each year.
In 1997, the Institute established the Centre of Oriental Studies, aiming to teach Chinese and Japanese languages and cultures. The Centre continued to offer open courses in Chinese language and culture while also adding open courses in Japanese. In the same year, a two-year elective course in Sinology was introduced, with 8 hours of Chinese language instruction per week, covering beginner Chinese, including characters, reading, calligraphy, phonetics, grammar, and Chinese culture, as well as lectures on topics such as Chinese history, history of thought, geography, society, and issues related to Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
In September 2004, the Centre of Oriental Studies established an undergraduate program in Oriental Studies, with Chinese as the major subject. It recruited students from all over Portugal and the northwest region of Spain. This undergraduate program focuses on Chinese as the major subject, with 8-12 hours of classes per week; Japanese is offered as a minor subject, with 2-4 hours of classes per week, and students graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Oriental Studies.
In September 2009, the Centre of Oriental Studies established a Master's program in Intercultural Studies between China and Portugal (Estudos Interculturais Portugues/Chinês: Tradução, Formação e Comunicação Intercultural), which is the first and only Master's program in Portugal related to the Chinese language, targeting not only students majoring in Chinese with Portuguese as their mother tongue but also students majoring in Portuguese with Chinese as their mother tongue.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Minho
The Centre of Oriental Studies has a Chinese library, currently housing nearly 10,000 volumes and audiovisual materials. Most of the collection consists of books donated by the Confucius Institute Headquarters and the Hanban, including textbooks, reference books, professional books in linguistics, as well as literature and cultural arts. The library is currently cataloging additional books and preparing to open to students in the future.
The Centre of Oriental Studies is equipped with two computers, a video recorder, and a satellite television (capable of receiving Chinese programs). It shares multimedia language laboratories and other office equipment (copiers, internet, communication devices, etc.) with the Institute of Arts at the University of Minho.
Currently, the Chinese teachers sent by the Chinese government mainly teach oral classes for three grades, with 8 class hours per week; in addition, they also teach weekend Chinese courses at the Confucius Institute; furthermore, there are fixed discussions on grammar with Louis for 2.5 hours each week. This totals 12 class hours per week.
Currently, the textbooks used by first and second-year students are "Rapid Chinese: Introductory Course (Volume 1)" and "Rapid Chinese: Introductory Course (Volume 2)" published by Beijing Language and Culture University, while third-year students use "Speaking Chinese." In addition to these textbooks, teachers also prepare supplementary teaching materials to support the courses.
