Introduction Shanghai University

Shanghai University is one of the major universities in Shanghai under the leadership of the municipal government and one of the 100 key institutions of higher learning the Chinese will construct in the 21^st century. It’s one of the first universities granted the permission by the Minister of Education to enrol foreign students. Its College of International Exchange began to offer refresher courses in Chinese language for international students in 1976. At present, the College is one of the 56 council member units of the Society of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language and on of the institutions appointed by the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL) to dispatch Chinese language teachers abroad. The Chinese as a Foreign Language Teaching and Research Centre of the College of International Exchange has a faculty with high professional quality and rich teaching experience. There are a total of 27 full time and part time teachers among whom are three professors and 8 associate professors. Most of the teachers have obtained the qualification certificate of an instructor of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.

In 1976 the College admitted some dozens of overseas students and in 2004 the total number of overseas students increased to more than 1300. The College had established a course system combining long-term courses with short-term courses and diploma education with non-diploma education. In September 2003 the College began to enrol the overseas students majoring in Chinese language for the first time. This undergraduate program aims at cultivation high-level, general-type and complex-type talents of Chinese language so as to meet the requirements of different countries in the world in this aspect. This major adopts the credit system and its courses are divided into three modules, namely, Economy and Trade Chinese, Chinese language and Culture and Chinese-English bilingualism. After the overseas students complete the required courses and get both the corresponding credits and the certificate of HSK 8, that is, grade A at the intermediate level of the Chinese Proficiency Test, they can be granted permission to graduate and get the graduation certificate of the undergraduate program. Those who have met the above requirements and passed the thesis defence can obtain the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

The university has 3 campuses; a science/engineering campus, a law/economics/life sciences campus and a management school campus.