The initial partnership between the University of Science and Technology Beijing and De Montfort University began in 2013. With the help of the Hanban, the two universities jointly founded a Confucius Institute at DMU. There it has carried out diverse and exciting activities in Chinese language education, cultural exhibitions, and academic exchange. This has helped to share the richness of Chinese culture to those living in Leicester City, U.K.
Over the years the partnership and running of the Confucius Institute has expanded in scope and outreach. The two universities have seen much fruitful exchange through engaging in teacher and student exchanges, joint scientific research, and the pursuit of mutual development and cultural exchange. Areas of cooperation include creative design, computer science and technology, environmental science and engineering, English literature, etc. Most notably, a joint project proposed by Prof. NING Huansheng of USTB and Prof. CHEN Liming of DMU was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Royal Society of England, showing the increasing cooperation between the two universities.
