About Us

The world’s first Online Confucius Institute

The Online Confucius Institute is a non-profit educational partnership between The Open University (OU) and Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), and is homed in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, a leader in technology-enhanced language teaching and research. The Open University's expertise in supported distance education enables the Online Confucius Institute to deliver courses at scale in Chinese language and cultures, as well as virtual events, research and outreach workshops in our communities.

Through learning, discussing, debating and reflecting, new insight and better understanding will be fostered and barriers broken down between people in the West and in China. We hope you will join us and contribute to this exciting journey!

If you'd like to join our mailing list to hear about upcoming events and activities, please email online-ci@open.ac.uk 

You can follow us on Eventbrite to be notified our latest events.

To follow us we WeChat, search for OU_OnlineCI.

Dr Kan, Qian

UK Director

Senior Lecturer, Head of Chinese and Associate Head of School Learning and Teaching, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics.

Dr Wu, Ligao

Chinese Director

Associate Professor in English Language Teaching, Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Mrs Moss, Lucy

Manager

Senior Manager of External Engagement, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics.

Mrs Bennett, Janet

Administration Assistant

Academic Support Assistant,  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies.

Partnership

Our partner Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) is a top-ranking university in China. It teaches 101 foreign languages, offering 121 undergraduate programmes, of which 44 are not available in other mainland Chinese universities. Over 400 BFSU alumni have worked as ambassadors, hence known as a cradle for diplomats.  While best known for its excellence in foreign languages and literature, BFSU has also launched programs in fields such as humanities, law, economics and management.  They operate 23 Confucius Institutes across 18 countries.  Their teaching and research collaborations spread over 313 universities and academic institutions globally, including the collaboration with OU’s Doctorate in Education (EdD) programme where BFSU’s academic staff study with OU and co-supervised by both OU and BFSU’s doctoral supervisors.  

BFSU publishes four CSSCI source journals (Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Foreign Literature, International Forum, and International Sinology), and runs the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), the largest publishing house in China for foreign language books, audio-visual products and digital products.