Statement from a UQ spokesperson
3 July 2020
The lecture Chinese Counter-terrorism Law, delivered as part of the Understanding China course, was designed to debate the Chinese Government’s approach to terrorism. The extract of the 80-minute lecture shared on social media is taken out of context. It would be unfair to form an opinion about lecture content without studying the course.
The Understanding China course did receive seed funding from the UQ Confucius Institute to establish the course, but the Confucius Institute was not involved in developing the content, teaching or management of the course. The University stated last year that there would be no further Confucius Institute funding to credit-bearing courses.
Course approval is subject to assessment against UQ’s values, academic standards and priorities.
What is the status of UQ’s Confucius Institute agreement?
The University of Queensland has signed a new five-year agreement to continue the UQ Confucius Institute. Contracts negotiated with Hanban - and partner institute Tianjin University - protect UQ’s autonomy while delivering educational cooperation, particularly in Chinese languages.
The contracts stipulate that the Confucius Institute does not offer any credit-bearing courses towards academic degrees, and that all personnel are subject to Australian laws. The contracts include mechanisms to revoke the agreements.
At the request of the Vice-Chancellor, an assessment of how the CI would best fit within the University structure has also been completed. To provide additional assurances in relation to academic autonomy of our faculties, the CI will now report to the Office of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, instead of to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Why does UQ have a Confucius Institute?
UQ firmly believes that productive global engagement is a prerequisite for a more cohesive and prosperous world. UQ has formed more than 450 institutional partnerships in 56 countries. The University has offices in both Indonesia and the USA.
The role of the UQ Confucius Institute is to promote the learning of Chinese language and culture, and a broader understanding of China, at the University and in the community. The Institute does not teach any degree courses at UQ, and has not been involved in designing courses or developing course content.
Examples of outreach activities undertaken by the Institute include a drowning prevention campaign for Chinese visitors to the state (at the request of Queensland Police Service), and a Chinese Film Festival (which showed an action adventure and a comedy) in partnership with the Australia-China Youth Association, which the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sponsors.
There are 13 Confucius Institutes at Australian universities and there are almost 40 Australian study centres in Chinese universities. One of those, at Peking University, is an initiative of the Australia-China Council that will give more Chinese university students the opportunity to learn about Australia.
Has UQ been transparent with students about the renegotiation of its Confucius Institute agreement?
Students are members of both our Senate and our Academic Board. In addition, the President of the UQ Union is an ex officio member of Academic Board and is invited to attend Senate as an observer. Their role is to represent the student voice.
The minutes of Senate, other than confidential items, are publicly available.
The University also regularly meets and engages with the UQ Union President, along with other student representative groups.
