On the 30 September 2021, the Confucius Institute at the University of Sheffield held the 14th Annual Board Meeting, hosted by the University of Sheffield and attended by the Sheffield Confucius Institute's partner universities; Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) and Nanjing University (NJU).
On the day of the meeting, directors, representatives and staff from the Sheffield Confucius Institute (SCI), UoS, BLCU & NJU met for the Annual Board Meeting online, which covered the Annual Report of the Sheffield Confucius Institute during 2020 and the Future Work Plan for 2021. It was its second online meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, having also conducted the 13th Annual Board Meeting online in September 2020.
To open the Board meeting, Vice-President and Director of Global Engagement, Dr Malcolm Butler from the University of Sheffield welcomed everyone and thanked them for taking the time to join the meeting.
In his opening remarks, he extended his thanks to BLCU and NJU for their long & continued support of the SCI, noting that the Board meeting and topics covered would not be possible without the generous support and personal time of the universities.
Although 2020 & 2021 were both challenging, the SCI has continued to deliver the majority of its core activities, through the hard work, dedication and creativity of the SCI team.
During the meeting, Vice-President and Director of Global Engagement at UoS, Dr Malcolm Butler, President of BLCU, Professor Li Liu and Executive Vice President of NJU, Professor Zhong Yang all addressed the meeting and one by one expressed their thanks, hopes, goals and good wishes to the Board and attendees.
In the second part of the meeting, Interim Director of the SCI, Professor Li Xiao delivered the Annual Report and the Future Work Plan. Afterwards, Institute Coordinator of the SCI, Dr Xinqun Hu then provided the 2020 Financial Report and 2021 Financial Budget.
Later on, both partner universities BLCU and NJU spoke highly of the SCI’s achievements during the challenging years of 2020 and 2021. Both universities will support the SCI in the best possible way as they have done in the previous years.
Towards the end of the meeting, the three partner universities also discussed plans to hold the next Annual Board Meeting at the beginning of next year, in 2022.
Finally, further thanks, well-wishes and concluding remarks were provided by Dr Butler, Prof Liu and Prof Yang to bring an end to the meeting.