Confucius Institute in Auckland
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
(Zoom Meeting with Otago and Fudan)
28 April 2021, 14:00
Present:
Prof. Jenny Dixon (Chair), Prof. Tony Ballantyne, Prof. Paul Clark,
Danny Chan, Pat English, Prof. Zhimin Chen, Prof. Zhongwei Wu,
Prof Lian Lu
In attendance:
Nora Yao, Bing Zhou, Janine Chin, Lin Li, Chriss Hamilton
Apologies:
Peter Chin
1. Welcome
• Chairperson Prof. Dixon welcomed the Board members to the meeting.
• Prof. Dixon introduced CI’s new Board member - Prof. Tony Ballantyne, Deputy Vice-
Chancel or (External Engagement) from the University of Otago. Prof. Bal antyne has
replaced Prof. Helen Nicholson on the Board.
• Prof. Dixon also thanked the Otago staff for their warm hospitality as well as their
organisation of the previous board meeting in December.
2. Minutes from previous meeting, 1st Dec 2020
Corrections: No Corrections
Approval of minutes: Approved
Matters Arising: none
3. Otago Report – presented by Prof. Tony Bal antyne
Prof. Bal antyne noted it was a disruptive year in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic
which had a significant impact on Otago’s CI programme. The main difficulties for Otago
were how to coordinate both the programme and maintain student engagement during
this challenging period.
Otago relaunched the programme at the beginning of the year. Currently the workshops
and events are going very wel .
Otago is looking forward to transitioning back to normal day to day operations so they
can run face to face workshops with students on a regular ongoing basis.
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4. Financial Reports – presented by Janine Chin
Period: 01/01/2020 – 31/12/ 2020
1357 Confucius Institute Projects
There is a big disparity between 2020 and 2019 due to the impact of Covid-19.
Revenue, project related expenses all decreased significantly due to the cancellation
of many activities.
1358
Confucius Institute Operation:
There was a small variation for people costs between the periods as staff numbers
were maintained.
Occupancy costs reduced significantly given occupancy of the first level of the
building.
Others:
HSK exam fees: The expenses were higher relative to revenue received. This was due
to the hire of casual exam supervisors and awaiting payout of registration fees from
Eventbrite for the last quarter (Oct 2020- Dec 2020). Tax information was required
which has now been sorted.
US$180K funding was received at the end of 2020 to support the local teacher
assistant (LTA) programme 2021, in the absence of MLAs.
Funding was received from NA CAPE during the 2020 financial year. $10k for the
development of the Chinese resources’ website and $20k for the Chinese culture
camp for secondary school students in December 2020.
$20k of establishment funds wil be carried over from 2020 through to the 2021 year
for the new Confucius Classroom (Fairfield College and Hillcrest High School) as
schools unable to purchase equipment during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
Period: 01/01/2021 - 31/03/2021
First quarter period of 2021 similar to last year’s period as overall situation is
unchanged – impact of Covid-19 and no MLAs.
Acceptance of financial report: Approved and accepted.
5. Confucius Institute Report - presented by Nora Yao
Review of activities from Dec 2020 – Mar 2021
Highlighted programmes:
Local Teacher Assistant (LTA) Programme introduced to support Chinese in Schools in
the absence of MLAs. 22 schools will receive a LTA grant for this year. The majority of
schools have been able to recruit their own Chinese-language assistants. CI will run a
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LTA workshop in July. CI wil review the LTA programme at the end of the year to
assess the effectiveness and outcome of the programme.
More than 100 participants registered for the HSK exam in April. CI was awarded the
“Excellent Examination Centre” in Oceania for 2020 for outstanding preparation and
arrangement of the exams.
CI has communicated with relevant parties regarding an extension for the 2020
scholarship students to ensure these students can enter China to study as soon as the
borders are open again. The selection process for 2021 scholarship students has
begun.
Acceptance of CI report: Approved and accepted.
6. Fudan Updates - presented by Prof. Zhimin Chen & Prof. Lian Lu
1) CI Headquarters transition
Prof. Chen reported that the transition is stil in progress. The Centre for Language
Education and Cooperation (CLEC) has now taken on many of the responsibilities of the
previous CI Headquarters (Hanban). CLEC is now in charge of the financial administration
of the Chinese teachers, MLA volunteers, scholarship programme and China tour
programmes etc.
2) Budget
Fudan has now taken over the financial responsibilities for the normal operation of its 7
CIs. Funding is limited so Fudan is unable to meet al the requests from the CIs. There may
be a smal budget reduction due to fewer activities being held because of the effects of
the Covid-19 pandemic.
3) MLA Programme 2022
Prof. Lu stated, at this stage, given the pandemic situation is ongoing, there is much less
interest from students to travel overseas and Fudan has concerns sending MLAs abroad.
If the situation improves later this year, Fudan wil consider starting the recruiting
procedure and may be able to place MLAs out for early 2022.
Prof. Dixon noted that the NZ government has only al owed very limited numbers of
international students, mainly postgraduate students, to return to NZ to continue their
studies. It is likely that this situation will continue into the first semester next year.
7. CI Working Plan 2021 (draft) – presented by Nora Yao
• Draft introduced as interim plan and re-focus of programmes due to the current
pandemic situation.
• CI will sponsor the New Zealand China Trade Association’s (NZCTA) Business Awards later
this year.
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• Otago University has connected with their local City Council and Chamber of Commerce
to look at ways to support businesses and to connect with the wider community. More
info wil be provided to CI Auckland to update the work plans.
8. Other Business
Prof. Dixon is stepping down as DVCSE at the University of Auckland and is in the process
of taking up her new role as Provost of Universitas 21 (U21). Prof. Dixon will chair the next
meeting of the Board.
9. Next Meeting
• Proposed Board meeting in September – date to be confirmed.
The meeting concluded at 15:00.
Minutes submitted by: Nina Zhang
Approved by:
Chair: Professor Jenny Dixon
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Document Outline
