College of Intensive Chinese studies

College of Intensive Chinese Studies (CICS), beginning its short-term education in 1978, establishing the department of short-term Chinese training for overseas in 1982 and founding the college in 1993, has a history of nearly 30years. It specializes in intensive and short-term Chinese training programs for international students, ranking supreme among its counterparts in China in terms of history, scale, and diversity of educational programs. By July of 2002, CICS has a cumulative enrollment of more than 60,000 foreign students who represent 110 countries and districts. And every year there are 6000 students studying in CICS. American scholar Eric A. Cornell, the laureate of 2001Nobel Physics Prize, once studied Chinese in CICS (1983).

The college has 98 faculty members, among which nearly 40 are professors and associate professor and more than 50 have been to other countries to teach Chinese, participate in research, and undergo the academic exchange. Besides teaching Chinese, they also engage themselves in Chinese Language, Chinese Teaching Pedagogy and Chinese-foreign language contrastive analysis, etc. and have achieved fruitful achievements. Some Chinese intensive training teaching materials written by them have gained great popularity among many countries.

The college is consisted of the Department of Intensive Chinese Study, the Department of Advanced Chinese Study and the Teaching and Researching Institute of Accelerated Chinese Study. The Department of Intensive Chinese Study and the Department of Advanced Chinese Study are responsible for accelerated intensive training, general intensive training, and short-term intensive training, respectively. The Teaching and Researching Institute of Accelerated Chinese Study specializes in the overall designing of the short-term and accelerated Chinese instructions to foreign students, installation of curricula, the study of teaching methods and compilation of teaching materials.

CICS is specialized in short, accelerated and intensive teaching, which can help foreign students markedly improve their ability to communicate in Chinese (especially their listening and speaking skills). It pays great attention both to the standardization and scientificalness of the overall designation and the pertinence, practicability and flexibility of the implementation, which can ensure that students can achieve their aims in a short time. In 2004, the Construction of the Short-Term Accelerated Intensive Chinese Teaching System gained the first place of Beijing Higher Educational Teaching Prize.
In order to satisfy the different educational need of each student, the college offers accelerated intensified Chinese courses, common intensified Chinese courses and short-term intensified Chinese courses at the beginning, intermediate and advanced grade levels, including 6 different levels- A,B,C,D,E and F. Furthermore, the classes are designed systematically, which means class stands independently, yet closely integrated, to enable students to take the short-term learning path or continuous learning path. In addition, CICS offers special-purpose language training courses in accordance with the specific needs of certain students or organizations. The curricula are based on studying characters and the special needs of the students.

CICS also offers after-class optional courses to satisfy students’ need to improve their Chinese in a short amount of time, which means grasping more Chinese language and culture knowledge and understanding Chinese society more profoundly.

CISC offers courses periodically all year round. Besides the 20-week accelerated intensified courses and common intensified courses offered in the Spring and Autumn semesters, CICS also offers the short-term intensified courses—which range from 4 to 12 weeks—at various times throughout the year, 30 hours a week for the accelerated intensified courses and 20 hours a week for the common intensified courses.
In addition, CICS arranges colorful language and culture practice activities for the students. Activities include: visiting historical and cultural sites, factories and countryside, communicating with native Chinese, performing in Chinese, participating in a Karaoke or article writing competition, and other interacting activities which aim to raise the each student’s enthusiasm for learning by bringing them in contact with society and life of the Chinese people.