Confucius Institute Scholarship

[dumpling98]

@方茹婷 I am majoring in Chinese so basically I have to sign a contract with my university and the host university that I won't over stay , ruin the reputations of both universities and stuff like these. In the contract was said that I am obliged to sign up for HSK 5 at the end of the year and pass it with 180 at least. For a semester it is required HSK 4 with 180. If I fail the exam I am liable for the return of the part of the scholarship for living expenditure. 

I don't know if this is standard or only between my two universities. 

[Wicker West]

I think it might be the feature of those two universities. I am majoring in Chinese too and I never heard of it. 

Stil, weird to hear that.

[foreigner2u]

Yeah I think the same as @Blckclaw I have never heard of that either :O I even know a girl who got the one year scholarship two years ago and went to a uni that wasn't even partner of her CI. The thing is that when she was in China she told me she had to take the HSK 5 exam but because she didn't feel prepared she told the university that she wanted to take HSK 4 instead and they were cool with that lol 

Right now I feel like I don't know anything anymore since things are getting crazier and crazier each year  

[Wicker West]

By the way, I already have fourth dot in the CIS system - what should I do know? Wait, or send papers or what?

[igacave]

They simply test the system. It used to be much simpler to win this scholarship. If you guys could see how some people are "motivated" to learn Chinese in China...and how some people used to cry cause they didn't win this scholarship. I just hope that hanban wants to award the best :-)

[laogui]

Confucius Institute and age discrimination

 

Shanghai Jiaotong daxue invited me to join the 2017 summer camp, (免费， a free scholarship) following my participation in the four MOOC Mandarin courses at coursera.  Believing I had been accepted, I made arrangements to stay near Shanghai through July and August.  This week however, I received cancellation notice.  Terribly disappointing.  Confucius Institute states that Shanghai summers are too hot for people over 65!  So I have to return to Sydney where summers are hotter.  It is not only Confucius Institute - if you search for 'age discrimination in China' see how many hits you get, and in universities and government departments 30 is deemed too old to accept application.   Shanghai Jiaotong daxue expressed sorrow and regret, but had also already rejected my study application on the same grounds, as did Suzhou daxue.

[igacave]

Yes, ageism is a big problem in China, I feel really sorry for you :-( thank you for sharing this experiance.

[foreigner2u]

@Blckclaw Welcome to the waiting club here haha All you can do now is wait for Hanban's last decision  

 It's Monday already in China so it means that a whole new week has started. Hopefully we will have news this time >.< the waiting is driving me crazy 

 

[Opi]

Good luck everyone! Hope everyone gets great news this week

[hoshinoumi]

Friendly reminder here, guys. If you're going to Xi'an (absolutely amazing city)  don't apply to Xi'an International Studies University (aka 西安外国语大学, aka Xisu). Apply for the other two options, what we're going through here is not normal (and I've heard experiences from many other students in other universities to compare). 

[foreigner2u]

@hoshinoumi I'm not applying to that university but I'm still interested in knowing what you're going through :O I may need to prepare myself to avoid any surprises in case I win the scholarship >.< Do you feel comfortable telling your stories?

[Cereenkee]

Hi, 

I am new here.

I think I in the same status with most of you here - 录取 ，意见：

xxx同学是马来西亚华裔，自小学习汉语，热爱中国文化。该同学于2002年毕业于马来亚大学，具有十几年的华文教学经验，并有志于在硕士毕业之后继续从事汉语教学工作。在2017年5月12日我校组织的汉语国际教育专业硕士孔子学院奖学金生面试中，xxx同学表现优秀，对华文教学深有体会和思考，具备非常好的开展科学研究和汉语文化教学的素质和能力。目前，她已获得HSK6级（289分）证书，已经具备我校研究生阶段专业学习和学术交流的汉语能力。鉴于此，本校拟录取纪学玲同学为我校人文学院汉语国际教育专业硕士研究生并推荐其申请国家汉办孔子学院奖学金。   Do u think this long意见can help to confirm the scholarship?

[Opi]

So I applied for a one year scholarship but this morning, I saw that I was per-admitted for the semester scholarship at BIT(CI partner uni). Is there anything I can do to change this? My grades are good enough for the one-year scholarship.

[hoshinoumi]

@foreigner2u there's way quite some things we've been dealing with. To sum it up (while keeping it 100% true) the university doesn't care at all about us. Their way to talk to us is always threatening, assuming we're liars and we want to cheat (yep, as good as it sounds). Everything they want done is told with the accompanying  sentence "or we revoke your scholarship". Every time all of us ask something or need something, we get silence for an answer. We've been left without hot water 4 or 5 times during the year and this last one we haven't had showers for six full days (and counting). When we went to the office to ask where we could shower, they told us to find a friend with shower. There's many more examples but I guess you get the idea. Overall, I know things in Asia work differently but I've NEVER encountered anyone telling me they get treated like 12 year-old lying and cheating kids, apart from not receiving any help when they mess up. 

Don't get me wrong, I love China and I love Xi'an

[Luxin]

10 hours ago, Opi said:

So I applied for a one year scholarship but this morning, I saw that I was per-admitted for the semester scholarship at BIT(CI partner uni). Is there anything I can do to change this? My grades are good enough for the one-year scholarship.

 

I know a similar case. There is someone with major in engineering who was granted the semester scholarship. He applied for one year too but he had an interview with Hanban this morning on Wechat and they told him that Hanban is going to grant the semester scholarship first, and if he can prove he is a good student during this first semester he will be granted the second one.

 

Apparently  Hanban is fed up with many students in the past years who wasted their allowance money in partying, travelling when they should be attending classes, failing the HSK and so on. Basically many students took this scholarship as free vacations. And now, Hanban from this year wants to make sure that the students they choose are totally motivated to study chinese, becoming a chinese teacher, etc, and they think that the most motivated students are those who chose Chinese as their major. I bet you will be able to get it too.  

[foreigner2u]

Thanks for sharing your experience @hoshinoumi I really can’t believe you are going through such thing ugh treating you like that to the point that they’re not even willing to satisfy your basic needs. I’m really sorry :/ Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to be a foreigner. If I were you I would definitely feel incapable of defending myself, but you are doing right speaking up and asking for respect and the fulfillment of your rights.

But in the end there is nothing better than taking it as part of your list of experiences that will help you grow and become a stronger person in the future  

 

@Opi I didn't understand :O Is Hanban or your host university the one who wants to grant you a semester scholarship? What category and major did you choose? 

[Wicker West]

Going to back what was said about the results of  the scholarship application - many people say it's somewhere around May 20th, however, today I received an e-mail from Hanban saying that the results should be around 2 months before the start of the semester : /

[Geo_chan]

@Blckclaw Yeah that's what they told me as well when I emailed Hanban a couple weeks.  Because I was getting worried since I read elsewhere that the whole process only takes 45 days. Does anyone know whether Hanban notifies everybody at once or whether it's on a rolling basis?

[foreigner2u]

Last year Hanban updated everyone's status at different times since there's no specific deadline for applications. I have no clue if that has changed this year though D:

[Opi]

@Luxin Thanks for responding and letting me know. That's not my case exactly though.

 

@foreigner2u@Luxin It was my host university that gave me 6 months. I applied for one year and was given this instead. Thing is, I definitely do not want 6 months. 6 months wouldn't help me much, I know myself. Thing is, I don't know if there is a way around it or if I can reject their admission and defer to my 2nd choice uni? Anyone have any advice? I'm all ears!