Having been around for the past 6 years, Egerton University boasts as being the third Institution of higher learning to host a Confucius Institute in Kenya. The institute has been an integral part of the institution as besides getting to learn Mandarin, students are exposed to cultural diversity and platforms for global outreach.
Among the many opportunities created by the institute, annually, ten bright but needy students within the university are awarded $1,000 worth of scholarships to help sustain their stay. These scholarships have been delivered to the students courtesy of Chinese government via the Ambassador Scholarship program. The institute has also played a huge role in helping students secure educational scholarships to study in prestigious universities in China including Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Normal University, Yunnan Normal University among others.
When it’s not all about pen and books, students and staff have also had a chance to study in China and tour China and its environs for cultural exchange and to share in the Asian experience for periods as long as two to three weeks. These trips are fully funded by the Confucius Institute Headquarters. The institute earlier in the year launched its first career day where a surplus of 25 Chinese companies came to showcase their career openings and a handsome number of our students got absorbed into these companies.
Farmers, agricultural officials, teachers and researchers from farms, government, universities and research institutions have also had a chance of beefing up their agricultural knowhow as this is the first institute of its kind in the world with agricultural characteristics. From 1-5th July trainees were trained on temperate food (grapes, apples, pears etc.) production by agricultural experts from both Egerton University of Kenya and Nanjing Agricultural University of China.
The institute’s philanthropic efforts could not go unmentioned. There have been substantial efforts regarding community outreach. Through the years, the institute has visited children’s homes and shelters and donated toiletries, foodstuff among many others. With so doing, there has been a continuous growth of unity and a sense of family between Egerton University, The Confucius institute and the communities they serve.
