Addis Ababa University to commence master’s degree in Chinese language

Addis Ababa, October 20, 2021 (FBC) – Addis Ababa University (AAU) announced that it has finalized preparations to launch its first-ever Master of Arts (MA) program in the Chinese language in Ethiopia.

The Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL), also the first MA program in the Chinese language in the East African country, will be offered by the AAU with the help of the Confucius Institute at the AAU.

Emebet Mulugeta, Academic Vice President of AAU, said that commencing the MTCSOL would inject much-needed momentum in promoting the Chinese language in Ethiopia and boost the people-to-people ties among the two countries.

“We really appreciated and supported the program, and it was in a very short period of time that the evaluation assessment was done and approved by the senate, which is the highest decision-making body of the university,” Emebet told Xinhua in a recent interview.

“The Chinese language department of our school has been offering a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree for quite some time, and those graduates need to have more capacity and more skill in the language. It was important to start this MA program so that we can upgrade those students who have already graduated from the department,” she said.

According to the academic vice president, the program would help substitute the current trend of bringing Chinese teachers all the way from China due to the lack of qualified Chinese language teachers locally.