Polytechnical Institute of Leiria launches new Chinese course

From here in Portuguese today. Just as interesting as the launching of a new course is the person chosen to head it: a professor from Macau. Someone from Macau really is the obvious choice for something of this nature, and the more opportunities and projects like this there are the more China will wish to keep developing it as their gateway to the Lusophone world.

The Polytechnical Institute of Leiria (IPL, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria) will begin in March a Mandarin course aimed at graduates of the institution in the areas of engineering, technology and management.

It is a joint initiative of two educational institutions of the IPL, which aims to respond to the increasing development of economic relations between Portugal and China.

The creator of the new course will be Yu Xiang, professor at the Macau Polytechnical Institute.

Founded 30 years ago, the IPL currently represents about 95% of higher education in the district of Leiria and includes a community of more than 12,000 students, around 900 teachers and over 300 technical and administrative staff.

Mentioned in the article as well, the IPL's current option for Chinese seems to be this course, a diploma in translating and interpreting Portuguese and Chinese.