The University vigorously promotes international exchange and cooperation. We have established relationships of friendship and cooperation with more than fifty universities and other institutions in twenty-three countries or regions, and we have programmes of mutual credit recognition and teacher exchange with twenty-eight higher education institutions. Students from fourteen countries or regions are studying here with us. A dozen domestic and foreign scientific research teams and research institutes are cooperating with us in the establishment of a set of key laboratories. With the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar, our University has established that country’s first Confucius Institute, which is regarded as one of the most successful Confucius Institutes in the world. We have engaged a number of foreign teachers, amongst whom Constance Gibson from the United States has been honored with a national Friendship Award. In 2011, the University was named as one of the academies to receive overseas students on Chinese government scholarships. In the same year, its joint programme of Master of Computer Science, in collaboration with University of Leicester in the UK gained approval from the Ministry of Education. In 2012,the University established its second overseas Confucius Institute together with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a world renowned university in the US.