KHARTOUM, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Language Department of the University of Khartoum, Sudan's largest university, has seen increasing number of Sudanese students since its establishment 26 years ago, Mohamed Hassan, head of the department, said on Wednesday.
"The Chinese Language Department has become the biggest at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Khartoum in terms of the number of students," Hassan told Xinhua in an interview.
"The Chinese Language Department was established in 1993. It started with very few students...but now the number has greatly increased," he noted.
This year, the number of the students at the Chinese Language Department has reached 350, while there are around 2,000 students studying Chinese language at Confucius Institute, an affiliate of the University of Khartoum, and the Chinese language is now taught at around 10 Sudanese universities.
Hassan explained that the motivating policies adopted by the Chinese government have contributed to the increasing number of students learning Chinese language.
"The Chinese government encourages our students by granting scholarships for the outstanding ones," he added.
"Our Chinese language students are very distinguished ... Our excellence at the Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students is the evidence for this, where our student Mohamed Al-Muiz won the first prize at the world level," the school official said.
Hassan also said that the Chinese companies operating in Sudan provide jobs for graduates of the Chinese Language Department.
He stressed the growing role of the Chinese Language Department in spreading Chinese culture and enhancing the relations between Sudan and China, and expressed hope that the department would expand in the near future.
"We are looking forward to seeing the Chinese Language Department become a college in the future, but our dream is even to see it become a university specialized in teaching Chinese language," Hassan said.