TII’s Language Center at HBKU and University of Franche-Comté

Memorandum of Understanding paves way for exchange and cooperation

Entity: College of Humanities and Social Sciences

TII’s Language Center at HBKU and University of Franche-Comté’s Center of Applied Linguistics to Cooperate on Language Education

Under a newly concluded Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Translation and Interpreting Institute Language Center (TII-LC), part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), will cooperate with the Center of Applied Linguistics (CLA) at the University of Franche-Comté, France, on educational exchanges.

The two-year MoU was recently signed by Dr. Amal Al-Malki, founding dean of CHSS, and Mr. Arnaud Pannier, director of the CLA. The agreement provides for several areas of cooperation in French language education and includes developing teaching and tutoring activities.

Academic and teaching activities will extend to language courses, conferences, seminars, forums, and/or internships. TII-LC currently offers several levels of French language instruction. In support of this work, the MoU will facilitate the development of teaching and analytic expertise in French language teaching through exchanges that include TII-LC students and teachers. Students in the French program will have opportunities to study abroad, while the teaching staff would benefit from CLA’s professional internships on campus after the pandemic.

Dr. Nima Nazari, Director of the Language Centre at HBKU, said: “We are delighted at the opportunity to cooperate with an institution that has been widely recognized for its deep commitment and expertise in promoting the French language. At TII’s Language Center, we focus on supporting our teaching staff to continuously develop their professional practices and giving students the opportunity to acquire language in its cultural context. The agreement creates several tremendously advantageous avenues to support these goals.”

The University of Franche-Comté’s CLA director, Arnaud Pannier, said: “The agreement with Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s TII-LC affirms our mutual institutional goal of pursuing excellence in language learning. We look forward to many new opportunities to support their teaching teams and believe the agreement will greatly enhance the learning of their students.”

For more information on the courses, workshops, and postgraduate programs of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, please visit chss.hbku.edu.qa