1986-Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, then named Guangzhou Foreign Languages College joined the 60 other universities in China, found a Research Center for Teaching Chinese to Non-Chinese Speakers. This Research Center has laid the foundation for Chinese language teaching and research of today.
1987-Three professional Chinese language teachers joined the Research Center for Teaching Chinese to Non-Chinese Speakers together with six newly-recruited administrative staff. In the same year, 21 students in which 12 French, 8 Japanese and 1 Swiss organized by China-France Association of Friendship and China-Japan Federation of Friendship became the first group of trainees with one semester stay in the history of IIE. Since then, the Institute has witnessed gradual growth in scale and size.
1995-The founding of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies on basis of Guangzhou Foreign Languages College and Guangzhou Economics College generates the new Faculty of International Exchanges, which since then have been in charge of Chinese Language Teaching and Research to Non- Chinese Speakers. This year has also seen students grew three times than 1985 with over 10 teachers in total.
1999-The founding of the International Students Department
2007-The founding of the Institute for International Education this year witnessed 690 international students from 58 countries.
2007- With the freshly tailor-made Business Chinese as an undergraduate degree, IIE has attracted 13 international degree students who graduated in 2009. The establishment of the major marked the Institute has began to explore greater diversity in Chinese Language Teaching. It also fosters the change from pure language teaching to language teaching for special purposes such as business and management. It also directed the teachers and faculties toward a more inclusive teaching approach, which will eventually serve the Institute well for its future strategy of greater variety.
2008- IIE with GDUFS was accredited as one of the global HSK test centers. In the year of 2012, GDUSF was accredited as one of the New HSK online test centers, the first one in South China.
2009- GDUFS was selected among the first group of receiving institutes for Confucius Institute Scholarship, one scholarship established by Confucius Institute to encourage and support International enthusiasm for Chinese language learning.
2009- World Culture Festival of IIE, supported by the Office for International Affairs, Youth League Committee was held in North Campus. In 2012, the event was selected as GDUFS Top 10 Quality Students Events.
2010- GDUFS was officially approved by the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, Ministry of Education as the receiving Institute for Chinese Government Scholarship. This recognition has accelerated the internationalization of GDUFS as a whole. This year, GDUFS was included as a member of the China Association for International Cooperation. This year has witness a historic growth for IIE with International students exceeding 1000.
2011-IIE established International Business as an English teaching Program for undergraduates, which attracts first group of 24 students from 20 countries.
2012- Japanese PhD Candidate Andomiho, mentored by Professor Yang Churen, majored in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics graduated, becoming the first doctoral graduate in the history of IIE.
2013- GDUFS was accredited among the first group of Study in China Model Base by the Ministry of Education. Model base will be in charge of or participate in national projects and event, facilitate faculty and management training. In the same year, IIE has received, for the first time in its history, 2154 students from 111 countries and regions.
