Tufts U. to Shut Down Confucius Institute After Student Protests 7 Apr 2021 Tufts University in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, has announced that it will shut down its Confucius Institute in the wake of student protests. The university, however, said it is ending the Confucius Institute to “focus more on our strong and growing direct relationship” with Beijing Normal University. Student protesters attacked the school’s “shameful collaboration between the university administration and the Chinese Communist Party.” “In 2015, Tufts University launched the Confucius Institute at Tufts University (CITU), a program within the School of Arts and Sciences, to provide support for supplemental, not-for-credit Chinese language and culture instruction and programming, and to facilitate educational and cultural exchange and cooperation between Tufts and Beijing Normal University (BNU),” Tufts said in its announcement.