LAS CRUCES, N.M. — New Mexico State University has announced it will close its Confucius Institute, a program designed around Mandarin Chinese.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports the decision is part of a wave of closures of Confucius Institutes at American universities in recent years.

New Mexico State cited low enrolment and "funding issues" with the Office of Chinese Language Council International, the institute's headquarters in Beijing, in its decision to close the institute.

The school's Confucius Institute was founded in 2007 in partnership with China's Shijiazhuang University of Applied Technology and, later, with Hebei Normal University.

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