Hi guys,

I'm currently a student learning Chinese at 理工大学 and due to visa reasons will have to shortly pay my fees for next term.

Although I've improved VASTLY, my university is up and down in my opinion, and I'm planning to write a review in due course. I only have enough time to study one more term, so want to better my Mandarin the best I can in that time.

I hear many students (and teachers!) telling me how great Yunnan University is, but is it up to the hype? Grateful if some people would post their opinions here.

How many classes a week, and how many optional classes (I'll also call up the school about this)
How big are classes?

Are native English speakers put into different classes, and if not, is English kept to a minimum, or preferably banned, in class?
What textbook is currently being used for 中级二?

Thanks guys, happy to answer q's about my uni in response...

I dont think Yunnan university is worth the hype. I have been studying there for 1 year now.

The time table for all levels are nearly the same:
中级一 and 二 classes are from Monday to Thursday 8.30am till 12pm, Friday 8.30am till 10.10am. Every day you have the comprehensive course, listening&speaking twice per week, reading and writing also twice per week.

高级一 and 二 is the same time table except for Fridays. There's no comprehensive course but Chinese Cultural Classes (中国文化) instead.
You can choose the course by yourself. You get a little card and in the first week of every semester you can try every level. After that week you have to decide in which class you want to stay in and you hand over the little card to the head teacher of that class.
The seize of the class depends on the level but not more than 15 people.
The question about the English native speaker is a bit weird, because most Westeners can speak English whether they are a native speaker or not. And it would mean that French, German, Korean native speakers also shouldnt be in the same class either. Anyway, English is very rarely spoken in class and only when it comes to vocabulary questions. Most of the teachers cant properly speak English anyway ;-)

About my personal experience: I started in 中级二 and was really satisfied with the course and the teachers. The comprehensive course teacher of 中级二 is also the Reading and Writing teacher of 中级一. And the comprehensive course teacher of 中级一 is the listening and speaking teacher of 中级二.
The following semester I moved up to 高级一 and it was a totally different world. It was Chinese style teaching. The teacher speaks, the students listen. If you complain, they take it very personal even though I did it face to face after classes.
So I think whether yunnan university is a good school really depends on the course level and the teacher. Apart from this, the best way to improve your Chinese is to have Chinese friends or a language exchange partner. Another option which I'm going to do next semester is taking private lessons/ One on One tutoring at Shifan Daxue. You need 8 hours per week in order to keep your Visa. One lesson costs 55kuai and you can decide by yourself what you would like to study or talk about which topics. By the way, the study fee for 1 semester at Yunnan university is 5800kuai.
Hope, I could help you.

The only split of students I have heard of is teaching westerners and asians in different groups, because of the education background/learning styles.
And Japanese students can quickly read simplified chinese as the roots are the same.

Thanks for the advice, as sorry for the late reply. I decided in the end to stick with the devil I know and paid for fees at 理工大学 for next time. In the end I took advice from current teachers at both unis, who in all honestly told me there was little difference bar the amount of westerners at 云南大学。My uni is full of Laos and thai students, who don't speak much or any english, and often people don't come to class...which is obv better more me.

Thanks again..