Since China's reform and opening-up in 1978, ZJSU has made a great progress by adopting the internationalized education strategy. With the combined efforts of faculty and students, the school leaders have attached great importance to the international exchanges and cooperation programs, making the scale enlarged, content enriched and level enhanced. Our university has successively signed the cooperation agreements with more than 80 universities and scientific research institutions from more than 50 countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea, etc. Moreover, we have started the cooperation programs with over 20 foreign universities and research institutions in teachers and students' exchanging, credits' acknowledging and scientific researching, etc. Sponsored by British government fund, the program of Key Technology of Storing and Processing the Main Perishable and Browning Fruits Specified in the South Areas was awarded the Second National Scientific and Technological Advance Prize in 2008; Another program---MPM, in cooperating with the Quebec University has trained near 400 postgraduates who have become effective contributors to the local economic construction and development.
With the expansion of international interaction and overall improvement of our university, we have hosted and undertaken about 20 large international activities and high level academic conferences in recent years. We have many important guests and visitors such as Yokoi Yutaka, General Consul of Japan in Shanghai, and other distinguished guests to attend the grand activity of '2008 Zhejiang Japanese Culture Week'; Mr. Herv Ladsous, French Ambassador to China who addressed French Union's formall inauguration ceremony in Zhejiang Gongshang University---Alliance Francaise de Hangzhou. Then, we hosted the Second China Statistics Annual Conference, participated by more than 200 scholars from research institutions, universities and colleges in the United States, Sweden and other countries, as well as from the mainland, Taiwan, Hongkong of China. Karl G. Jöreskog, the member of the Nobel Committee in Economics, academician of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and former chairman of Swedish Statistical Society, together with other famous scholars, attended the conference and made wonderful presentations for the audience.
In recent years, our university has employed over 180 foreign teachers from the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Korea, etc; invited foreign experts and scholars to give over 500 short-term courses or lectures; and had over 2300 foreign guests and visitors. Prominent progresses have been achieved both in the levels and scales of international students' education both in long-term or short-term, especially in students' exchange and SEPP (Spoken English Promotion Project), which takes the leading position in Zhejiang Province, as well as possesses an international influence. In 2008, we admitted 233 long-term international students, 22 degree international students, and over 60 short-term foreign students from 9 countries, including the United States, Germany, Chile, Philippines, etc. International students at ZJSU are characterized with different levels and dozens of countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Newzealand, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Ghana and some other 33 countries. Among them, there were Chinese language students, exchange students, and degree students of Bachelor, Master and PhD. ZJSU also energetically provides conditions for them to participate in all kinds of after-class social, cultural and recreational activities: our foreign students have won the Silver Prize in the First Zhejiang Provincial Chinese Classic Poetry Reading Competition; and over 20 students participated in the 4th China Huangshan International Mountain Climbing Competition and won the First Prize among Foreign Groups.
The main foreign-related departments of our university include the International Affairs Office, the College of International Education and the Alliance Francaise de Hangzhou, with 17 permanent staff.
