Zhejiang University

Zhejiang University, also known as Chekiang Institution when it was romanized in the past, is a national public research university with its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. The university is abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda. It is chosen into the national higher education programmes including the Double First Class University Plan, Project 985, and Project 211 and is a member of the coveted C9 League. ZJU is one of the most prominent colleges in China since it is consistently regarded as one of the top five academic institutions on the Chinese mainland. According to the QS World University Rankings, ZJU is currently placed 5th in Asia and 42nd internationally. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), ZJU is currently ranked 36th in the world and 5th in the Asia & Oceania area as of 2022.

It was first established as Qiushi Academy in 1897, making it the oldest university in the Zhejiang province as well as one of the oldest universities in China. Following the events of the 1911 Revolution, the institution was closed by the government in 1914 and not reopened until 1927, when it was given the name National Third Chungshan University. In 1928, the university was given its current name, National Chekiang University (NCKU). Despite having to relocate because of World War II, the university managed to become one of the most renowned four institutions in China under the presidency of Chu Kochen, which lasted from 1936 to 1949. During his visit to the university's wartime site in Meitan, Guizhou, the British biochemist Joseph Needham praised the institution and referred to it as the "Cambridge of the East." After the Communist Revolution, the institution was renamed Chekiang University and in 1952 it was reorganised as a university with a focus on engineering. Both of these changes occurred after the revolution. The present-day Zhejiang University (ZJU) is a comprehensive university that was created in 1998 when Zhejiang Medical University, Hangzhou University, and Zhejiang Agricultural University amalgamated into ZJU. All three of these universities had previously been established as departments under ZJU.

The university is comprised of seven faculties, in addition to thirty-seven colleges, schools, and departments, and it provides more than one hundred and forty undergraduate and three hundred graduate degree programmes. In addition, there are seven connected hospitals, one museum, two international joint institutions, and over 200 student groups that are associated with the university. The institution is also heavily active in, and provides support for, academic-industry cooperation as well as the development of innovative practises within local industries. After Tsinghua University, the university had the second biggest budget in China in 2022, with a total of 26.1 billion Chinese yuan allocated to its operations. According to the Nature Index Annual Table 2022, ZJU was rated as the sixth university in China, the seventh university in the Asia Pacific region, and the eleventh university in the world among worldwide universities in terms of the amount of scientific research it produced. The fourth edition of China University Subject Rankings was issued in 2018 by the Ministry of Education. ZJU has the most topics rated A among Chinese institutions, with 31, and 11 of those subjects were rated A+, making it the third highest behind Peking and Tsinghua.

ZJU has a faculty of over 4,000 people, including 52 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 15 Distinguished Professors of Humanities, 101 Chang Jiang Scholars, and 154 recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. In total, ZJU has been awarded 154 grants from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. Chen Duxiu, an influential figure in Chinese politics; Tsung-Dao Lee, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Qian Sanqiang, all renowned scientists; Shi Yuzhu, Colin Huang, and Duan Yongping, successful businesspeople; these are just some of the notable people that graduated from ZJU.