On October 23, Chao News, a major provincial news platform under the Zhejiang Daily Newspaper Group, published the headline article Ningbo, the Great Port of the East: Sailing to the World, Striving Unswervingly Forward. The article focuses on the high-quality involvement of Ningbo, as one of the world’s biggest ports, in the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative. In this article, ZWU’s “sample building in humanistic exchanges and cooperation” is featured in an interview with president Lin Zhihua. 

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, the Initiative has evolved from a Chinese initiative to an international practice, and has made solid achievements, becoming a worthy endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind and opening up a new path for mankind to jointly realize modernization. Over the past decade, ZWU has actively practiced the Belt and Road Initiative. With the theme of high-quality development, the university has elaborately planned and made precise efforts in areas of language interconnection and mutual communication, cooperation in talent cultivation and training, and research on humanistic exchanges, contributing its power to the gradual construction of an intellectual Silk Road loaded with languages, cultures, and technologies.

Adhering to the philosophy of internationalization and the emphasis on foreign exchange and cooperation, ZWU has established inter-university cooperation with more than 80 institutions in more than 30 countries and regions, and has developed international communication and study programs such as exchange programs, overseas studies, 2+2 double degrees, undergraduate and master’s degree programs. Over the past ten years, more than 2,800 ZWU students have gone to partner institutions for study and exchange. ZWU actively carries out education for international students. Over the past ten years, more than 1,500 international students from more than 30 countries have been studying in ZWU and the proportion of international students from the Belt and Road countries is nearly 40%. These exchange students have become a bridge to friendship and communication between China and foreign countries.

ZWU actively explores education “going out” and “bringing in”. In 2018, the university set up its overseas campus in Hamburg, Germany, which is the first independently-run overseas campus in Zhejiang province. In June 2023, approved by the Ministry of Education, ZWU cooperated with the German Brand University of Applied Sciences to set up the Joint Institute of ZWU and Brand University of Applied Sciences, which started admitting students in the same year. The internationalization of ZWU opens up a new chapter.

ZWU has established a high-level research platform. In 2015, taking advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative, the university established the Ningbo Maritime Silk Road Research Institute with Ningbo Municipal Government and Beijing Foreign Studies University at the First China-CEEC Investment and Trade Expo; in 2016, the university established Ningbo CEEC Cooperation Institute jointly with the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and China Academy of West Region Development of Zhejiang University. The Institutes have been awarded as National and Regional Research Center of the Ministry of Education (Central and Eastern Europe Economy and Trade Research Center), Cultivation Unit of New Think Tank of Zhejiang Province, New Think Tank of Universities of Zhejiang Province, International Humanities Exchange Base of Zhejiang Province, Soft Science Research Base of Zhejiang Province, etc. Over the past ten years, more than 540 officials, entrepreneurs and teachers from more than 30 countries, including Central and Eastern European countries, have come to China to participate in high-end international training and exchange activities organized by the Institutes.

ZWU’s “order-based” talent cultivation for minor languages is unique. Focusing on serving the countries along “the Belt and Road”, the university has formulated a training program for minor language talents, deepened the construction of a school-enterprise cooperation community, expanded university alliances, developed cultivation paths through the training of talents in Czech, Russian, Spanish, German and other minor languages, and achieved precise alignment of talent cultivation with cooperation needs in China and Central and Eastern Europe, providing tailored training for industry collaboration. The university actively explores talent cultivation in minor languages, such as the languages of Central and Eastern European countries, cultural exchange and communication, as well as international academic exchanges in the field of international cooperation. In 2017, the first Czech Language and Culture Center in Zhejiang Province was established; in 2019, the Belt and Road Language Institute was established; and in 2022, China and Bulgaria Silk Road Institute was established. Up to the present, the university has held 12 classes of minor languages, organized 3 Czech language summer camps, and hosted 3 online academic forums for international college students, benefiting nearly 1,000 people.

Over the past ten years, the university has always taken the Belt and Road Initiative as a guide, deepened international cooperation, and contributed ZWU’s wisdom to jointly achieve common development and prosperity. Looking to the future, the university will continue to promote the level of internationalization, strengthen international cooperation and exchanges, lead the high-quality development of education for international students in China along the Maritime Silk Road, build high-quality education open to the outside world, pursue the dream of the Belt and Road, contribute ZWU’s strength to the Belt and Road Initiative, and break the waves toward the goal of building a domestic first-class and internationally renowned university!