University Of Zhejiang

Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a national public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigious C9 League and is selected into the national higher education plans including Double First Class University Plan, Project 985, and Project 211; ZJU is consistently ranked among the top 5 academic institutions in mainland China.

Founded as Qiushi Academy in 1897, it is the oldest university in Zhejiang and one of the oldest in China. After the 1911 Revolution, the university was shut down by the government in 1914 and was re-established as National Third Chungshan University in 1927 and renamed as National Chekiang University (NCKU) in 1928. During the presidency of Chu Kochen from 1936 to 1949, despite relocation due to World War II, the university became one of the famous four universities in China. British biochemist Joseph Needham hailed the university as "Cambridge of the East" during his visit to the university's wartime campus in Meitan, Guizhou. After the Communist Revolution, the university was renamed as Chekiang University, and was re-organized as an engineering-specialized university in 1952. In 1998, Zhejiang Medical University, Hangzhou University and Zhejiang Agricultural University, which were derived from former ZJU departments, merged into ZJU and formed the present-day ZJU as a comprehensive university.

The university holds 7 faculties, 37 colleges, schools, and departments, offering more than 140 undergraduate and 300 graduate programs. The university also has seven affiliated hospitals, 1 museum, 2 international joint institutes, and boasts over 200 student organizations. The university is also deeply involved in and supports academic-industry collaboration and local industry innovations and development. In 2022, with a budget of 26.1 billion Chinese yuan, the university had the second largest budget in China after Tsinghua. Regarding scientific research output, the Nature Index Annual Table 2022 ranked ZJU the sixth university in China, the 7th university in the Asia Pacific region, and 11th in the world among global universities. In the fourth round of China University Subject Rankings by the Ministry of Education released in 2018, ZJU had 31 subjects rated A, the most among Chinese universities, among which 11 subjects were rated A+, the third most after Peking and Tsinghua.

Among the faculty of over 4,000 at ZJU are 52 members from 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. Notable ZJU alumni include political leader Chen Duxiu, physicists such as Tsung-Dao Lee, Chien-Shiung Wu and Qian Sanqiang, and entrepreneurs such as Shi Yuzhu, Colin Huang and Duan Yongping.

History

Qing dynasty

Founded by Hangzhou mayor Lin Qi as the first higher education institution in Zhejiang and one of the first of its kind in China in 1897, Qiushi Academy was the major predecessor of ZJU. Lin studied the Western higher education system and applied it to the Qiushi Academy. Due to the 1902 and 1904 education reforms in China, the Qiushi Academy was renamed to Chekiang University in 1902, and to Chekiang Higher Institutes in 1903. Due to controversy over the new planned reform of the Institutes under the new republican government after the 1911 revolution, the Institutes stopped recruiting students since 1912, and then was closed in 1914.

Republican era

With the nationalists coming to power after the Northern Expedition in July 1927, the provincial government of Zhejiang returned the properties of the former Chekiang Higher Institutes, with which the alumni of Chekiang and Qiushi re-established the university, with the name National Third Chungshan University , by merging Chekiang Industrial College and Chekiang Agricultural College. On April 1, 1928, the university was renamed to Chekiang University and again renamed to National Chekiang University later the year. The University of Chekiang, Chekiang University, and other English names were also used.

Jiang Menglin, who graduated from Chekiang in 1903 served as the first president of the re-established institute since July 1927, but he was appointed as the minister of education within the new nationalist government in May 1928. The presidency was soon assumed by Shao Peizi, who was a graduate of Qiushi, then a teacher at Chekiang and a major contributor to the re-establishment of Chekiang in 1927. However, despite invitation from Chiang Kai-shek, Shao refused to join Kuomintang (KMT), which worsened his relationship with the Nationalist government, eventually leading to financial crisis of the university and causing him to resign in March 1932 as the ongoing Japanese invasion in Shanghai discontinued the public funding to the university.

Soon, Cheng Tien-fong, a KMT member, was appointed as the new president. During his presidency, the university became directly funded by the central government, rather than the provincial government. Chiang also wrote a personal letter to the provincial government of Zhejiang to solve the financial issues of the university. In March 1933, Zing-Yang Kuo, a notable psychologist and also a loyal KMT member who was teaching at Chekiang, was appointed the new president. Kuo expanded university with a new campus, which later became known as the Huajiachi Campus. However, the Nationalist government became unpopular among the people with the escalation of the Sino-Japanese conflicts and the government's soft stance against invasion. During the December 9th Movement in 1935, the students expelled Kuo, accusing him for colluding with the police to arrest protesting students. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the government, came to the university in person and eventually compromised with the students and faculty.
Chu Kochen, a scholar who had never held any political position, was recommended to Chiang Kai-shek by Chiang's speechwrite and Chekiang alumni Chen Bulei and thus became the president of Chekiang in April 1936. Chu's oath was administered by Jiang Mengling, the first president of Chekiang and then president of Peking. With strong financial support and full authority of political appointments within the university as promised by Chen Bulei, Chu Kochen thus recruited prominent figures in the Science Society of China as well as The Critical Review Group, which significantly boosted the academic reputation of Chekiang.

In the later half of 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and due to the invading Imperial Japanese Army, the university evacuated from Hangzhou to Yishan, Zunyi and eventually Meitan in the southwestern province of Guizhou. The students of Chekiang also carried historical collections of Zhejiang, including Siku Quanshu stored in the Wenlan Pavilion, to avoid them falling into Japanese hand. In Meitan, T. C. Hsu received postgraduate training by geneticist Tan Jiazhen, despite hardships during the war. Consistently ranked as among top 3 in the nation during that time, the National Che Kiang University was praised as one of the four most Prominent Universities in the Republic of China, along with National Central University, National Southwestern Associated University, and National Wuhan University. As the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing, Joseph Needham visited the wartime campus of the university twice in 1944, during which he hailed the university as "Cambridge of the East."

On March 5, 1945, Fei Gong, a professor of politics at Chekiang who co-signed a declaration to call for an end to the one-party rule by Kuomintang in late February, was found missing when he was visiting Fudan University in the wartime capital Chongqing. The event later became a cause célèbre. It is generally believed that Fei was kidnapped and killed by the Nationalist government. The release of Fei and political prisoners was one of the pre-conditions that the Communists proposed to Kuomintang during the peace negotiation later the civil war. As the World War 2 ended in 1945, the university returned to Hangzhou in early 1946 and founded its own medical school according to a government order in August 1945. An affiliated hospital was set up in March 1947. As the Nationalist government took over Taiwan, Chekiang professors Luo Zongluo, Su Buqing, Chen Jiangong

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