Zhijiang College of Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJC) is a full-time undergraduate independent college approved by the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government and confirmed by the Ministry of Education in 1999. It has been jointly run by Zhejiang University of Technology and Keqiao District of Shaoxing City since 2012. Students have been studying on the Shaoxing campus since September 2013. In 2015, it was listed as one of the first ten pilot demonstration schools for applied university in Zhejiang Province. In 2016, it was among the first to pass the standardized acceptance of independent colleges by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education. In 2017, it became the unit for granting master's degrees in Zhejiang Province. In 2019, it became one of the first ten demonstration bases for integration of industry and education in Zhejiang Province and the first pilot college for the Education Ministry's ‘1+X’ certificate program. The campus covers an area of 820 acres, including 220 acres of water surface.
Currently, Zhijiang College has 12 secondary schools and 1 teaching department, namely, the School of Business, the School of Information Engineering, the School of Humanities, the School of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Foreign Languages, the School of Architecture, the School of Design, the School of Science, the School of Tourism, the School of Marxism, the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the School of Continuing Education, and the Department of Physical Education and Military Training. The majors are closely related to the economic construction and social development needs of Zhejiang Province, with 40 undergraduate majors covering seven disciplines including engineering, science, literature, law, management, economics, and art. There are more than 10,500 full-time undergraduate students enrolled.
Zhijiang College insists on putting teaching at the center, deepening reforms, and strengthening practical learning. Through a series of measures such as star-rated major construction and independent enrollment, the teaching quality has steadily improved and the major characteristics have initially emerged. In 2015, the Computer Science and Technology major was rated as a first-class discipline in Zhejiang Province. In 2019, the Business Administration major was rated as a key discipline in ordinary universities in Shaoxing city. The majors of Architecture, Tourism Management, English, Computer Science and Technology, and Mechanical Engineering were selected as ‘first-class majors’ in Zhejiang Province. The institute has three provincial-level emerging characteristic majors under the 12th Five-Year Plan, which are, Financial Management, Electronic Information Engineering, and Tourism Management. It also has three provincial-level advantageous characteristic majors under the 13th Five-Year Plan, namely, Business Administration, Computer Science and Technology, and English. Urban and Rural Planning and Industrial Design are key construction majors in Shaoxing City. Zhijiang College has implemented a star-rated major construction plan, with 11 star-rated majors, including high-star-rated majors such as Business Administration, Computer Science and Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Tourism Management, and English.
In recent years, the college has carried out over 430 teaching research and construction projects at all levels and types. Among them, there are 68 projects on industry-university cooperation for collaborative education sponsored by the Ministry of Education, 60 projects on higher education quality sponsored by Zhejiang Province, and 98 projects on higher education teaching reform and construction sponsored by Shaoxing City. The Digital Cultural and Tourism Industry College was selected as an excellent case for the first Modern Industry Colleges Construction of Zhejiang Province. The Mechanical Engineering Experimental Teaching Center and the Information Engineering Experimental Teaching Center are provincial experimental teaching demonstration centers, while the Information Engineering Experimental Center, Digital Media Joint Experimental Teaching Center, Architecture Training Center, Zhijiang Cross-border E-commerce Industry Cooperation Training Base of the School of Business, and Color Image Design Training Base of the School of Design have been listed as experimental teaching demonstration center construction projects in Shaoxing City. There are currently 102 excellent course (online) construction projects, including 2 provincial-level excellent courses, 2 provincial-level excellent online open courses, and 16 provincial first-class courses. The college has compiled 102 textbooks with all kinds, including 6 provincial key textbooks and 11 new form textbooks. The project "Research and Practice of Independent College Teaching Management" won the first prize of Zhejiang Province Teaching Achievement Award.
In order to improve teaching effectiveness and ensure teaching quality, the college has established 10 experimental centers with more than 130 laboratories. It has also established over 200 off-campus practice education bases with a large number of enterprises and institutions inside and outside the province. The teaching and scientific research equipment has reached 13,580 sets, with a total value of over 98.9 million yuan. The laboratory of Shaoxing Industrial Internet College (Research Institute) has been successfully selected as a key co-construction innovation platform in Keqiao District and a key laboratory construction and cultivation project in Shaoxing City.
The college adheres to the philosophy of "student-centered education" and relies on the campus third space to create a modern academy system, providing a platform and guidance for each student's success. The college offers a four-year vocational planning and career guidance course. It actively promotes the cultivation of various types of elite talents, establishes a student extracurricular technology fund, opens entrepreneurship experimental classes and the "Zhi Zhi" elite class. It also organizes entrepreneurship competitions for college students, establishes a college student entrepreneurship park, and actively incubates and cultivates excellent entrepreneurial projects, highlighting the cultivation of students' innovative and entrepreneurial abilities.
Zhijiang college actively carries out international exchanges and cooperation, and creates platforms for students to study abroad. Its overall level of internationalization ranks among the top two in similar colleges in Zhejiang Province. Currently, it has established collaborations with more than 40 overseas universities and institutions, including William Paterson University, Paier College of Art, Birmingham City University, University of Toulon, Kyushu Institute of Foreign Languages, Sangmyung University, and etc.. The college has been enrolling international students since 2016.
The quality and effectiveness of talent cultivation are remarkable. In the past five years, the college has won a total of 34 national awards and 540 provincial awards in various subject competitions held by education authorities, ranking the top of similar colleges in the province. Students' enthusiasm and ability for entrepreneurship have been increasing year by year. Nearly 100 university student entrepreneurial teams are registered and 2,000 students participate in entrepreneurial activities every year. So far, the college has sent a total of 33,281 university students to society, with a continuing education rate of about 9%. Outstanding graduates have emerged from the college, including moral models for Zhejiang youth and outstanding youth in Zhejiang Province.
On the basis of the teaching resources from Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhijiang college strives to introduce high-level talents from both domestic and overseas. The college hires well-known professors from domestic and foreign universities as well as experts, scholars, and senior technical managers from enterprises and institutions as academic leaders and part-time professors. The college also implements the "Young Teachers Training Program" to improve the overall quality of young teachers. Currently, the college has more than 400 full-time teachers, of which 50% have a doctoral degree or senior technical positions, and over 90% have a master's degree or above. There are nearly 40 master's supervisors, and the college enrolls master's students relying on the degree program of Zhejiang University of Technology. Since 2013, the college has flexibly introduced 3 national high-level talents, 6 provincial-level talents, and 11 municipal-level talents.
In the past five years, the college's faculty members have won 206 scientific research projects at the department and bureal levels or above, including 2 national natural science foundation projects and 9 national social science foundation projects, as well as 60 projects from the Ministry of Education, provincial natural science foundation, provincial social science planning projects, etc. The research funding amounted to 131 million yuan, and Zhijiang College owns 1,096 authorized patents (including 76 invention patents). The faculty members have published 170 A-class and three major index papers, as well as 21 academic monographs. More than 10 research reports written by faculty research teams have received approval from national, provincial, and municipal leaders.
The entire faculty and students of the college are following the college motto of "upholding virtue, pursuing knowledge, and daring to be pioneers", implementing the "Three Strategies" of "integrating into Shaoxing, relying on the parent institution, and developing with connotation", and promoting the innovative capabilities in "talents, disciplines, and services", accelerating the construction of a "first-class regional application-oriented university", and making new and greater contributions to promoting the construction of Zhejiang Province as an "important window", a socialist modernization pioneer province, and a "high-quality development construction demonstration zone for common prosperity".