Zhejiang University (ZJU) is a public university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and Double First-Class Construction.
The university was established as National Third Chung Shan University in 1927, in memory of Sun Yat-sen, and soon renamed as National Chekiang University (NCKU) in 1928. During the presidency of Chu Kochen from 1936 to 1949, the university retreated to Guizhou in Western China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, before it moved back to Hangzhou in 1946. After the Communist Revolution, the university 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 departments of ZJU, merged and formed the present-day ZJU as a comprehensive university.
The university maintains seven faculties with 37 colleges and schools, offering about 140 undergraduate and 300 graduate programs. The university also has seven affiliated hospitals, one museum, and two international joint institutes. Fifty-two members of ZJU faculty are also members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The university is a member of the C9 League.
Zhejiang University was ranked first worldwide among academic institutions for scientific research output by the Nature Index in 2026 and the CWTS Leiden Ranking Traditional Edition in 2025. Notable alumni of the university include Chinese premier Li Qiang, entrepreneurs Duan Yongping and Colin Huang, and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng.
History 1897–1914: college-preparatory school Established in 1897 by Hangzhou's mayor, Lin Qi, Qiushi Academy was the major predecessor to the university. The educational reforms of 1902 and 1904 in China led to the academy being renamed Chekiang University in 1902, and subsequently Chekiang Higher Institute in 1903. Elmer L. Mattox of Hangchow Presbyterian College was appointed as the head teacher of the college, responsible for supervising and organising teaching. The Institute was the first provincial educational institution to send students to study abroad.
However, the proposed reforms under the new republican government following the 1911 revolution sparked controversy, causing the Institutes to cease student recruitment in 1912 and ultimately close in 1914.
In 1947, Chang Ch'i-yun, a professor at NCKU, began attributing the university's origin to the Qiushi Academy, which was later acknowledge in the yearbook of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China.
1928–1949: national university After the closure of Cheking Higher Institute, the attempts to restore the institute was unsuccessful due to conflicts between warlords. After the Northern Expedition in July 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT) took control of Hangzhou and established the National Third Chungshan University, by merging Chekiang Industrial College and Chekiang Agricultural College on the original site of Qiushi Academy. On April 1, 1928, the institution was renamed Chekiang University, and later that year it was renamed National Chekiang University (NCKU), with Jiang Menglin, an alumnus and teacher of Qiushi, as its first president.
In 1929, Jiang was succeeded by Shao Peizi, also an alumnus and teacher of Qiushi. Shao refused to join KMT, which led to a tense relationship between the university and the government, and the government withdrew funding in 1932, leading to Shao's resignation. Cheng Tien-fong, a member of the KMT, was then appointed by the Nationalist government as the new president. Under his leadership, with the personal intervention of Chiang Kai-shek, the university began to receive direct funding from the central government.
In March 1933, Kuo Zing-Yang, another KMT member, became president. But as the Sino-Japanese conflict intensified and the Nationalist government's response to the invasion was perceived as lenient, its popularity waned. This discontent culminated in the December 9 Movement of 1935, when students ousted Kuo from office, accusing him of collaborating with the police to arrest student demonstrators.Chu Kochen, a scholar with no previous political appointments, was recommended to Chiang Kai-shek by Chen Bulei for the presidency of NCKU in April 1936. Kochen's inauguration was presided over by Jiang Menglin. Backed by Chen Bulei's strong financial backing and authority to make political appointments within the university, Chu was able to attract leading members of the Science Society of China and the Critical Review Group. In the second half of 1937, with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the advance of the Japanese army, the university was forced to move from Hangzhou, first to Yishan, then to Zunyi, and finally to Meitan in Guizhou Province in southwest China. During this period, the students of NCKU took on the responsibility of safeguarding Zhejiang's historical collections, including the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries housed in the Wenlan Pavilion, to prevent their capture by Japanese forces.
In March 1945, Fei Gong, an NCKU professor and critic of the Nationalist government, disappeared in Chongqing in what was later proved to be a government assassination. In September, with the surrender of Japan, a group of NCKU professors led by Luo Zongluo were ordered by the government to take over the Japanese Imperial University in Taiwan. In October, the students and faculty who had retreated to Longquan began to return to Hangzhou, while those who had retreated to Guizhou returned in May 1946 with the help of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The university set up its first medical school on the instructions of the Ministry of Education.
In late 1947, the death of Yu Zisan, the president of the university's student union, led to strikes and protests. While Chu attempted to strike a balance between his students and the Nationalist government, his relationship with the students worsened and he moved to Shanghai, upon the request of the Nationalist government. But he eventually did not move to Taiwan and secretly stayed at the Academia Sinica building in Shanghai, until the Communist takeover of the NCKU campus in May 1949.
1949–1976: Mao Zedong era In August 1948, Ma Yinchu was appointed as the university president, who promoted communist education and organisations within the university. In 1950, the new Ministry of Education instructed all universities to remove "National" from their names. Hence the university's name was changed to its present name in Chinese, or Zhejiang University (ZJU). The communist education among faculty evolved into the Thought Reform and Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns after Ma was appointed the president of Peking University in 1949. ZJU scholars such as Su Buqing, Tan Jiazhen, Wang Guosong became targets of political prosecution.
In the early 1950s, the university underwent a series of re-organisation, which aimed to establish a Soviet-styled education system, to eventually became an engineering-focused university., which only had the departments of electrical engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering and mechanical engineering. The engineering school of Hangchow University merged into ZJU. The university's College of Agriculture became an independent university, named Zhejiang Agricultural University. The university's medical school merged into Zhejiang Provincial Medical College to become Zhejiang Medical College. The departments of Chinese Literature, Foreign Literature and Education was merged into Zhejiang Teachers College and relocated to the campus of Hangchow University. The faculty of College of Sciences were sent to Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 1954, the university moved from Daxue Road to Yuquan. Liu Dan, the university's Party Secretary, restored sciences research and education as part of the university's engineering offerings. In 1963, ZJU was selected as one of the National Key Universities.In 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out and the university ceased to function. Liu Dan was removed from office after being attacked by the Zhejiang Daily and the People's Daily. There was an emergence of radical groups in favour of Cultural Revolution. In August, the ZJU students confronted with younger red guards, who were mostly high school students, to protect Lingyin Temple from their attempts to destroy Four Olds. In 1967, at a meeting with Tan Zhenlin in Beijing, red guards from ZJU were told that Mao Zedong wanted to protect Jiang Hua in this revolution. This led to a split within red guards in Zhejiang, particularly with another faction led by Zhang Yongsheng from the Chinese Academy of Art, who wanted to persecute Jiang Hua. The two factions fought each other constantly throughout the Cultural Revolution.
1976 to present With the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Liu returned to ZJU as the honorary president, the only by far. In November 1980, ZJU became co-funded by both Ministry of Education and Zhejiang's provincial government.
In 1989, Zhejiang University students, along with more than 10 other universities in Hangzhou, demonstrated in Wulin Square in support of the democracy movement in Beijing. After hearing of the massacre in Beijing, the student protesters blocked the railway at Nanxingqiao station with their bodies for three days before negotiating with the vice-governor, Chai Songyue. At least 60 passenger trains and 166 freight trains were blocked during the protest.
Since 1988 to 1995, Lu Yongxiang assumed the president of Zhejiang University, during which he made "pursuing innovation" part of the university motto and reformed teaching and research systems, including introduction of the program of Advanced Honor Class of Engineering Education.
In 1995, it was selected into Project 211. In 1997, Wang Ganchang and Bei Shizhang in Beijing, and Su Buqing and Tan Jiazhen in Shanghai, wrote a joint letter to the then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, recommending a merger of the four universities. In 1998, with the approval of the State Council, the new Zhejiang University was established as a merger of four major universities. With over 30,000 students and 10,000 staff, the new Zhejiang University was considered the largest higher education institution in Asia. Zhang Junsheng was appointed Party secretary of the university to oversee the merger. In 2005, the university founded Zhejiang University Holding Group, later renamed as Zhejiang University Yuanzheng Holding Group. As of 2022, there are several companies affiliated to the group have been publicly listed, including Insigma Technology, United Mechanical & Electrical, and Shenghua Land. In October 2005, the university's Hubin campus was sold at the price of 2.46 billion Chinese yuan to Kerry Properties for commercial complex development. In June 2012, Zhejiang University founded the Ocean College in collaboration with Zhoushan municipal government. In December 2014, the university signed an agreement with the University of Edinburgh to form a joint institute at the Haining campus. In July 2015, another agreement to build a joint institute was signed with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In September 2016, the new Haining campus came into use.
In April 2013, 53 alumni co-signed a petition against the appointment of Lin Jianhua as Zhejiang University's new president. An open letter by the alumni says, "Zhejiang University needs an upright and capable academic leader, not a mediocre chief executive." In November 2013, Chu Jian, vice president of the university who was rumoured to be behind the rare petition, was arrested for bribery, yet he was not tried until 2017 and was soon released after he was sentenced to 3 years in jail which had almost been fulfilled by the time of trial.