School of International Education at SJTU happily celebrated its 10^th Anniversary of foundation. On the afternoon of May 20, the celebration ceremony was grandly held in Hao Ran Technology Building on Xuhui Campus. Ma Dexiu, the Party Secretary of SJTU expressed her earnest congratulations in the anniversary video, and President Academician Zhang Jie attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Xu Fei, Deputy Party Secretary, Zheng Chengliang, Vice President, and Li Jianqiang, the standing committee member of the Party Committee attended the meeting. Zhang Shengkun, former Vice President, Dean of School of International Education, introduced the unusual development path of the school during the past decade.

Achieving Leapfrog Development

School of International Education has achieved leapfrog development during the past decade.

In May 2000, as an important measure to improve the international education and build SJTU into a world-class university, approved by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the School of International Education was founded. It is the school which bears the double duties of managing the overseas students at SJTU and teaching Chinese as a foreign language. For the past ten years, along with the smooth progress of SJTU’s international strategy, the School of International Education has also made great strides. The number of overseas students at SJTU has increased from 970 in 2000 to 4243 in 2009, by 18 times. Students come from over 90 countries and areas, among which over 200 are from world-class universities annually for exchange study at SJTU. For the past decade, 5 Confucius Institutes have been jointly established by School of International Education at SJTU and well-known overseas universities and institutions, namely, the UCLA Confucius Institute, the Confucius Institute at Purdue University, the UNSW Confucius Institute, Global Hanyu & Culture College, and the Confucius Institute at the University of Heidelberg. These Confucius Institutes have become the platform for local people to learn Chinese and Chinese culture, and the bridge and link between SJTU and local well-known universities to carry out international cooperation.

In January 2010, the Ministry of Education website has systemically reported on SJTU’s international education with the title of “Shanghai Jiao Tong University Takes Three Initiatives to Actively Innovate the Cultivating of Overseas Students”. It is said that “over the years, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has insisted on the overseas student education idea of “leveraging diversity, pursuing excellence; with erudition and philanthropism, having pupils everywhere” and the training objective of “to foster outstanding envoys of Chinese and foreign cultural exchange”. Thus the overseas student education has made rapid progress, with expanding scale and increasing level of international students. Faced with the new situation, the university explores courageously to actively promote the innovation of international education and training.

To Build SJTU Brand

On the eve of the anniversary, Secretary Ma Dexiu wrote the inscription of “Conveying the feelings of Siyuan, and Promoting the international fame” for School of International Education. President Zhang Jie wrote the inscription of “advancing international strategy, and accelerating the building of a world-class university” and laid his great hope on the future development of the School of International Education. He pointed out that to build the School of International Education well, and strive to develop the education services for overseas students and studies of Chinese as a second language are not only the necessity for SJTU to promote the implementation of international strategy and to speed up the building of a world-class university, but also our historical mission to serve China’s overall development and achieve the great rejuvenation of the nation.

On behalf of the University, President Zhang Jie has put forward three hopes to the School of International Education: to raise awareness, emancipate the mind, and place the development of the School of International Education into the university’s overall strategy of building a world-class university; to improve the quality, emphasize the characteristics, and build SJTU brand of overseas students education in China and studies on Chinese as a second language; to optimize the structure, speed up development and serve the central work of university’s international strategy.