Wenzhou Medical University

Wenzhou Medical University is a regular higher education institution administered by Zhejiang Province. It traces its origins to Zhejiang Medical School, founded in 1912. In August 1958, part of Zhejiang Medical College moved from Hangzhou to Wenzhou to establish Zhejiang Second Medical College, later renamed Wenzhou Medical College after its location. It adopted the name Wenzhou Medical University in 2013, became jointly supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Government, National Health and Family Planning Commission and Ministry of Education in 2015, and became a Zhejiang key development university in 2017.

It began admitting students to five-year undergraduate programs in 1958 and master’s programs in 1978. It was among the first institutions nationally authorized to award master’s degrees and is authorized to award doctoral degrees. It has a first-level doctoral degree field in Clinical Medicine, 8 first-level master’s fields in Clinical Medicine, Nursing, Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Basic Medicine, Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, and Pharmacy, and 6 professional master’s degree authorization fields. It has a first-level postdoctoral research station in Clinical Medicine. It ranks in the ESI global top 0.24%, 80th nationally. Clinical Medicine, Chemistry, and Pharmacology and Toxicology rank in the ESI global top 1%, with Clinical Medicine in the top 0.22%. It has 1 national engineering technology research center, 1 national key laboratory, 13 provincial or ministerial key laboratories and research centers, and 1 Zhejiang 2011 collaborative innovation center. It has 2 Zhejiang highest-priority first-level disciplines, 3 Zhejiang Category A first-class disciplines, 7 Category B first-class disciplines, 10 Zhejiang university key disciplines and 2 Zhejiang priority development disciplines.

Guided by social needs and public satisfaction, it focuses on training outstanding medical professionals with confidence, compassion, practical capabilities and innovative ability. It admits students to 26 undergraduate programs across four categories: medicine, science, engineering and management. Talent training quality continues to improve. In 2017, all places in 18 undergraduate admissions programs were filled above the first admissions-band threshold; 15 programs had the highest admission cutoff among equivalent programs at provincial undergraduate institutions. According to the Zhejiang Education Evaluation Institute, its 2016 undergraduate graduates one year after graduation and 2014 graduates three years after graduation both ranked first among Zhejiang undergraduate institutions for overall career development and talent training quality. Clinical Medicine graduates’ pass rate in the National Medical Licensing Examination has consistently ranked in the top 10% nationally. It has 16507 full-time students, excluding its independent Renji College, including 135 doctoral students, 2967 master’s students and 749 international degree students. It has developed a comprehensive, multilevel talent training system from undergraduate to master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral education, and from full-time to adult education, international students and students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

It has over 10000 faculty, staff and healthcare personnel, including affiliated hospitals, with more than 1600 holding senior professional and technical titles. The university itself has 1422 full-time teachers, including 349 with full senior and 462 with associate senior professional and technical titles, and 813 doctorate holders. Outstanding teachers have been selected for national high-level talent programs including the Thousand Talents Program, Ten Thousand Talents Plan, Chang Jiang Scholars Program, Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talent Project, national young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions, the Ministry of Education New Century Excellent Talent Support Program, and National Health and Family Planning Commission young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions, as well as provincial special experts, the provincial Thousand Talents Program and provincial university distinguished professorships. Faculty honors include National Outstanding Teacher, National Model of Teacher Ethics, National March 8 Red Banner Pacesetter, and National Advanced Individual in the Health and Family Planning System. Its School of Ophthalmology and Optometry faculty team was selected among the first National Huang Danian-style University Faculty Teams. It was recognized as a provincial advanced institution for valuing and supporting talent.

It was approved to admit international students in 1993. In April 2006, it established the School of International Studies and began organized enrollment of international degree students in English-taught medical programs. In 2007, it was among the first higher education institutions approved by the Ministry of Education to admit international students to English-taught undergraduate Clinical Medicine. It was named a Zhejiang Outstanding Institution in International Student Education in both 2008 and 2013. It received the National Advanced Collective in International Student Education honor in 2009 and again in 2014. In 2011, it was approved to receive Chinese Government Scholarship students, and in 2015 it received an Excellence Award in the evaluation of Zhejiang university international admissions websites.

It has become one of Zhejiang’s largest international medical teaching institutions. It offers five undergraduate programs awarding bachelor’s degrees to international students worldwide: Clinical Medicine (MBBS), Stomatology (BDS), Pharmacy—the first in China, first admitting students in 2015—Medical Imaging, and Nursing. It has 755 international degree students from 56 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australia, and more than 100 short-term exchange students from over ten partner institutions worldwide. Clinical Medicine (MBBS), Stomatology (BDS) and Pharmacy are taught entirely in English. In 2016, with approval from the Ministry of Education’s international department, it jointly established the Huatuo Project with the Medical University of Lublin in Poland. Temporarily administered by the School of International Studies, the project offers an international Clinical Medicine program (MBBS) using a 1+3+2 Chinese-foreign joint training model, opening a new chapter in the university’s overseas cooperative education. It began recruiting postgraduate students worldwide in September 2013 and currently has 32 master’s students, 15 integrated master’s-doctoral students and 7 doctoral students. It introduced university scholarships in 2014 to support students from around the world studying for master’s and doctoral degrees. It also receives dozens of Confucius Institute Scholarship students each year for Chinese language and culture. It strengthens international educational and cultural cooperation and has jointly established Confucius Institutes with Burapha University in Thailand and the State University of New York College of Optometry, providing overseas Chinese teaching and educational and cultural exchange.