“Spending some time abroad and engaging with different cultures and people will provide a lot of inspirations and insights to those young people,” said Prof. LI Min, director of the Office of Global Engagement at the opening ceremony of 2018 ZJU Study Abroad Fair. When speaking of her own experience, Prof. LI Min emphasized a lot on student mobility to promote students’ global competence and social responsibility. “I went to study in the United States many years ago. I know how challenging and rewarding it is for students to study abroad.”

To help students explore programs that offer international opportunities, the Office of Global Engagement held the first ZJU Study Abroad Fair on Nov. 1. More than 40 exhibitors of ZJU’s international partner institutions, including universities from UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Korea and Singapore, joined the event at the Campus Library on Zijingang Campus to interact face-to-face with the students.

“The representatives from these universities gave me loads of materials and offered me so much new and valuable information that I can get a clear picture of what to apply,” said ZHAO Chenxi, an English Language and Literature graduate student from School of International Studies, who wants to apply for a PhD program abroad. “I am going for Japanese universities. Of all my classmates that have studied abroad, those who’ve been in Japan are the happiest. I think Japanese universities do have an academic advantage in the field that I am interested in.”

From which disciplines the universities are strong in, how to apply for a specific study program, how much the total expense might be, what kind of cultural activities they have to what the dormitories look like, exhibitors received various questions from students stopping by and provided individualized help. Besides the exhibition tables outside the Library, each university also took turns to give a 10-munite presentation in the lecture room on the third floor.

Two Japanese students from ZJU’s School of Economics showed great interest in international student exchange programs after seeing the presentations by some ZJU’s partner universities. “We are still considering about the exchange programs. And we want to know more. It’s really helpful.”

“International collaboration has always been among the top priorities of our agenda,” introduced Prof. LI Min when talking about ZJU’s global strategy. “Last year, around 4000 ZJU students had a certain period of time of international experiences, which made a real difference in their lives.”

Photo: CHEN Yi

Writer: TAO Yuan