Wenzhou Medical University (WMU) is a key construction university of Zhejiang Province. It can trace its origin to the former Zhejiang Special Medical School established in 1912. In August 1958, a group of faculty were sent from Hangzhou to Wenzhou to help build up Zhejiang Medical College, which was ever since renamed Wenzhou Medical College in accordance with its location, and renamed Wenzhou Medical University in 2013. In 2014, it was shortlisted as the co-constructed university by Ministry of Education, National Health and Family Planning Commission and Zhejiang Provincial Government.
WMU started its five–year undergraduate program in 1958 and master’s program in 1978, among the first institutions in China authorized to confer master’s degree. Now WMU has a primary discipline doctoral program of Clinical Medicine and a postdoctoral research station. There’re 8 primary discipline master’s degree programs involving Clinical Medicine, Nursing Science, Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Preclinical Medicine, Chinese and Western Integrative Medicine, Pharmacology and 6 professional master’s program. WMU is entitled to recommend her fresh graduates to further study for master’s degree by exempting them from the National Graduate Admission Test. WMU embraces 1 national engineering research center, 1 state key laboratory and 13 provincial or ministerial key laboratories (research centers), 2 provincial top priority subjects, 1 provincial ”2011 collaborative innovation center” and 10 provincial key subjects.
WMU offers a 7-year program in optometry directly leading to master’s degree and 33 bachelor’s programs in the disciplines of medicine, science, engineering, administration, arts, law and education. At present, the total enrollment of WMU amounts to 22,500 over a full range of programs from bachelor’s to master’s, from doctoral to post-doctoral study, from full-time to continuing education, not only for students from China mainland but also for students from abroad and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well.
WMU has 9350 faculty and staff members, including the academic appointment of the affiliated hospitals, of whom over 1600 hold senior professional titles. WMU has the authority to appoint professors of the primary discipline of Clinical Medicine and the authority to appoint associate professors of 11 primary disciplines. In recent years, a host of scholars have been selected in the lists of “Talent Projects”, governmental programs or fund aimed to foster high-level professional manpower to implement the national scientific strategy in the new century, such as the national “Thousand-Talents Project”, national “Million-Talents Plan” and “Yangtze Fund Scholars”. Quite a few professors and experts have been awarded or specially appointed by Zhejiang provincial government for their innovative contributions and the leading roles they play in a particular field of subject.
Numerous teaching awards have been achieved by our faculty and 6 national-level pilot programs in teaching reform have been established in Wenzhou Medical University. The performance of Wenzhou Medical University graduates has been ranked top 10% among all the universities offering clinical medicine programs.
In recent years, WMU has undertaken more than 1530 scientific research projects of provincial level or above. More than 50 projects have won provincial, ministerial or national prizes, among them are State Technological Invention Award second prize, State Science and Technology Award second prize, first prize of the Science and Technology Award by Chinese Medical Association, first prize of Science and Technology by Chinese Association of Pharmacy and first prize of Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Award.
Composed of four campuses, WMU covers a total area of 1,900 mu with a building space of 550,000m. The university library has a collection of 2,530,000 volumes. WMU publishes five academic Journals and one academic newspaper, among which three journals are listed in CSTPCD. In addition, our journal, the Chinese Journal of Optometry & Ophthalmology and Visual Science, is listed as one of Chinese Medical Association Journals. Four of five affiliated hospitals are ranked as Grade 3 Class A. Besides, there are another 17 non-directly affiliated hospitals all around the province.
Wenzhou Medical University embraces internationalization in the course of its development. It has established partnerships with more than 80 universities and institutions all over the world, collaborating in scholar/student exchanges, joint education programs, joint research, etc. Two Confucius Institutes have been co-established with Burapha University in Thailand and SUNY College of Optometry respectively.
In the past few decades, WMU has been striving to become stronger through constant endeavors and initiatives, thus steadily making for the strategic goals of its own on the road to success as a provincial institution of higher education, i.e. to boost comprehensive development driven by the featured programs, to upgrade the school level by pushing forward globalization, to meet the needs of the local community and beyond by an integration of medical and academic services and industries.
Wenzhou Medical University seeks to establish itself as a leading educational and research university deserving of international recognition- an institution emphasizing undergraduate medical education while vigorously developing graduated programs of the highest standard, maintaining medical disciplines as its core while promoting multi-disciplinary programs; and aspiring to serve the community and China as a whole with a global vision.
