The main campus of Zhejiang Normal University (ZJNU) is located at the cultural historical city of Jinhua in the central part of Zhejiang Province. The city links Shanghai and Hangzhou to the north, and Guangdong and Fujian provinces to the south. The university is next to a national scenic spot-the Double Dragon Cave, and covers a total area of more than 200 hectares with a total floor space of 800,000 square meters. Its green and beautiful campus furnishes an ideal place for living, study and work.
The historical evolution of Zhejiang Normal University can be traced back to "Hangzhou Junior Teacher's College", set up in 1956, and then evolved into "Hangzhou Teacher's College" in 1958. In 1962, both Zhejiang Education College and Zhejiang Physical Education College were merged to form Zhejiang Teacher's College, which was moved to Jinhua in 1965. In 1980, the college was enlisted as a key provincial institution of higher learning. In 1985, the college acquired its university status as Zhejiang Normal University. Later on, in 2000, 2001, and 2004, three more schools merged into ZJNU, i.e. Zhejiang Financial School, Zhejiang School of Preschool-Teacher Education and Jinhua Railway Engineering School respectively.
As one of the key provincial universities, ZJNU specializes in teacher education with multiple branches of learning. The university consists of 17 colleges offering 48 undergraduate programs. It has an enrolment over 20,000 undergraduates, 2,000 graduates, and 25,000 adult students in various adult education programs. Among the total staff of 2,458, there are 1,288 full-time teachers, including 2 national academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2 from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 173 professors and 509 associate professors, 26 selected into the "151 Talent Project of Zhejiang Province" , 34 young and middle-aged provincial academic pioneers. The university is assigned by the Ministry of Education as the Key National Training Base for Teachers of Vocational Education. In addition, it is designated by the Ministry of Railways as a base for the training of locomotive engineers. Moreover, Zhejiang Training Center for University and College Teachers is assigned to the university for various in-service training programs.
At present, the university claims 16 provincial key disciplines, 8 provincial key construction disciplines, and 30 disciplines for master's degrees. ZJNU offers other MA programs including MED and MPA, and MA for Part-Time Vocational Education. The library at ZJNU has a collection of more than 226,890,000 books, 75,640,000 books online, and over 7,000 Chinese and various foreign periodicals. With a total floor space of 720,000 square meters, 43 laboratories have been established, including 4 provincial key laboratories and key provincial demonstration centers of experiment instruction. The advanced equipment and facilities at the labs totally cost RMB 190 million yuan.
The university makes strenuous efforts to open up to the outside world. In recent years, ties of academic exchange and cooperation have been set up between this university and 47 foreign universities and institutes in more than 20 countries, including the United States and Great Britain. Since 1997, the University has been authorized to accept both short-term and long-term students from foreign countries, and has set up a Center for Chinese Language and Culture in Cameroon. Approved by the Ministry of Education, ZJNU has put up a Base for Education Assistance and Development to undertake human resource development projects for senior educational administrators from other continents. In addition, the university has been authorized to run a center for overseas studies so as to give relative helps for self-funded students to study in foreign countries.