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Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Shandong University (SDU) has been adhering to the fundamental national policy of opening-up, and has been keeping in mind the mission of educating students and boosting internationalization to further its double first-class construction.
The term "double first-class" refers to "world-class university" and "world-class discipline". It was approved by China's deepening reform lead group in 2016 as a new impetus for the development of China's higher education.
SDU has implemented six major strategies focusing on talents, academic influence, regional development, cultural leadership, integrated development and internationalization.
It continues to apply the "1+N" internationalization system in key areas such as talent training, team building and academic innovation, laying the foundation for high-quality development of global exchanges and cooperation.In 2017, Shandong University was invited to attend the Russell Group International Forum as the only Chinese education institution.
In the past 10 years, the school has established friendly cooperative relations with 217 universities and scientific research institutions in 33 countries and regions.
For instance, it has established multidisciplinary scientific research cooperation and teacher-student exchange platforms with more than 50 world-renowned universities such as the University of Cambridge, the University of Chicago, Nanyang Technological University and the University of Toronto.
In 2018, Shandong University and the University of Cambridge signed an agreement to jointly build an international college centering on innovation and transformation, aiming to lead the academic research of disciplines and to cultivate professionals.
In 2019, the Joint SDU-NTU Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (C-FAIR) and the SDU-TAU Joint Institute for Jewish and Israeli Studies were established.In the same year, the SDA-ANU Joint Science College was established.
The SDA-ANU Joint Science College is established in 2019. [Photo/sdu.edu.cn]
The University has also implemented an overseas talent system to introduce more professionals.Since 2019, SDU has opened up 800 overseas courses with the total enrollment of more than 25,000 students. The university jointly builds an international summer school with overseas academic institutes including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Bergen.It has set up more than 500 high-quality international courses, launched 20 education programs taught in English and created characteristic programs such as Chinese Studies, the MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery) and International Project Management all taught in English, among which pharmacology and physiology courses are listed as brand courses of the Ministry of Education.
Shandong University has built the Joint International Research Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archeology with the Yale University. The Shandong University-Osaka University International Joint Laboratory for Material Joining was also launched in 2022. The university has participated in major international scientific projects such as AMS, ATLAS, STAR and launched the Integration of Chinese Ancient Books project to promote the exchange and cooperation of multiculturalism worldwide.
There are 12 talent workstations overseas and more than 3,500 foreign experts have been invited to the school for exchanges and cooperation. The number of its permanent foreign teachers has increased from fewer than 90 in 2012 to 255.In August 2015, SDU hosted the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences. As the most important and largest historical conference in the world, it had entered Asia for the first time since its establishment 115 years ago.
Shandong University hosts the 22nd International Congress of Historical Sciences in 2015. [Photo/sdu.edu.cn]