Zhejiang Chinese Medical University — guide for international students

Zhejiang Chinese Medical University began in June 1953 as the Zhejiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Training School (浙江省中医进修学校). It became Zhejiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1959 and took its present name in 2006, after moving to the Binjiang higher-education park in Hangzhou.

The university runs two campuses — Binwen, in Binjiang District, and Fuchun — covering more than 1,500 mu, with 22 teaching units and over 1,600 staff. It counts more than 26,000 full-time students, over 6,000 of them postgraduates and more than 1,600 international. It calls itself a key provincial university and a "high-level university construction" institution, jointly built by the Zhejiang provincial government, the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Ministry of Education. Clinical teaching runs through three directly affiliated hospitals — Zhejiang Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang Xinhua and Zhejiang Zhongshan — plus four co-managed hospitals in Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo and the provincial Tongde Hospital, an affiliated stomatology hospital and two clinics.

International education is run by the International Education College (国际教育学院), which has admitted foreign students since 1985. Three official counts of the international student body circulate and they disagree: the university overview says more than 1,600; the college’s Chinese pages say about 1,200 long- and short-term students and more than 15,000 graduates from 65 countries since 1985; its English pages still carry older figures of about 600 students and 5,000 graduates from 50+ countries. Treat them as an order of magnitude and ask the college for the current count.

ZCMU is strongest where Chinese medicine meets modern biomedicine. Eight disciplines sit in the ESI global top 1% and pharmacology and toxicology in the top 0.1%, which the university says places it fifth nationally among Chinese-medicine institutions; Chinese Medicine Clinical Fundamentals is a national key discipline. Eleven undergraduate programs — including Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Clinical Medicine, Chinese Materia Medica and Nursing — carry the national first-class designation.

ZCMU admits international students to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and to non-degree Chinese-language and TCM training. The bachelor’s majors listed for foreign applicants are Clinical Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Stomatology, Nursing, Pharmacy and Audiology, with Preventive Medicine also in the published fee list. The graduate side covers 42 master’s programs spanning TCM basic theory, integrated Chinese and Western medicine, modern medicine, public health and public administration, plus doctoral programs in fields such as Chinese materia medica and integrated Chinese-Western clinical medicine. Chinese-taught study needs HSK Level 4; English-taught study needs no Chinese at entry, though non-native English speakers supply an English certificate. Applications go through the university’s own system at admission.zcmu.edu.cn. ZCMU published its 2026 admission brochure on 16 March 2026 and a 2026 fee standard on 14 September 2026, both as downloads from the college’s notice page; the figures below come from the admission guides the college keeps published on its site, with the edition named so you can check them against the current download.

Degree programs

Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.

Non-degree programs

Documents to prepare

Application timeline

These are the dates Zhejiang Chinese Medical University published for the 2026 intake. That cycle has closed. Use them as a guide to when each step falls in the year, and check the official pages for the 2027 dates before you plan around them.

ZCMU’s funding comes in two shapes. In-course awards — the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship, the university’s Academic and Freshman scholarships, a Special Scholarship and a set of Single-Item scholarships — are applied for through your class advisor each September once enrolled, and they are mutually exclusive. Separately, ZCMU hosts the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship, which funds non-degree Chinese, TCM and Taiji study and is applied for before you come. The college sets out the eligibility rules in full but puts the amounts in the attachment to its annual notice, so ask the Student Affairs Office what each award is worth. ZCMU does not describe a Chinese Government Scholarship (CSC) channel of its own — if you plan to apply through the CSC, ask the college first whether it accepts those applications.

Research runs along two tracks: the chemistry, pharmacology and quality control of Chinese materia medica, and clinical work in Chinese medicine and integrated Chinese-Western medicine. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan the university reports over 3,000 funded projects, 451 of them national-level, and more than RMB 570 million of vertical research funding. Output includes more than 7,900 SCI, SSCI and EI papers, over 1,200 granted patents (370+ invention, 70+ international) and 59 provincial or ministerial awards, among them one Ministry of Education first prize and two Zhejiang provincial first prizes.

ZCMU’s international work is organised around exporting Chinese medicine as much as importing students. The clearest example is its overseas campus with the Central University of Tunisia, confirmed in December 2022, which jointly trains students in rehabilitation therapy and nursing, teaches Chinese language and Chinese medicine and runs a 3+1 nursing route; in 2024 it was named a Zhejiang Belt and Road "Silk Road Academy". The International Education College has taught foreign students since 1985 and reports more than 15,000 graduates from 65 countries and regions. ZCMU also hosts the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship and runs Ministry of Science and Technology-sponsored training courses for participants from developing countries.

ZCMU reports a graduate employment rate of 95.57% within one year of graduation — a university-wide figure including Chinese students, so read it as a signal about the institution, not a promise about foreign graduates. For international medical students the real question is licensing at home, and the college is alert to it: its internship inspection record from Hangzhou First People’s Hospital notes that some Indian students planned to return home for licensing examinations in mid-January 2025 and that the hospital agreed to accommodate their preparation. Graduates also feature in the college’s "Setting Sail on a New Journey" series; the alumni page names Martin Lund Rasmussen, Gerd Weisemann, Michael R. Berger, George Sikharulidze and Olga Sikharulidze among its outstanding graduates.

International students are based on the Binwen campus at 548 Binwen Road in Binjiang District, Hangzhou, which houses the International Education College; Fuchun makes up the rest of the university’s 1,500-plus mu. Hangzhou is well connected: Xiaoshan International Airport is about 27 kilometres from the urban area, Shanghai Pudong is reachable by a RMB 100 shuttle bus, and the city has two main railway stations plus a public bicycle scheme you join with an IC card. College life runs on a familiar round of events — a "Most Beautiful Dormitory" competition judged 70% on inspection and 30% on online voting, an international students’ sports day, medical skills and drawing competitions, and an annual gala.

Accommodation

Dining

ZCMU does not describe its canteens, meal prices or halal provision on the International Education College’s English pages, so ask the Student Affairs Office (studentaffairs@zcmu.edu.cn) what is available on the Binwen campus before you arrive, particularly if you have dietary requirements. The college does publish an Alipay payment guide for student charges — the way most campus payments are made in Hangzhou.

Facilities

Reach the International Education College (国际教育学院), Zhejiang Chinese Medical University — Admissions & Student Affairs Office for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Hangzhou.