College of Continuing Education  >>

The College of Continuing Education at Zhejiang A & F University began in 1987 when the university set up the Correspondence Department in the Office of Academic Affairs to carry out higher adult education. In 1993, the university decided to change its name from “Correspondence Department under Office of Academic Affairs of Zhejiang Forestry College” to “Adult Higher Education Department of Zhejiang Forestry College”, which is still affiliated with the Office of Academic Affairs. In 1998, the Adult Higher Education Department separated from the Office of Academic Affairs, and directly under the leadership of the university. In 2000, the College of Adult Education was established, and Zhejiang Forestry College was incorporated into the University in the same year, and respectively changed their name to “College of Continuing Education and Academy of Forestry Administration of Zhejiang Forestry College”. In 2010, as the university changed its name to Zhejiang A & F University, the college also changed their name to “College of Continuing Education and College of A & F Administration of Zhejiang A & F University”. After nearly 30 years of development, the college has formed adult higher education, full-time study assistance (full-time study assistance for self-study examination, “skills + education” schooling project), non-academic education training (vocational skills training, testing and short-term training and education) and senior professional farmer training (Zhejiang Farmer University) and other multilevel, multiform, more complete continuing education systems.

I. Adult Higher Education

As long as the school is running, adult higher eduction will be a priority program. There are more than 30 correspondence teaching places in the province, and more than 9,000 registered students. Over 17,000 graduates have been trained. At present, the education includes teaching for students upgrading from high school to the university and for students upgrading from junior college to the university; with respect to the former, there are 60 majors such as forestry, accounting and international economics and trade; with respect to the latter, there are 60 majors such as forestry, landscape architecture and accounting. The college actively promotes the construction of online learning platforms and develops network courseware to facilitate the studies of in-service students.

In 2005, since Zhejiang Province implemented the program of cultivating peasant students “providing assistance to thousands of talents and promoting the development of thousands of villages”, the college recruited peasant students who are children of peasant households (mainly the children of low-income peasant households) in underdeveloped counties (cities and districts) of Zhejiang Province. A total of 627 peasant students have been enrolled in 12 waves, including 543 graduates and 82 college students.

In 2010, in order to speed up the transformation and upgrading of agriculture and promote the development of efficient ecological agriculture in Zhejiang Province, the Department of Agriculture of Zhejiang Province and the university jointly carried out the pilot program “Modern Agriculture Management Leader Promotion Class”, of which the training objects were leaders and senior management of specialized agricultural cooperatives (taking into account of backbone of agricultural leading enterprises and big, specialized agricultural households). The Modern Agriculture Management Leader Promotion Class has recruited a total of 427 trainees in seven waves, including 198 graduates, and 227 college students.

II. Full-Time Study-Aiding

In 2007, the qualification of running the school and study-aiding for self-study examination was obtained after the approval of the Provincial Higher Education Self-Study Examination Committee, and the study-aiding work for self-study examination was carried out in the same year. The landscape architecture major is the chief major for examination, and 16 study-aiding majors for self-study examination are set up, including landscape architecture, financial accounting, logistics management, business management and environmental art design. The college has passed the comprehensive evaluation of the provincial education examination authority for seven consecutive years from 2010 to 2016. At present, there are 388 students under full-time study-aiding to self-study examination.

In 2011, the “Skill + Education background” program was launched in university headquarters. A total of 13 majors were set up, including landscape architecture, e-business, financial accounting and environmental art design. There are 1,398 students with skills.

III. Non-Academic Education

In 1998, Zhejiang A & F University established the forestry-specific occupation skill testing station after the approval of the Ministry of Forestry; in 2005, the national occupational skill testing institution was established with the approval of Zhejiang Province Labor and Social Security Department; the college is responsible for management of the testing institution (station). In 2011, the institution (station) obtained the qualification for identifying technicians from eight occupations (types of work), including: flower horticulturist (greening worker), furniture designer, fruit and vegetable gardener and wood inspector. In 2015, the institution (station) obtained the qualification for identifying senior technicians of five occupations (types of work), including: forestation regeneration worker, forest seedling worker, fruit and vegetable gardener, flower horticulturist and wood inspector. In the last six years, the vocational skill training identification was conducted on a total of 9,726 people in 220 classes (including 1,476 technicians and 185 senior technicians).

The college actively organizes various types of training at all levels of society, such as grass-roots and “issues of agriculture, farmers and rural areas”, and has set up a number of training platforms. For example, the college cooperated with Zhejiang Province Agriculture Office (Poverty Relief Office) to establish a poverty relief training in 2011, became “a provincial-level modern agriculture technology training base of Zhejiang A & F University” with the approval of the Department of Agriculture of Zhejiang Province in 2013, and became “the first batch of continuing education base of professional and technical personnel in Zhejiang Province” with approval of Zhejiang Province Human Resources and Social Security Department. Relying on such platforms, the college has successively organized the entrepreneurship training for excellent rural youths of the Communist Youth League in Zhejiang Province, the training for poverty relief cadres in Zhejiang Province, and the knowledge renewal training for grassroots agricultural technicians in Zhejiang Province, to form a training brand and system featuring “agriculture and forestry”. In recent years, the college has actively expanded the short-term training programs at the national level and outside the province, and held a “training class for grassroots organization leaders and bellwether for producing wealth in contiguous destitute areas of China”, a “series of training classes for professional knowledge of forestry system cadres in Xining City of Qinghai Province”, a “training class for special topics of modern management of Sichuan Changjiang Afforestation Bureau”, an “advanced training class for characteristic forestry and fruit processing and market develop in Xinjiang” and a “training class for special topics of farmers’ cooperatives in Yinchuan City of Ningxia”, among others. In the last six years, the college has held training classes for all kinds of people inside and outside the province 175 times, training a total of 10,272 people.

The college will adhere to the university spirit of “perseverance and constantly exceeding”, integrate the high-quality education resources both inside and outside the province by relying on the rich resources and the distinctive advantages of the university, and make efforts to build an ecological entrepreneurship college fit for the school to run orientations and to have greater social influence and distinctive features, as well as to make contributions to serve the “Two Mountains” strategy.

About Zhejiang Farmer University

In December 2013, “Zhejiang Farmer University” was formally established in the university. The deputy secretary of CPC Provincial Committee personally acted as the president, and the vice governor acted as the first term vice president. “Zhejiang Farmer University” is a provincial farmer education and training platform jointly built and managed by seven branch campuses including the university, Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and also the first advanced vocational farmer training platform in China. By relying on the strength of colleges, universities and research institutes, the General Affairs Office of Farmer University has continuously cooperated with the College of Continuing Education.

Since the establishment of “Farmer University”, the provincial leaders have attended the farmer training working conferences in Zhejiang Province and opening—and closing—ceremonies of the relevant advanced training class many times and gave important instructions on farmer training. In the last three years, “Farmer University” created the overall plans and coordinated 11,557 person-times of provincial-level farmer training and conducted the advanced farmer training with 3,175 people 36 times, such as “bellwether of becoming rich in rural youth”, “bamboo industry leaders”, “aquatic product e-business”, and “provincial forest firefighting backbone team commander training”.