The Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District in Suzhou is now home to 25 branches of universities from both China and overseas and two State-level research institutes.

The internationalization of education is an important part of Suzhou's opening-up policy, which has greatly contributed to upgrading the city's educational sector, both at elementary and higher learning levels.

During the past decades, international exchanges and cooperation have become routine for the city's elementary schools.

In 2014, half of the city's elementary schools accepted students from places other than the Chinese mainland. Eight thousand students were welcomed, of which 3,000 were from other countries and 5,000 were from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, or children of overseas Chinese.

Suzhou has six schools specifically for foreign students, and one school for Taiwan students accompanying their parents who work in Suzhou. In addition, there are four local schools with international units for foreign students.

A total of 237 schools in Suzhou have become partners with 463 foreign schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, Singapore and Japan.

In 2014, the city had more than 900 international exchange activities and held 32 bilateral and multilateral forums and conferences for the educational sector.

In that year, 500 local teachers traveled to Britain, the US, New Zealand and Germany for research. Twenty-two teachers taught overseas and 119 others were sent by the government to study abroad.

More than 300 schools in the city employ more than 900 foreign teachers, and more than 120,000 students are studying courses taught by foreign teachers.

The Suzhou educational authority also promotes the Chinese language and Suzhou's traditional culture to foreign students at the city's elementary schools. A total of 528 foreign students at Suzhou's international schools are taking Chinese-language courses.

Higher education

Using international resources to train professionals needed in Suzhou's development is an important part of the city's higher education.

Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District, which was established in 2002, is a successful example for the internationalization of higher education.

The district is home to 26 branches of universities from both home and overseas and two State-level research institutes. There are 77,300 students in 360 majors, including 18,000 post-graduate students.

There are four joint-funded international schools including the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, the France-China Institution of Remin University, Southeast University-Monash University Joint Graduate School (Suzhou) and Hong Kong University Space Global College (Suzhou).

Six universities and colleges from Singapore, the US, Germany and France have established branch schools in the district. Among them, three were operational in 2014.

The SKEMA - a French economic and management school - opened its Suzhou branch in the district in April.

In May, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology from Germany and University of California, Los Angeles both launched their Suzhou branches there.

There are other 65 international cooperation programs.

All these schools and programs have a total of 12,500 students.

There are also more than 600 high-level foreign professionals and 1,600 Chinese scholars returning from overseas working for the schools.

The district's administrative committee also frequently invited foreign universities and colleges for exchange and cooperation.

The Oxford University delegation visited the district several times, for developing the Suzhou-Oxford University Research Center.

Oxford University's Isis Technology Innovation Co signed agreements with the district to help technology transfer in China.

xuxiao@chinadaily.com.cn