Recently, AMS-ZZU has been officially included in ‘The Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’ as a Trial Unit among the first cohort of local universities. The decision is very significant to the internationalization of ZZU as it is not only an official recognition of achievements made by ZZU but also a symbol of higher level development of ZZU in the process of internationalization.
     ‘The Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’ was launched jointly by SAFEA and the Ministry of Education in 2014. It aims to undertake a comprehensive reform by talent introduction in higher education in China. Through introducing a comprehensive recruitment program of high-level talents from abroad it will establish a series of ‘International Demonstration Institutes’ in order to explore innovation in teaching, research and administration systems and to promote the construction of a modernized system for higher education. It is reported that 13 universities operated directly under the Central Government including Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tianjin University are included as Trial Units. So far, 16 Trial Units have been included in the plan in three cohorts.
       ZZU started applying to be included as a Trial Unit of ‘the Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’ as the first batch of local universities last year. In May 2015, ZZU submitted a special report to SAFEA on its achievements in internationalization and talent introduction as well as the efforts made by AMS-ZZU under the leadership of its Dean, Professor Nicholas Lemoine.
       In November 2015, Mr. Xia Mingjiu, Deputy Administrator of SAFEA, and Mr. Nie Bia, Director of SAFEA’s Department of Cultural and Educational Experts visited ZZU for an on-site inspection and a survey of talent introduction at ZZU. Mr. Xia Mingjiu approved the progress made by ZZU in internationalization and hoped that more effort can be made with the consideration of unique characteristics of ZZU and the support of ‘the Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’. The application process has received great attention from Professor Niu Shucheng, Party Secretary of CCP Committee of ZZU, President Liu Jiongtian, Vice President Zhang Qianhong and Vice President Gu Zhenqing and full support has come from the University in policy, personnel and finance.  In December 2015, as Chair of Administration Council of AMS-ZZU, President Liu Jiongtian gave a presentation in the interview held for application for ‘International Demonstration Institute’ status in Nanjing.
      On 11th January, Professor Niu Shucheng, Party Secretary of CCP Committee of ZZU, led the delegation consisting of Vice President Zhang Qianhong, Professor Nicholas Lemoine and senior staff of the Party Secretary’s Office, Office of International Exchange and Cooperation and AMS (ZZU) to give a report on the preparation and establishment of an International Demonstration Institute at ZZU. Mr. Zhang Jianguo, Administrator of SAFEA, appraised what ZZU has already achieved in internationalization. He mentioned that he was pleased that ZZU had started to apply to be included in ‘the Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’ as the third cohort and ZZU was leading among all local universities nationwide since all the universities included in the first two batches are universities operated directly under the Central Government. He expects that Professor Lemoine will make the most of his experience in administration and research to build AMS –ZZU into a demonstration institute in internationalization.
     As the first local university included as a Trial Unit in ‘the Plan for Promoting International Demonstration Institutes’, ZZU will set off from a new starting point to promote its overall internationalization and speed up its process in constructing ‘Top University’ and ‘Top Discipline’ developments. AMS-ZZU will enhance its internationalization in teaching, research and administration system in order to improve medical education and to construct a platform for talent introduction.