School of International Education, Shanghai Polytechnic University was founded in 2002. Through its historical development stages of School of International Exchange (Queensland College), School of Humanities and International Exchange (Queensland College, Monita College),andSchool of International Exchange (Office of International Student Affairs, Sino-German Vocational Education Center). The School has been an important window of Shanghai Polytechnic University to implement its internationalization strategy and carry out international education and cooperation. In March 2024, it was renamed as the School of International Education and still jointly located for office with the Office of International Student Affairs.

The School’s capable teaching team is composed of both full-time and part-time teachers, all with a master’s degree or above. More 50% teachers have professorships, doctoral degrees or double qualifications, and the majority teachers have studied or worked abroad.

The main task of the School (Office of International Student Affairs) is to carry out international Chinese education and international student education management, including the National Chinese Proficiency Test, Sino-German vocational training programs, and a variety of international exchanges and cooperation programs. The School serves our university’s positioning– higher education with a focus on applied sciences, educates international students to understand China, befriend China, love Shanghai and love our university, and equips international students with applied skills and a global vision in order for them to serve the international society competently. Up to June 2023, for consecutive 9 years, our university has conferred degrees on international students from Germany, Italy, Japan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Laos and etc. Each year more than 300 international students from over 40 countries around the world study at our university, including academic degree, exchange, language, and short-term program students.

In 2019, the School started to offer an undergraduate program Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, in order to enhance our university’s international Chinese education and international cultural exchanges. Since 2016, the School has hosted the Shanghai Summer School - Chinese Culinary Culture program funded by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission every year. Since 2018, the School has hosted the Belt and Road program funded by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission every year. The School has created various Chinese language and culture programs and built a platform for educational and cultural exchanges with countries around the world, in order to attract more high level international students to study in Shanghai, improve their Chinese language skill and experience China.

Since 2017, the Sino-German Vocational Education Center has continuously promoted and optimized the training programs and examinations which award the German Chamber of Crafts (HWK)certificates and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) certificates. In the future, the Center will track the trend of industrial upgrading and technological change, focus on the demands in high-end equipment industry, new generation information technology, and modern service industry, innovate and localize the contents of the certificates, in order to better serve the international demands for the integration of industry and education and talent cultivation.