The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), founded in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 2004, is the first Sino-foreign university to open in China. The university is run by the University of Nottingham in partnership with Zhejiang Wanli Education Group. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance and the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education recently published a document on using funds for the purpose of attracting high-level universities to the province.

The government document, which will take effect on Oct 1, specifies targets, application requirements, the amount of funding, and the schedule for the funding.

The term "high-level universities" refers to Chinese universities that have been included in the "Double First-Class" initiative, a national program for higher education meant to foster "world-class universities" and "world-class disciplines", or foreign universities that are in the top 100 in global rankings, or that have specific disciplines in the global top 50.

When a higher education institute is jointly established by a local government and a high-level university, it will be the local government that receives the dedicated funding from the provincial government. When the institute is the result of cooperation between a Zhejiang-based university and a high-level university outside Zhejiang, the recipient of the funding will be the Zhejiang-based university.

The maximum funding for a newly-introduced comprehensive university that offers undergraduate education, a branch campus, a secondary school, and a graduate school is 500 million yuan ($73.1 million), 300 million yuan, 150 million yuan, and 100 million yuan, respectively.