Zhejiang Wanli University (ZWU) is a university with a 71-year history. In 1999, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, it became a new type of university with "new management mode and operation mechanism for public universities", which was praised by education experts as "the exemplary practice of modern university system with Chinese characteristics".

  In 2004, University of Nottingham, Ningbo, the first Sino-foreign cooperative university in China, was jointly established by Zhejiang Wanli University and  University of Nottingham, UK.

In 2011, ZWU was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council as the pilot unit of postgraduate education for master's degree, and became the director unit of the pilot unit alliance.

In 2017, ZWU became the "National Model University for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform"; 

In 2018, ZWU set up the overseas campus of Zhejiang Wanli University in Hamburg, Germany.

In the past 20 years, the university has become an applied university with the coordinated development in Arts, economics, management, science, engineering, agriculture, law and arts. At present, there are 13 secondary colleges with 51 undergraduate majors and 2 postgraduate majors. The university has more than 20000 full-time undergraduates, postgraduates and international students, as well as 1400 teaching and administrative staff.

The university has opened up various programs for Chinese and foreign students. Every year, more than 400 students go to the cooperative colleges to study and exchange, with around 400 foreign students studying at ZWU.