In September, the Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education Supervision and Administration Information Platform of the Ministry of Education announced the list of Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions accredited by the Ministry of Education. The ZJUT-Exeter Joint Institute (ZUTE), a non-independent legal entity jointly established by Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT) and the University of Exeter (UK), has obtained official approval. It is the first Chinese-foreign cooperative education institution of ZJUT to be formally approved by the Ministry of Education, marking another landmark achievement of the university in advancing internationalized education.

The establishment of ZUTE is a pivotal initiative for ZJUT in its pursuit of building a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. Focusing on nationally needed, frontier interdisciplinary areas, the institute offers three undergraduate programmes – BSc Energy & Environmental Engineering, BSc Data Science, BSc Digital Media Technology – and two postgraduate programmes – MSc Energy and Power Engineering, MSc Electronic Information. Adhering to the dual-core development driven by "Green+" and "Digital+", ZUTE will serve the national strategy for high-quality development and the regional strategy for innovation-driven development, and is expected to become a high-level international cooperative education base with global influence.

The University of Exeter (UK) is a member of prestigious academic consortia including the Russell Group, the Worldwide Universities Network, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the GW4 Alliance. It ranked 122nd in the 2025 U.S. News World University Rankings and 13th in the UK according to the Times Good University Guide 2025. Renowned worldwide for its research in cutting-edge science, engineering, mathematics and medicine, as well as in the humanities and social sciences, the university holds a globally leading position in both the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessments.