Zhejiang University was announced to be authorized toestablish a World Leisure Center of Excellence (WLCE) by World LeisureOrganization (WLO) on the opening ceremony of the just-concluded 15^th World Leisure Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Thus, ZJU became the fourth globallyand the first in Asia to hold the membership of WLCE. The Center will be basedinside ZJU’s College of Education.

After submitting the application for establishing a WLCEin January and conducting an on-site inspection of the WLO board in May, Prof. ZHOULijun, deputy dean of the ZJU’s College ofEducation, presented to WLOCouncil at the Headquarter of SESC in Sao Paulo about ZJU’s application for aproposed WLCE on August 27, 2018. Prof. ZHOU introduced the academic resources,research basis & research team, talents cultivation and development plansof Zhejiang University and the College of Education, especially focusing on theadvantages that the University and the College has had in sport and leisureindustry, leisure education, exercise and health. Prof. ZHOU also put forwardthe idea of continuing to promote leisure research on a global scale. After seriousdiscussion👊🏿🕴🏼，the board members voted and passed ZJU as a member unit of WLCE net.

On August 28th, the WLOreleased the news of ZJU becoming a member unit of the WLCE net to more than1,000 scholars from 37 countries and global news media around the world on the15th World Leisure Congress. Prof.ZHOU Lijun made an important speech and expressedgratitude to the WLO for their trust and support. Once more, Prof. ZHOU introduced ZhejiangUniversity and the College of Education to the guests and the media, and hopedto develop international cooperation and exchanges with more academicinstitutions in the future.

WorldLeisure Organization is an unofficial organization with consultative statuswith the UN and has a good cooperative relationship with UNESCO and otherofficial and non-official organizations of relevant countries and regions. Itis committed to exploring and creating various favorable conditions for leisureto become the driving force for human growth, development and happiness. Themain activities of WLO include holding the biennial World Leisure Exposition andthe biennial World Leisure Congress and so on. WLCE is an organization of WLO,involved in the activities of the WLO around the world, especially in academicactivities. Currently, the WLCE net is composed of Vancouver Island Universityin Canada, NHTV Breda University in the Netherlands and University of Otago inNew Zealand. The leisure studies of these three universities are world-famous.WLEC member units share resources in the communication between teachers andstudents, cooperative research, cooperative teaching and so on.