In order to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 40th Teachers' Day of the People's Republic of China, vigorously promote the spirit of educators, create a strong atmosphere of respect for teachers and education in the whole society, and encourage teachers and educators to work with confidence and self-improvement, and make greater contributions to the building of a strong country and national rejuvenation, On September 8, 2024, the celebration of the 40th Teachers' Day and the recognition of advanced collectives and advanced individuals in the National Education System was held in Beijing. 585 advanced collectives in the National education system, 716 national model teachers, 895 national excellent teachers, 80 national advanced workers in the national education system and 99 national excellent educators were honored. Zhiyuan College has won the advanced collective ward of national education system, and Professor Zhou Yongfeng, Secretary of General Party Branch Committee of Zhiyuan College attended the relevant activities.

Officially established in 2010, Zhiyuan College is an experimental field for undergraduate talent training and education reform of SJTU, aiming to train top-notch innovative talents in basic disciplines for the Party and the country. The "Zhiyuan Honors Program" is implemented for the top 10% of the SJTU's outstanding students, and it is the first in China to offer honors courses and award honorary bachelor's degrees. At present, the school has more than 1,400 students in eight disciplines: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Astronomy and Engineering. The “exploration and practice of the Zhiyuan model for training top-notch innovative talents in basic disciplines” had won the first prize of National Teaching Award in 2014, and the design and practice of the “Zhiyuan 2.0 future scientist training system with dual stimulation and guidance" had won the second prize of National Teaching Award in 2022. In 2016, Zhiyuan talent-cultivation mode had won the "Cultivating Curiosity Award" of the 3rd global "Reimagine Education" Education Innovation Conference and the "Natural Sciences Award".

So far, Zhiyuan College has cultivated a total of 2,203 graduates, 94% of whom have pursued further study, and more than 80% have entered the top 50 universities in the world. Students have published more than 520 academic papers in PRL, JACS and other journals during their study. Three research works of Zhiyuan studnets won the special prize at "Challenge Cup" of National College students Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Competition; Seven projects of Zhiyuan studnets were selected as the first batch of basic research projects for young students of the National Natural Science Foundation in 2023; Zhiyuan students had won more than 1,000 national awards such as the Gold Medal of the "Internet +" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, the "Higher Education Society Cup" of the National College Students Mathematical Modeling Contest, the ACM Global Champion, and the highest award of the U21 Global Innovation Challenge etc.. 47 alumni have worked at teaching and research positions at worldwide leading universities, Yiran Zhang, Zhiyuan graduate (class of 2014) has published papers in Science and Nature as the first author, former graduates such as Xu Zhiqin, Zhang Yaoyu, Luo Tao, Ma Zheng have had returned to SJTU to lecture currently registered students to actively contribute to the top-notch talent-cultivation cause.