Qingdao University persists in implementing the strategy of open running and promoting of international exchanges and cooperation in all respects. It has established relations with more than 140 colleges and universities in over 20 countries and regions, including the U.S., Uruguay, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, etc. It has also developed over 60 education programs at various levels including teacher and student exchanges, joint training, and Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run education.

In 2009, it became the “Training Base for Overseas Study” of the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, Ministry of Education. Recruiting international students since 1987, it was appointed as the “Chinese Educational Base” of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council in 2004, and the “Demonstration Base for International Students” of the Ministry of Education in 2014. Annually around 1,600 students from different countries and regions study at Qingdao University for both long and short-term programs. It has also established two foreign Confucius Institutes—Confucius Institute of Korea Sehan University and Confucius Institute of University of South Florida.

In 2007 the governments of Shandong Province, China and Bavaria, Germany established two special institutions—the Sino-German Cooperation Center of Colleges and Universities here at Qingdao University in Shandong and the Higher Education Center of Bavaria for Chinese Students at the University of Bayreuth, so as to further improve the educational cooperation between colleges and universities in these two areas.