Tongji University

Tongji University, one of the earliest national universities in China, is a key national university directly under the Ministry of Education and co-built with Shanghai municipality. After 118 years of development, Tongji University has become a distinctive, comprehensive, research-oriented and international university with considerable influence at home and abroad, ranking among the top universities in China in terms of overall strength.

The university originated from the Tongji German Medical School, which was founded in 1907 by German doctor Erich Paulun with the support of the governments and society of both China and Germany. In 1912, together with the newly established Tongji German Engineering School, it was called Tongji German Medical and Engineering School. It was taken over by the Chinese in 1917 and was renamed Tongji Medical and Engineering School and Private Tongji Medical and Engineering Specialized School. It was renamed Tongji University in 1923 and became a national university in 1927. After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Tongji University moved six times, successively to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places, and moved to the ancient town of Lizhuang in Yibin, Sichuan Province in 1940 to continue its operation. After returning to Shanghai in 1946, it developed into a comprehensive university known for its five colleges of science, engineering, medicine, liberal arts and law.

During the national departmental adjustment that began in 1949, Tongji University's original strengths in liberal arts, law, medicine, science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, shipbuilding, surveying and mapping were either supported by other universities or moved to the mainland as a whole. At the same time, civil engineering and architecture-related disciplines from more than 10 universities across the country gathered at Tongji, making it the largest and most comprehensive engineering university in the field of civil engineering and architecture in China. Since 1978, the university has implemented "two transformations" - restoring exchanges with Germany, transforming from a closed school to an open school, and expanding the scope of disciplines, transforming from a civil engineering university to a comprehensive university with a focus on science and engineering. In 1996, Shanghai Institute of Urban Construction and Shanghai Institute of Building Materials Industry were merged and listed as part of the national "211 Project". In 2000, it merged with Shanghai Railway University to form the new Tongji University. In 2002, it was listed as a university under the National "Project 985". In 2003, Shanghai Aeronautical School was placed under the management of Tongji University. In 2004, it was placed under the jurisdiction of the central government. In 2017, it was listed as A Class A university in the national Construction of World-Class universities.

Tongji University has always regarded the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents as its noble mission and responsibility. It takes undergraduate education as the foundation of the university, postgraduate education as the path to strengthening the university, and moral education as the fundamental task. It adheres to the education of all members, all processes and all aspects, and strives to make every student, after the study and influence of the university stage, With the comprehensive qualities of "general and specialized foundation, academic literacy, innovative thinking, practical ability, global vision, and social responsibility", they will become pillars of society and professional elites who will shoulder the great responsibility of national rejuvenation and lead the future. Since its establishment, the school has produced more than 400,000 graduates and a large number of outstanding politicians, scientists, educators, social activists, entrepreneurs, medical experts and engineering and technical experts. Among Tongji's students, teachers and alumni, 290 have been elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Tongji University has built the world 's largest multi-functional vibration Experiment center, China' s first ground transportation vehicle wind tunnel center, China 's first comprehensive test platform for urban rail transit, China' s first long-term scientific observation system on the seabed, China 's first benchmark National Key Laboratory of Autonomous Intelligent Unmanned Systems, and the Ministry of Education' Cell Stemness and fate editing A number of major research platforms, including the Frontier Science Center; The establishment of the "National Industrial Metrology and Testing Center for Micro-nano Detection Equipment of Integrated Circuits (Shanghai)" is one of the first industrial metrology and testing centers in the field of integrated circuits in the country. It has successively undertaken a series of national major special projects and major engineering research and development, A series of landmark scientific research achievements have been made, including key technologies for long-span Bridges, seismic and disaster prevention technologies for structures, remote sensing spatial information, intelligent guidance for urban traffic, domestic intelligent greenhouses, research and development of new energy vehicles, urban sewage treatment, ocean drilling, molecular genetics of atrial fibrillation, and the independent development of national first-level standard materials at nanoscale angles.

The school has long focused on leveraging the spillover effects of its advantageous disciplines and basic research, continuously expanding the forms and fields of social services, and actively contributing to the construction and development of the country and local society. Strong scientific and technological support has been provided for major strategic demands such as the Belt and Road Initiative, domestic Bridges and tunnels, railways and urban rail transit, water environment governance, earthquake relief, Yangshan Deepwater Port, Shanghai World Expo, Chongming Ecological Island, Xiongan New Area, and Beijing Sub-Center. The university and the local government are jointly promoting the construction of the "Knowledge Economy Circle around Tongji", which is moving towards the goal of an annual output value of 100 billion yuan and has created a model of university-local cooperation of "integration and linkage development of the three zones".

The school actively expands international cooperation. On the basis of cooperation mainly with Germany, it has developed into a layout centered on cooperation with Europe, extending to North America and radiating to Asia and Africa. It has successively established 12 international cooperation platform colleges including China-Germany, China-France, China-Italy, China-Finland, China-West, United Nations, etc., and signed cooperation agreements with more than 300 overseas universities. It has established research centers with a large number of multinational companies such as Volkswagen, Siemens, Bayer and IBM. The university has successively established the China Green University Alliance and the International Green Campus Alliance and served as their first chair. It was elected chair of the United Nations Environment Programme Global University Partnership for Environment and Sustainable Development and was the first university in the Asia-Pacific region to be awarded the Global Sustainable Campus Excellence Award.

At present, Tongji University has 30 professional colleges, 12 affiliated hospitals and 13 affiliated primary and secondary schools. It has four main campuses, namely Siping Road, Jiading, Huxi and Hubei, and research bases in Lingang and Zhangjiang, covering an area of about 2.76 square kilometers, with a total building area of about 2.14 million square meters and a total library collection of about 4.73 million volumes.

The university has 18,727 full-time undergraduate students, 11,988 postgraduate students and 9,112 doctoral students. There are also 4,239 international students. There are 2,797 full-time teachers, including 1,032 with senior professional titles, 17 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (including dual appointments), 28 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (including dual appointments), and 37 other international academicians such as academicians of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, the European Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Six "Ten Thousand Talents Program" teaching masters, 61 "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" professors of the Ministry of Education, 83 recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 23 chief scientists of the National Key Basic Research and Development Program, 211 chief scientists of the National Key Research and Development Program, and 355 outstanding young talents such as "Young Chang Jiang Scholars" and recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. There are 8 national-level teaching teams, 11 National Natural Science Foundation of China innovation groups, 12 Ministry of Education Innovation Team Development Programs, and 3 Ministry of Science and Technology Key field innovation teams.

"Unite the world, advocate science, lead innovation, pursue excellence". Today, Tongji University is striving towards the goal of "walking with the motherland, serving the world through science and education, and building itself into a world-class university with Chinese characteristics"!