Tiangong University

Tiangong University is a full-time regular institution of higher education jointly supported by the Ministry of Education and Tianjin Municipality and designated for priority development by Tianjin. Founded in 1912, it has a long history. It adopted its current Chinese name in 2000, was selected for the national Double First-Class initiative in both 2017 and 2022, and was approved for joint support by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and Tianjin in 2018. One of China’s earliest institutions offering higher education in textiles, it has developed into an engineering-led, multidisciplinary comprehensive university with coordinated development in engineering, science, literature, management, economics, law, art and medicine.

The university covers more than 1.5 million square meters, with a total building floor area of 860000 square meters. It has 5 academic divisions, 29 schools, 1 residential college and 2 affiliated hospitals. It has nearly 18000 undergraduates, over 5300 full-time master’s students, over 600 doctoral students, over 500 adult education degree students, and nearly 2000 international students of various categories, including over 600 degree students.

The university has a strong faculty. It has more than 2200 faculty and staff, including over 1600 full-time teachers, over 1000 teachers with doctoral degrees and over 1000 with senior professional titles. It has 7 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, 10 recipients of major national talent programs, 8 recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 3 National Outstanding Professional and Technical Talents, and 7 national recipients of the Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talent Project. Its more than 60 national high-level talents also include recipients of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Award, the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award and the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, as well as experts on discipline appraisal groups of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee. It has over 200 provincial or ministerial talents and more than 40 high-level teams at provincial or ministerial level or above, including one of the first National Huang Danian-style University Faculty Teams, national teaching teams and Ministry of Education innovation teams. It has been selected as a national demonstration base for innovative talent training.

The university follows the development approach of strengthening engineering, optimizing science, refining the humanities and developing medicine well, creating a healthy engineering-led disciplinary structure with coordinated development across multiple fields. It has 61 undergraduate programs, including 25 national first-class program development sites, 6 nationally distinctive programs, 6 municipal first-class program development sites, 15 Tianjin flagship programs, 6 programs related to Tianjin’s strategic emerging industries, 8 Tianjin advantageous and distinctive programs, and 12 application-oriented programs. It has received approval for 2 Tianjin university industry-education integration flagship program development sites and 15 Tianjin university priority programs in new engineering. 9 programs have passed engineering education accreditation. It has 1 national key discipline and 12 Tianjin key disciplines. 1 discipline has been selected for the national Double First-Class initiative, 5 for Tianjin’s first-class discipline initiative, and 5 for Tianjin’s university top discipline cultivation program. It has established 5 Tianjin distinctive discipline clusters and 6 Tianjin distinctive discipline clusters serving industry. It has 5 postdoctoral research stations and 8 doctoral degree authorization fields, comprising 6 first-level disciplines, 1 professional doctoral degree category and 1 independently established interdisciplinary doctoral field. It has 27 first-level master’s degree authorization fields, including 1 interdisciplinary field, and 15 professional master’s degree categories. Textile Science and Engineering received an A+ rating in the fourth national discipline assessment. 6 disciplines rank in the global ESI top 1%. In 2018, it was selected for the university disciplinary innovation and international expertise introduction program.

The university places strong emphasis on students’ all-round moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor development. It prioritizes virtue and ability, combines comprehensive and individual development, and takes a student-centered approach. It deepens educational and teaching reform and implements nine major plans to improve undergraduate teaching quality. It aims to develop high-quality innovative people with broad vision, a commitment to truth and practical work, strong character and scholarship, diligence and professional expertise, a strong sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit and practical ability. The quality of its talent training continues to improve, and graduates are highly regarded across society. It has 4 national experimental teaching demonstration centers and virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, 9 national engineering practice education centers, 15 municipal experimental teaching demonstration centers and 3 municipal virtual simulation experimental teaching centers. It has been approved to develop 2 Tianjin modern industry colleges, 1 Tianjin distinctive demonstration software school and 1 Tianjin training base for top students in basic disciplines. It has been selected to develop a national innovation and entrepreneurship education practice base. It has 1 national university student cultural quality education base, 2 national off-campus practical education bases for university students, 2 national demonstration joint training bases for engineering professional degree postgraduate students, 1 Tianjin university student science and technology entrepreneurship internship base, and 1 Tianjin international student internship and practical training base. Its Makerspace was included among the first Tianjin makerspaces and the first national makerspaces. In recent years, students have won more than 800 provincial, ministerial or higher awards in subject competitions each year. The university has educated many outstanding students and exemplary groups, represented by National Moral Model Xu Wei. It has been recognized as a National University with Exemplary Graduate Employment Practices, a National Advanced Institution for Research and Practice in Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education, a Ministry of Education Demonstration University for Deepening Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform, and a Tianjin Demonstration University for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education and Graduate Employment.

The university has strong research capabilities and capacity to commercialize scientific and technological achievements. It encourages independent innovation and highlights its distinctive strengths in modern textiles and national defense industries. It leads the National Key Laboratory of Advanced Separation Membrane Materials. It has 1 national international joint research center, 2 national-local joint engineering research centers, 2 Ministry of Education key laboratories, 2 Ministry of Education engineering research centers, 1 Ministry of Education collaborative innovation center jointly supported by a province and ministry, 8 Tianjin key laboratories, 4 Tianjin engineering centers, 6 Tianjin international joint research centers, 2 Tianjin Belt and Road joint research centers, and 1 Tianjin key research base in the humanities and social sciences. It has also established the Tianjin Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Tianjin Collaborative Innovation Center for Membrane Separation Technology, Tianjin Science and Technology Achievement Commercialization Center, and Tianjin Industrial Design Center. In recent years, it has undertaken nearly one thousand research projects under the 973 Program, 863 Program, National Key Research and Development Program, National Social Science Fund, National Natural Science Foundation and various provincial or ministerial programs. It has achieved a number of landmark breakthroughs, winning 11 national science and technology awards across nine consecutive years and 14 in total, and receiving over 1000 granted patents. Its distinctive research strengths include advanced textile composites, membrane separation technology, motor systems and intelligent control, functional fibers and technical textiles, fiber interface treatment technology, and modern mechanical equipment. Multiple research achievements have broken international monopolies and been applied in major epidemic prevention and control, national strategic emerging industries and high-tech defense industries. The university places strong emphasis on commercialization. It was among the first national intellectual property pilot universities, has a national intellectual property information service center, and has jointly established commercialization platforms with local governments, including the Tiangong University Cangzhou Research Institute and Tiangong University Shaoxing Keqiao Research Institute.

The university actively advances educational openness in the new era. It has established good cooperative relationships with over 110 institutions in more than 60 countries and in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, conducting international talent training, recruitment of high-level overseas expertise, international academic exchange, and scientific and technological cooperation. It has received funding under various talent and international cooperation programs of the China Scholarship Council, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education, including international cooperative training projects for innovative talent. It actively responds to the national Belt and Road cooperation initiative and has joined the Association of Universities for Textiles and the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet. It established Burkina Faso’s only Confucius Institute. As a host institution for Chinese Government Scholarship students, it admits international students from over 70 countries. It has implemented a credit-based reform of international student education, is developing international bases for the inheritance and innovation of fine traditional Chinese culture and skills and overseas internship and practical training bases, and strengthens Chinese language education and the international dissemination of fine traditional Chinese culture.

The university actively promotes cultural inheritance and innovation. It strengthens campus culture and its educational role. It has been named a National Civilized Institution, one of Tianjin’s first Civilized Campuses, and a National Advanced University in Ten Years of Socialized University Logistics Reform. It was selected among the Ministry of Culture’s first training bases for inheritors of China’s intangible cultural heritage.

“Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.” Looking ahead, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the university will comprehensively implement the Party’s education policy and uphold the socialist direction of education. It will uphold its educational philosophy of “Teaching and Research Enrich Each Other, Learning and Ability Advance Together,” strengthen its character of “Rigor, Strictness, Practicality and Truth-Seeking,” and promote its spirit of “Love for the University and Respect for Virtue, Diligent Study and Earnest Practice, Truth-Seeking and Innovation.” Focusing on national strategies such as the Belt and Road and coordinated Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei development, it will foster virtue and educate people, develop talent for the Party and the nation, and pursue reform and innovation. It will strive to build a high-level Double First-Class university with Chinese characteristics and make new and greater contributions to building a strong higher education system and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

(Data as of September 2025)