Southwest Jiaotong University

Southwest Jiaotong University is a national key university directly administered by the Ministry of Education, with a graduate school. It was among the first universities to receive priority development under the national “Double First-Class” initiative, “211 Project,” “985 Project Innovation Platform for Advantageous Disciplines” and “2011 Collaborative Innovation Program.” It is located in Chengdu, a renowned historical and cultural city, a national central city and a core city of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle.

Founded in Shanhaiguan in 1896 as the Imperial Chinese Railway College, it was China’s first higher education institution for engineering and the birthplace of Chinese higher education in civil engineering, mining and metallurgical engineering, and transportation engineering. It was also one of the earliest sources of the “Jiaotong University” first established in China in 1921. Since its founding, it has moved repeatedly and undergone several name changes, including Tangshan Railway and Mining School, Tangshan Industrial College, Jiaotong University’s Tangshan School, the Ministry of Communications’ Tangshan University, Tangshan Jiaotong University, National Tangshan Institute of Engineering, China Jiaotong University’s Tangshan Institute of Engineering, and Northern Jiaotong University’s Tangshan Institute of Engineering. It became renowned at home and abroad as “Tangshan Jiaotong University” and “Tangshan Institute.” Chairman Mao Zedong wrote the name Northern Jiaotong University in calligraphy. In 1952, during the nationwide restructuring of university departments, it was renamed Tangshan Railway Institute, and many nationally renowned departments and groups were transferred to partner institutions such as Tsinghua University, Tianjin University and the University of Science and Technology Beijing. In 1964, in response to the CPC Central Committee’s call for the development of the “Third Front,” the Ministry of Railways decided to relocate it to Emei, Sichuan. It was renamed Southwest Jiaotong University in 1972. Its main operations moved to the Jiuli Campus in Chengdu in 1989; it expanded with a new campus in Xipu, Chengdu, in 2002; and in 2020 it began jointly developing the Chengdu Eastern (International) Campus with the city. It now has four campuses—Jiuli, Xipu, Eastern (International) and Emei—covering over 5000 mu.

Over its 129-year history, the university has shared the fortunes of the Chinese nation, witnessing and participating in its resilient and progressive history. It has developed the Jiaotong spirit of “seeking substance to advance China and striving unceasingly for self-improvement,” a tradition of “rigorous scholarship and strict standards,” and the motto of “diligent learning, sincere aspiration, resolute action and conscientious service.” It has trained over 400000 outstanding graduates, represented by Mao Yisheng, Zhu Kezhen, T. Y. Lin and Huang Wanli. Its teachers and students include 3 pioneers of China’s “Two Bombs, One Satellite” program, 65 academicians in China and abroad, and 38 national masters of engineering survey and design. Since reform and opening up, it has trained more than a dozen academicians of China’s two academies in rail transportation. Deng Xiaoping praised it: “This university has produced many talented people.”

The university has a distinctive educational identity, with a rail transportation discipline cluster ranking among the strongest in China. It has established the world’s most comprehensive discipline and program system, talent training system and research innovation system in rail transportation. It has 34 schools, centers and other second-level educational units; 2 national key first-level disciplines in transportation engineering and mechanical engineering; 10 national key second-level disciplines, including vehicle engineering and bridge and tunnel engineering; 20 first-level disciplines authorized to award doctoral degrees; 5 professional doctoral degree categories; 43 first-level disciplines authorized to award master’s degrees; 25 professional master’s degree categories; and 17 postdoctoral research stations. Guided by “excellence in engineering, strong foundations in science, quality and innovation in humanities, expansion in biology and medicine, frontier interdisciplinarity and digital intelligence,” it is developing a first-class discipline structure. Transportation engineering ranks first nationwide (A+) and is included in national “Double First-Class” development. Civil engineering is in the national A category. Transportation engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, instrumentation science and remote sensing technology are among the world’s top 50 in ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects and U.S. News subject rankings. Engineering, computer science, materials science, chemistry, social sciences, geosciences, environment/ecology, physics, economics and business, clinical medicine, and pharmacology and toxicology rank in the global ESI top 1%. Engineering is in the ESI top 0.172‰, and materials science is in the top 1‰.

The university has developed the most comprehensive high-level laboratory system in rail transportation. Its national platforms include the National Laboratory for Rail Transportation (in preparation), the State Key Laboratory of Rail Transit Vehicle Systems, the State Key Laboratory of Intelligent and Green Bridge Construction, the State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Construction and Maintenance of Geotechnical and Tunnel Engineering in Extreme Environments, the National Engineering Research Center for Geological Disaster Prevention Technology in Land Transportation, the National Engineering Technology Research Center for Rail Transit Electrification and Automation, a National University Science Park and a Future Rail Transportation Industry Science and Technology Park. It also has 5 Ministry of Education key laboratories, 2 Ministry of Education engineering research centers and 5 National Railway Administration innovation platforms. It has established a foundational research system for the dynamics of large railway systems, marked by the internationally recognized “Shen Theory” and “Zhai-Sun Model.” It has led or participated in work receiving 64 national science and technology awards, including participation in 3 special prizes and leadership of 3 first prizes and 16 second prizes. Its scientific achievements have been selected 4 times among the “Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Universities.” It has made major contributions to national economic and social development, especially China’s rail transportation. It has been approved as a pilot institution for building a strong transportation nation, scientific and technological talent evaluation, and reform of scientific achievement evaluation. Aiming to build national strategic scientific strength in rail transportation and lead its future development, the university is now organizing basic research and original innovation in high-speed railways, heavy-haul railways, magnetic levitation transport, new urban rail systems and ultra-high-speed evacuated-tube transport. It is advancing major scientific facilities, including a “Multimodal Coupled Rail Transit Dynamic Model Testing Platform (total investment RMB 587 million)” and a “Quasi-Axisymmetric Stellarator (total investment RMB 247 million),” along with an engineering test line for “high-temperature superconducting high-speed maglev technology” with fully independent intellectual property rights. Through the establishment of an Institute of Frontier Science, an Institute of Future Technology and other bodies, it is vigorously developing frontier interdisciplinary research.

The university attaches great importance to building a first-class faculty and implements a core strategy of strengthening the university through talent. It ranks 28th nationwide in the faculty teaching development index. It has over 2700 full-time teachers, including 2 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3 of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and over 200 nationally recognized talents. It has 1 outstanding research group and 1 innovative research group supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 6 Ministry of Education innovation teams, 8 national teaching teams and 7 nationally distinguished teachers. It offers distinctive Yanghua positions for chief professors, chair professors, distinguished professors, young distinguished professors, visiting chair professors, specially appointed professors and scholars, actively attracting and developing academic leaders and core researchers. It has also engaged nearly 50 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Chinese Academy of Engineering and Nobel laureates as honorary or adjunct professors.

The university is committed to training socialist builders and successors with all-round moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and practical development. Aiming to cultivate “world-class, top innovative talent,” it promotes all five areas of education and is building an integrated undergraduate and postgraduate talent training system. It has 29711 full-time undergraduates, 16762 master’s students and 3210 doctoral students. It has received approval for a national modern industry college, was selected among the first national innovation and entrepreneurship colleges, and was approved to develop a National School of Elite Engineers. A total of 74 programs have been selected as national first-class undergraduate program development sites under the “Double Ten-Thousand Plan.” It has 12 national distinctive programs, 4 comprehensive program reform pilot projects, 17 programs in the Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program and 20 programs accredited in engineering education. It has undertaken 4 national education-system reform pilot projects and received 36 National Teaching Achievement Awards, including 1 special prize and 6 first prizes. It has 71 courses selected as “National First-Class Undergraduate Courses,” 36 national quality courses, 24 national quality resource-sharing courses, 8 national quality open video courses, 23 national quality online open courses and 3 national bilingual demonstration courses. Its excellent engineer education has achieved notable results: its graduates include 38 national masters of engineering survey and design.

The university maintains an international approach, coordinating inward and outward exchanges and continually increasing its international influence and competitiveness. It has partnerships with over 200 universities and research institutions in 60 countries and regions. It established the SWJTU-Leeds Joint School with the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, led the establishment of the Belt and Road International Railway Education Alliance, developed the “Tianyou Railway Institute” brand, and jointly established the first overseas Tianyou Railway Institute with Khon Kaen University in Thailand. It is developing the Chengdu Eastern (International) Campus to high standards. Study-abroad, study-tour and visiting-study programs such as “2+2,” “Undergraduate-Master’s 4+1” and “China-France 4+4,” together with internationalization-at-home programs such as “Summer International Course Week,” cover students in every year. It has established 7 national foreign expert innovation and talent introduction bases under the “111 Program” and publishes 6 international academic journals.

The university has a National University Science Park, a Future Rail Transportation Industry Science and Technology Park, a national technology business incubator, a National Technology Transfer Center and an Institute of Technology Transfer. It has developed a complete “science and technology—incubation—industry” commercialization model. It was a national pioneer in exploring reform of mixed ownership of intellectual property rights in employment-related scientific achievements, an initiative described as the “Xiaogang Village experiment” of science and technology. Physical items associated with the reform have been permanently collected by the Museum of the Communist Party of China. It is exploring a new “symbiotic” model of organized commercialization, using technology transfer to integrate the “four chains.” It is accelerating the development of the Southwest Jiaotong University Science and Technology Innovation Park with a “5+2+N” spatial structure, offering a “Jiaotong solution” to developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions.

Seeking substance to advance China and connecting the world through transportation. Southwest Jiaotong University firmly upholds the banner of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and implements General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important statements on education. It keeps in mind its original mission of educating people for the Party and cultivating talent for the country. Focusing on “Chinese modernization and building a high-level, research-oriented, first-class university with a distinctive transportation identity,” it follows the philosophy of “students at the center and teachers as the mainstay.” It pursues an approach of “Party-building leadership, discipline guidance, teaching at the core, research as the driver, talent as support and funding as assurance.” It coordinates integrated institutional reform in education, science and technology, and talent, using a new science and technology innovation park structure of “one park and five areas” as its vehicle. It resolutely fulfills its responsibility for high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and steadily supports new quality productive forces. It strives to answer the question of the era, “What should Jiaotong University do to build a strong education nation?” and to contribute, as the Jiaotong community of a new era, to building a great modern socialist country and advancing national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization.