Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The university was founded in 1958 as Tianjin College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and formally renamed Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2006. In 1992, with approval from the State Education Commission, it also adopted the name International College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It chairs the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Teaching Guidance Committee for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medical Humanities, and the Education Steering Committee of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies. In 2017, the university was selected for the national Double First-Class initiative, with Chinese materia medica included as a Double First-Class discipline. The new campus under construction beside Tuanbo Lake in Jinghai District, Tianjin, covers more than 2600 mu with over 600000 square meters of buildings. Plans include the country’s largest traditional Chinese medicine museum and medicinal botanical garden, and its most advanced traditional Chinese medicine science and technology park and international education center.

The university has developed a multilevel education system centered on undergraduate education and including doctoral and master’s education, international education and postdoctoral research stations. Its 26 undergraduate programs span 6 disciplinary categories: medicine, science, literature, management, engineering and education. It offers doctoral degrees in 3 first-level disciplines—traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese materia medica, and integrated Chinese and Western medicine—and 22 second-level disciplines; master’s degrees in 7 first-level and 42 second-level disciplines; and 3 postdoctoral research stations in traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese materia medica, and integrated Chinese and Western medicine. It has 14 schools, 2 faculties, 2 research institutes, 3 directly affiliated hospitals and 4 other affiliated hospitals. Its First Affiliated Hospital is a national clinical research base for traditional Chinese medicine, a national clinical acupuncture research center and a national clinical acupuncture base. Its Second Affiliated Hospital is a center for diagnosing and treating difficult diseases with traditional Chinese medicine. It has 12621 full-time students at undergraduate level or above, comprising 8289 undergraduates, 3440 master’s and doctoral students, and 892 degree students from abroad, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and overseas Chinese communities.

It has more than 3600 faculty and staff, with strong teaching resources and 1000 personnel holding senior professional titles. Approved as a Ministry of Science and Technology demonstration base for innovative talent development, it has 3 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2 National Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and many other high-level professionals, including Ministry of Education Changjiang Scholars, recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, participants in the Ten Thousand Talents Program and the New Century Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents Project, Ministry of Education New Century Excellent Talents, and Ministry of Health experts with outstanding contributions. In recent years, 2 teams have been approved as innovation teams in key fields under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Innovative Talent Promotion Program, and 3 as Ministry of Education innovation teams. It has received 5 national teaching achievement awards, including 1 special prize. Its resources include 3 national distinctive undergraduate program development sites, 1 national teaching team, 2 national experimental zones for innovative talent development models, 2 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, a national virtual simulation experimental teaching center, 6 national quality resource-sharing courses, 1 national bilingual teaching demonstration course, and an off-campus practice education base for university students. The university actively expands cooperative education overseas. Over the past 5 years, it has educated nearly 5198 degree students from 68 countries and regions. Its distinctive short-term study and training programs have trained nearly 5827 traditional Chinese medicine professionals from more than 80 countries and regions, and it has successfully held 23 advanced international training courses for the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other bodies.

The university remains a national leader among traditional Chinese medicine institutions in developing key disciplines and laboratories. It has 2 national key disciplines, 28 provincial or ministerial key disciplines, 2 national key laboratories, 22 provincial or ministerial key laboratories, and 2 provincial or ministerial engineering centers. Its facilities include the China–Italy Joint Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, jointly established by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Italy’s Ministry of Health; a State Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicine under cultivation; the Modern Chinese Medicine Research and Development Center of the International Biomedical Research Institute; the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Formulaology; the Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center for Modern Chinese Medicine Discovery and Formulation Technology; and the Tianjin Engineering Center for Component-Based Chinese Medicine Technology.

The university upholds the motto, “Cultivate Virtue and Advance Learning; Preserve Traditions and Innovate,” and a development strategy of refining medicine, strengthening pharmacy, consolidating health-related programs and expanding social services. Drawing on its strengths in key discipline development and research, and its distinctive international traditional Chinese medicine education and translational services, it follows a policy of coordinating inheritance and innovation, advancing research and service together, pursuing substantive development through quality, and achieving comprehensive, coordinated development. It is building a high-level, outward-looking teaching and research university of traditional Chinese medicine that is first-class in China and internationally renowned.