Ningbo University of Technology

Ningbo University of Technology is a full-time regular undergraduate institution approved by the Ministry of Education, jointly supported by provincial and municipal authorities with the municipality taking the leading role, and authorized to award master’s degrees. It covers 1800 mu and has Fenghua, Cuibai and Qianwan campuses. It has 19 secondary-level teaching institutions, 8 master’s degree fields, 51 undergraduate programs admitting students, and 24 university-level first-level disciplines. It has more than 17000 full-time undergraduates and 200 postgraduate students. Its 1473 faculty and staff include 1199 full-time teachers, 464 staff with senior professional and technical titles, and 686 doctorate holders.

It follows an educational philosophy centered on culture, promotes the spirit of “Practicality and Excellence,” and practices the motto “Unity of Knowledge and Action.” It focuses on campus cultural identities such as craftsmanship and Yangming culture and develops a distinctive, civilized, harmonious, healthy and positive campus atmosphere at multiple levels. It uses the educational role of the environment to improve students’ overall capabilities.

Looking ahead, it will remain focused on its goals, innovate through practical work and advance with perseverance. It will uphold fostering virtue and educating people as its fundamental task, emphasize local engagement, applied education and internationalization, serve local economic and social development, and advance resolutely toward becoming a first-class applied university.

It was born for Ningbo. Ningbo College, established in 1983 as the city’s first engineering-led higher education institution, emerged with reform and opening-up. It was established with German support: as one of four Chinese universities assisted by the former Federal Republic of Germany, it drew on Germany’s successful engineering education experience and applied talent training system, laying the foundation for its applied educational positioning. It grew stronger through application. It became a National Model Regular Higher Engineering College in 1997, was upgraded and renamed Ningbo University of Technology in 2004, and in 2010 became one of the first 61 universities to implement the Ministry of Education’s Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program. It was selected for national industry-education integration development in 2016. In 2021, it was authorized to award master’s degrees and selected for the national project to strengthen education and the first national group of modern industry college development institutions.

It has good overall educational conditions and comprehensive infrastructure, with teaching and research equipment valued at RMB 560 million. It deepens its talent-based university development strategy, focuses on major national development strategies, international academic frontiers and major regional needs, combines recruitment and internal development, and works to build high-level applied faculty.

It values disciplinary development, maintaining an engineering focus with coordinated development in humanities, sciences, economics and management. Materials Science, Chemistry and Engineering rank in the ESI global top 1%. Aligning with Zhejiang’s 315 science and technology innovation system, its 415X advanced manufacturing clusters and Ningbo’s 361 industrial cluster initiative at the tens-of-billions, hundreds-of-billions and trillion-yuan scales, it focuses on four discipline clusters: Intelligence+, Nano+, Safety+ and International+. It strongly advances disciplinary platforms. In 2021, it was authorized to award master’s degrees and approved for 2 professional master’s degree fields in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering and Engineering Management. In 2024, it received approval for 6 professional master’s fields in Applied Statistics, International Business, Journalism and Communication, Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Chemical Engineering, and Transportation, plus 2 provincial joint postgraduate training bases. In 2024, 6 disciplines were selected for Category B provincial first-class discipline development under the 14th Five-Year Plan. In 2025, 9 disciplines were included in Ningbo’s university discipline and program 161 Project: 1 peak discipline under cultivation, 2 Category A advantageous and distinctive disciplines, 2 Category A advantageous and distinctive disciplines under cultivation, and 4 Category B advantageous and distinctive disciplines.

In 2025, it achieved its first provincial key laboratory approval, establishing the Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Intelligent Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Deep-Sea Foundations. Alongside its existing 11 provincial research platforms, it participates in jointly developing 2 national platforms: the China–Central and Eastern European Countries Innovation Cooperation Research Center and the China-Mozambique Belt and Road Joint Laboratory for Smart Agriculture. Its innovation capabilities continue to grow, and it has ranked among Ningbo’s Top Ten Research Institutions for the past 2 consecutive years. Hangzhou Bay Automotive College and the School of Robotics have been selected for national and provincial modern industry college development respectively. Teaching reform and program development have been effective. Five programs—Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation, and Logistics Management—are national first-class undergraduate program development sites. Ten programs are provincial first-class undergraduate program development sites, 4 are provincially advantageous and distinctive programs, and 11 have passed professional accreditation. It has 3 national and 122 provincial first-class undergraduate courses. Over the past three years, it has received 2 National Teaching Achievement Awards and 2 Zhejiang Teaching Achievement Awards. Using competitions to improve teaching has become widespread, and it has been designated a Zhejiang Innovative Classroom Teaching University.

It explores reforms in talent training models including integration of science with education and industry with education, excellent engineer training, new engineering and new liberal arts, developing multidisciplinary professionals with applied research and practical capabilities. Since its founding, it has educated more than 100000 high-quality professionals of various kinds. Graduate employment in the year of graduation is around 95%, with at least 50% remaining in Ningbo. It values innovation and entrepreneurship education and has 1 jointly established national university science park and 2 national makerspaces, Fenghua Youth Innovation Park and Hailanbao Makerspace. In the 2023 National Regular University Student Competition Rankings, it ranked 132nd nationally and sixth in Zhejiang.

It strengthens research bases and teams and actively conducts applied research and technological development. It has received 2 national science and technology awards. Over the past five years, it has received 43 provincial, ministerial or higher research achievement awards and undertaken more than 200 projects at those levels. In 2020, it received support under a municipal top talent project. It has published high-level papers in leading Chinese and international journals and holds 655 valid invention patents.

It fully engages in local economic and social development and actively addresses the main arena of local development. It tackles urgently needed core technologies in pillar industries such as port-based petrochemicals, intelligent manufacturing, and port and shipping logistics, and major infrastructure including rail transit and port bridges. Supported by industry-university-research collaborative innovation in key industries, it promotes the practical commercialization of technological achievements. Over the past five years, it has served around 2000 enterprises and developed national, provincial and municipal modern industry colleges, including Hangzhou Bay Automotive College, the School of Green Petrochemical Industry and the School of Robotics. With local authorities, it has established the China-Ukraine New Materials Research Institute, Xiangshan Research Institute, Fenghua Research Institute and other local institutes. It has also established research institutions serving industry and society, including the Institute of Automotive Crash Safety and Lightweighting, Institute of Regional Development and Common Prosperity, Institute for the Development of Older People and Children, and Institute of Rural Revitalization.

It conducts extensive external cooperation, draws on advanced international experience and strengthens its outward-facing educational characteristics. With Delaware State University, Wayne State University and other US institutions, it jointly offers programs including Accounting, Information and Computing Science, and Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation. It has partnerships with more than 130 institutions in over 30 countries and regions and has educated nearly 800 international students from more than 70 countries. It has established 1 Confucius Institute in Grenada, a North American country in the Caribbean. It values overseas scientific cooperation and talent exchange and jointly develops national scientific cooperation platforms with the municipal science and technology bureau, including the China–Central and Eastern European Countries Innovation Cooperation Research Center.