Dalian University of Technology

Dalian University of Technology was founded in April 1949 as the College of Engineering of Dalian University. In July 1950, Dalian University was dissolved, and its engineering college became the independent Dalian Institute of Technology. In October 1960, it was designated a national key university directly administered by the Ministry of Education. It established a graduate school in April 1986 and was renamed Dalian University of Technology in March 1988. In 1996, it began development under the “211 Project,” jointly supported by the Ministry of Education, Liaoning Province and Dalian Municipality. In 2001, it began “985 Project” development, receiving priority joint support from the same parties. In December 2012, the Ministry of Education formally approved its Panjin Campus. With State Council approval, it was selected for Category A World-Class University development in September 2017. In February 2022, it was selected for the second round of national “Double First-Class” university development.

The university has approximately 4500 faculty and staff, including approximately 3000 full-time teachers. It has 15 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Chinese Academy of Engineering. Among full-time teachers, over 950 hold full senior titles and over 1250 associate senior titles. Its personnel include 11 members of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee’s disciplinary appraisal groups, 142 national high-level leading talents and 236 nationally recognized outstanding young talents. It has 13 nationally distinguished teachers, 129 distinguished undergraduate teachers of Liaoning regular higher education institutions and 11 distinguished teachers under the “Xingliao Talent Program.” It has over 1500 doctoral supervisors and over 2600 master’s supervisors.

It has over 50000 students, including over 25500 undergraduates and over 24700 postgraduate students. Postgraduate students include over 6500 doctoral students and over 18100 master’s students.

Upholding the fundamental task of fostering virtue and educating people, it is developing a first-class disciplinary structure of “top engineering, high-quality science, refined humanities and emerging medicine,” giving equal emphasis to undergraduate and postgraduate education. It has a graduate school. Its main campus has 29 schools, 1 faculty of medicine, 2 research institutes and 1 residential college; the Development Zone Campus has 3 schools; and Panjin Campus has 4 schools. It also has 2 specialized schools, for innovation and international education, and 1 independent college, City Institute. It has 34 first-level doctoral degree authorizations, 7 first-level master’s degree authorizations and 27 postdoctoral research stations. It also offers 8 professional doctoral degree categories: mechanical engineering, materials and chemical engineering, electronic information, civil and hydraulic engineering, energy and power, resources and environment, biology and medicine, and education; and 16 professional master’s categories including business administration and public administration. It admits students to 77 undergraduate programs, including 23 national distinctive programs, 57 national first-class undergraduate development sites under the “Double Ten-Thousand Plan,” 17 provincial first-class undergraduate development sites and 27 programs that have passed national engineering education accreditation or assessment. Six programs are included in the Ministry of Education’s “Strong Foundation Program.” It has 5 bases under the national Top Students in Basic Disciplines Training Program 2.0, 4 national education and teaching bases, and was selected as a discipline training base under the national University Elite Program. It has 8 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, 3 national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers and 7 national teaching teams. It was among the Ministry of Education’s first pilots for comprehensive higher education reform and comprehensive “all-person, whole-process and all-round education” reform, and among the first national pilots for engineering education reform. It is a Ministry of Education pilot for Future Learning Center development and an implementing university of the “One Ministry and Six Academies” collaborative education project integrating science and education. It was among the first pilots of the National Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, the first institutions developing national innovation and entrepreneurship colleges and national university practical education innovation and entrepreneurship bases, the first national demonstration universities for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform, the first pilots of the Ministry of Education’s Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program, and the first pilots of the ministry’s public foreign-language teaching reform. It has received approval for one of the ministry’s first model research centers for ideological and political education in courses.

Mechanics, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering and technology were selected for the second national “Double First-Class” discipline development list. Twenty-one first-level disciplines were selected for Liaoning universities’ new round of “Double First-Class” discipline development, reflecting abundant resources and strong research. Under “Double First-Class” development, it prioritizes “8+1” discipline clusters in chemistry and chemical engineering, equipment manufacturing, marine engineering, transportation vehicles, information science, management, mathematics and physics, life sciences and medicine, and Marxist theory. Thirty-three disciplines appear in ShanghaiRanking’s Best Chinese Subjects Ranking, including 14 in the national top 12%. Forty-one appear in the Times Higher Education China Subject Ratings, including 3 rated A+ and 17 in Category A. Fifteen fields rank in the global top 1%; engineering, chemistry, materials science and computer science rank in the global top 1‰; and engineering is in the top 0.1‰.

The university steadily advances educational openness. Its regional strategy is to “expand and improve Belt and Road cooperation, deepen engagement in Northeast Asia, and strengthen cooperation with Europe and the Americas.” It advances internationalization in teaching, faculty, talent cultivation, research, organization and management. It has stable, long-term partnerships with 350 renowned overseas universities, research institutions and other organizations in 48 countries and regions. It initiated the Alliance of the Chinese Excellence League and Japan’s Six National Universities, the China-Ukraine University Alliance and the China-Belarus University Alliance, and has joined 21 international university alliances, including the Association of Sino-Russian Technical Universities. It has 3 Sino-foreign cooperative institutions, with Ritsumeikan University in Japan, the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and Belarusian State University, respectively, and 1 cooperative program with the University of California, Irvine in the United States. It has over 500 overseas student exchange programs, including government-sponsored study, joint training, exchange study and short visits, sending an annual average of over 2500 student participants abroad. It engages nearly 2000 long-term and short-term overseas experts and scholars annually for work and academic visits. Since 2025, it has had 4271 international students.