Tongji University, founded in 1907 as the German Medical Hall, is a key university under the "985 Project" and "211 Project", and is a multidisciplinary university featuring civil engineering and architecture/science and engineering
Tongji University has a long history and outstanding reputation, and is one of the earliest national universities in China. After 110 years of development, Tongji University has become a comprehensive, research-oriented and international university with distinctive characteristics and international influence, and its comprehensive strength ranks among the top universities in China.
The predecessor of Tongji University was the German Medical Hall founded in Shanghai in 1907 by the German doctor Erich Baolong, and was renamed the Tongji German Medical Hall the following year. In 1912, it was jointly known as Tongji De Cultural and Medical Engineering School, which was founded shortly ago. In 1917, it was taken over by the Chinese and successively renamed Tongji Medical and Engineering School and the private Tongji Medical and Engineering College. In 1923, it was named Tongji University, and in 1927, it became a national university. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Tongji University moved to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places after six relocations, and moved to Lizhuang Ancient Town in Yibin, Sichuan Province in 1940. After moving back to Shanghai in 1946, it developed into a comprehensive university known for its five colleges: science, engineering, medicine, literature and law.
In the restructuring of colleges and universities across the country, which began in 1949, Tongji University's original advantageous disciplines such as arts, law, medicine, science, machinery, electrical engineering, shipbuilding, surveying and mapping either supported other universities or moved to the mainland as a whole. At the same time, more than 10 universities across the country have gathered in Tongji for civil engineering and architecture-related disciplines, making it the largest and most comprehensive engineering university in the field of civil engineering and architecture in China. After 1978, the university implemented "two changes": the resumption of exchanges with Germany, the change from a closed school to an open school, and the transformation from an engineering university focusing on civil engineering to a multidisciplinary university focusing on science and engineering. In 1996, Shanghai Institute of Urban Construction and Shanghai Institute of Building Materials Industry were merged and listed as a national "211 Project" construction university. In 2000, it merged with Shanghai Railway University to form the new Tongji University. In 2002, it was listed as a national "985 Project" construction university. In 2003, Shanghai Aviation Industry School was transferred to Tongji University. In 2004, it was listed as a central management university. In 2013, the university put forward the goal and vision of "building a world-class university oriented by sustainable development".
Tongji University has always regarded the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents as its lofty mission and responsibility, with undergraduate education as the foundation of the university and graduate education as the road to strengthening the university, and has established a talent training model of "knowledge, ability and personality", and strives to make every student have the comprehensive characteristics of "solid foundation, practical ability, innovative thinking, international vision and social responsibility" after studying and cultivating at the university level, and become a pillar of society and a professional elite leading sustainable development. Since its establishment, the university has trained more than 300,000 graduates and created a large number of outstanding politicians, scientists, educators, social activists, entrepreneurs, medical experts and engineering and technical experts. Among the alumni, more than 140 were elected academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Tongji University has built a number of major scientific research platforms, such as the world's largest "Multi-functional Vibration Experimental Center", the first "Ground Vehicle Wind Tunnel Center" in China, the first "Urban Rail Transit Comprehensive Test Platform" in China, and the first "Seabed Observation and Research Experimental Base" in China. It has successively undertaken a series of major national projects and major engineering scientific research projects, and has achieved landmark scientific research achievements such as key technologies for long-span bridges, structural seismic disaster prevention technology, urban traffic intelligent induction, urban sewage treatment, new energy vehicle research and development, localized intelligent greenhouse, remote sensing spatial information, ocean drilling, and molecular genetics of atrial fibrillation.
Adhering to the fine tradition of "walking with the motherland and helping the world with science and education", the university has long focused on giving full play to the spillover effect of advantageous disciplines and basic research, constantly expanding the forms and fields of social services, actively contributing to the construction and development of national and local society, and providing strong scientific and technological support for major strategic needs such as domestic bridges and tunnels, railways and urban rail transit, water environment management, earthquake relief, Yangshan deep-water port, Shanghai World Expo, Chongming ecological island, and new energy vehicles. The university and the local government jointly promoted the construction of the "Tongji Knowledge Economic Circle", and the annual output value grew from less than 3 billion yuan in 2005 to 32.7 billion yuan in 2016, creating a model model of "integration and linkage development of the three districts".
The university has established 10 international cooperation platform colleges, including Sino-German, Sino-French, Sino-Italian, Sino-Finnish, Sino-Spanish, and United Nations, signed cooperation agreements with more than 200 overseas universities, and built research centers with many multinational companies such as Volkswagen, Siemens, Bayer and IBM. The university has initiated the establishment of the "China Green University Alliance" and the "International Green Campus Alliance" and served as the first chairman, and was elected as the chairman of the United Nations Environment Programme Global Environment and Sustainable Development University Cooperation Alliance, and is the first university in the Asia-Pacific region to be awarded the "Global Sustainable Campus Excellence Award".
Tongji University has 38 colleges and secondary educational institutions, 7 affiliated hospitals, and 6 affiliated primary and secondary schools. There are 4 campuses, including Siping Road, Jiading, Huxi and Hubei, covering an area of 2.56 square kilometers, with a total construction area of more than 171 million square meters and a total library collection of more than 4 million books.
The university has 17,228 full-time undergraduates, 13,864 master's students, and 4,717 doctoral students. In addition, there are 3,566 foreign students. It has 2,708 full-time teachers, including 945 senior professional and technical positions, 9 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 8 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (including 1 foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering), 2 academicians of the Third World Academy of Sciences, 1 foreign academician of the American Academy of Engineering, and 1 foreign academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. There are 42 scholars of the "Thousand Talents Program" of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, 27 distinguished professors of the "Yangtze River Program" of the Ministry of Education, 23 chief scientists of the National Key Basic Research and Development Program, 11 chief scientists of the National Key R&D Program, 42 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and 5 national famous teachers. There are 7 innovation groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 9 innovation teams of the Ministry of Education, and 6 national teaching teams.
The disciplines of the school cover 10 categories, including engineering, science, medicine, management, economics, philosophy, literature, law, education, and art. At present, there are 75 undergraduate majors (50 majors are enrolled according to 17 major categories), 45 first-level disciplines for master's degrees, 17 for professional master's degrees, 26 for engineering masters, 30 for doctoral degrees covering first-level disciplines, 3 for professional doctoral degrees, and 25 for postdoctoral mobile stations. Among them, there are 3 national first-level key disciplines, 10 national second-level key disciplines (including cultivation), and 17 first-class disciplines in Shanghai universities. It has 3 national key laboratories, 1 national engineering laboratory, 1 national collaborative innovation center, 1 national large-scale scientific instrument center, 5 national engineering (technology) research centers, and 38 provincial and ministerial key laboratories and engineering (technology) research centers.
"Work with one heart and one mind, help people and help the world". Today, Tongji University is full of pride, striving to take root in the land of China to run a university, and strive to move forward towards the goal of "building a world-class university oriented by sustainable development"!
