Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Name

The word "Jiao Tong" (交通), formerly romanized as "Chiao Tung", means transportation or communication. It reflects the university's root — it was founded by the Ministry of Posts and Communications of the late Qing dynasty.

History

In 1896, the Nanyang Public School (南洋公學) was founded in Shanghai by an imperial edict issued by the Guangxu Emperor, under the Business and Telegraphs Office of the imperial government. Four schools were established: a normal school, a school of foreign studies, a middle school, and a high school. Sheng Xuanhuai, the mandarin responsible for proposing the idea to the Guangxu Emperor, became the first president and is regarded as the founder of the university, with the assistance of John Calvin Ferguson, a missionary educator.

In 1904, the Ministry of Commerce took over the school, and in 1905 changed its name to Imperial Polytechnic College of the Commerce Ministry.

In 1906, the college was placed under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and its name was changed to Shanghai Industrial College of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.

When the Republic of China was founded, the college was placed under the Ministry of Communications and its name was once again changed, this time to Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry.

In 1918, the republic government founded the School of Management. In 1920, the Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry merged with two other colleges and changed its name to Nan Yang College of Chiao Tung.

In the 1930s, it was achieved renown for nurturing top engineers and scientists and was referred to as the "Eastern MIT".

In 1938, the Ministry of Education took over the university and renamed it to National Chiao Tung University (Chinese: 國立交通大學) (the separate institution of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, is still known by this name). In 1943, the graduate school was founded.

When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, neither the Communist Party of China (CPC) nor the Kuomintang KMT trusted each other or were actively cooperating. After American-sponsored attempts to negotiate a coalition government failed in 1946, the Chinese Civil War resumed. The CPC defeated the Nationalists in 1949, forcing Chiang's government to retreat to Taiwan. During the evacuation, a part of faculty and alumni was taken to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek, founding National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1958.

After the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. Chiao Tung lost its "National" appellation and became Chiao Tung University to reflect the fact that all universities under the new socialist state would be public.

In the 1950s, the pinyin romanization system was developed in Mainland China and Chiao Tung University changed its English name to Jiao Tong University.

From 1952, the Communist government adopted a policy of creating Soviet-style specialized schools, reshuffling nearly all universities and colleges to follow the Soviet-style higher education model. Under this policy, some faculties of the university were shifted to other universities, and some engineering faculties from outside were absorbed into Jiao Tong University to form a specialized engineering university. A massive rearrangement came in 1956 for the school when the central government ordered the university move to Xi'an, in the western Chinese province of Shaanxi. Afterwards, about 1959, the remaining portion was officially renamed Shanghai Jiao Tong University, SJTU.

Shanghai Second Medical University was merged into Shanghai Jiao Tong University on July 18, 2005, under the name Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Since the reform and opening up policy in China, SJTU has grown substantially. It is composed of five campuses, including Xuhui, Minhang, Luwan, Qibao, and Fahua (法华), taking up an area of about 3,225,833 square meters.

In 2013, François Hollande inaugurated the SJTU-ParisTech Elite Institute of Technology (SPEIT), an institution based on the French engineering education system. The four founding member universities are École Polytechnique, ENSTA ParisTech, Mines ParisTech and Télécom ParisTech

The university was also producer of the Academic Ranking of World Universities until 2008.

Academics, enrollment, and staff

Today SJTU has 31 schools (departments), 63 undergraduate programs, 250 masters-degree programs, 203 Ph.D. programs, 28 post-doctorate programs, and 11 state key laboratories and national engineering research centers.

Its total enrollment of students amounts to 42,881, of which 1,598 are international students. There are 17,766 undergraduates, and 24,017 masters and Ph.D. candidates.

The university has more than 1,900 professors and associate professors, including 15 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 92 accredited professors and chair professors of the "Cheung Kong Scholars Program".

Reputation and rankings

Internationally, SJTU is ranked among 101–150th globally by ARWU (2014). The institution came sixth in the QS BRICS University Rankings and was 27th in the counterpart conducted by Times Higher Education.

Academic Ranking of World Universities

Since 2003, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has produced the Academic Ranking of World Universities which analyzes the top universities in the world on quality of faculty (40%), research output (40%), quality of education (10%) and performance vs. size (10%). Its ranking is exclusively of research universities, mainly in the empirical sciences.

Directly affiliated departments

Graduate school

Affiliated institutes

SJTU Dancing Team

Diversified genres including Latin, Ballet, Chinese Folk Dance, Chinese Classical Dance and Yang Go.

Xuhui Campus

The previous main campus was located in Xujiahui, in the Xuhui District of Shanghai, formerly a largely Catholic area and a site of several educational institutions.

Most buildings on campus were influenced by American architecture, while the main gate, which was built in 1935, is of traditional Chinese style reflecting the University's earlier status as the "Imperial Polytechnic College". The approaches to the main gate were via a series of marble bridges, similar to, although smaller than, those built in front of Tiananmen. However, recent road expansions have demolished the river as well as most of bridges. A copy of this famous gate scene have been built on the east of Minhang campus.

The construction of the campus never came to an end in the past century. Existing buildings: the Middle College building (built in 1898), the original library (built in 1919), the gymnasium (built in 1925), the administrative building (built in 1933), the Xinjian building (built in 1953), the new Upper College building (built in 1955), the second teaching building (built in 1960), Bao Zhaolong library (built in 1985) and Haoran high-tech building (built in 1996) were constructed one after another.

The university's School of International Education is located here, where a large number of international students take classes throughout the academic year (however, most international students that take degree courses are in Minhang campus). The campus still houses a variety of scientific research institutions, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering for instance, although most moved to the new campus since 1987

Minhang Campus

The Minhang campus is located in the Minhang District on the outskirts of metropolitan Shanghai. This young campus, which was founded in 1987, covers 2,822,903m² once farmland. Zizhu Science Park, where Intel, ST Microelectronics, Microsoft, Sandisk and other high-tech companies placed their research and development centers, to the south of this campus.

Currently, most administrative and academic framework of the university and the majority of undergraduate and graduate students are situated at this campus, which is now accompanied by the newly built Minhang Campus of

South Chongqing Road Campus

It used to be the campus of Shanghai Second Medical University, which is located in the Luwan District of Shanghai. The Aurora University (Shanghai), a pre-eminent Catholic university in Shanghai, was located there before 1952.

Qibao Campus

In 1999, Shanghai Agricultural College was merged into SJTU. Its campus, located at 2678 Qixin Road (postcode 201101), became the Qibao Campus of SJTU.

Shangzhong Road Campus

In 2006, Shanghai Jiao Tong University sold this campus to Shanghai High School.

Fahuazhen Road Campus

This campus is where Jiao Tong's Antai College of Economics and Management is located.

Notable alumni

After more than a century of operation, Jiao Tong University has inherited the old tradition of "high starting points, solid foundation, strict requirements and extensive practice." Today, associations organized by Jiao Tong's alumni can be found in the United States, Japan, European Union countries, Canada, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. They call themselves Jiao Tong (Jiaoda) people.

The routine services of these alumni associations include: updating contact lists, holding conferences, conducting Sino-foreign cultural exchanges, and keeping contact with other alumni associations throughout the world.

Students from SJTU have won top prizes in various competitions, including ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, International Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Electronics Design Contests. Famous alumni of SJTU or its predecessors include Jiang Zemin, Lu Dingyi, Ding Guangen, Wang Daohan, Qian Xuesen, Wu Wenjun, Zou Taofen, Mao Yisheng, Cai Er, Huang Yanpei, Shao Lizi, Wang An, and many more. More than 200 of the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering are alumni of Jiao Tong University.

Notable alumni are listed below.

Engineering and technological sciences

Life sciences and medicine

Humanities and social sciences

Business

Sports

Alumni associations