Jiangsu University of Technology (JSUT) was brought into existence as Changzhou Teachers College of Technology in 1984. As the only university in Jiangsu Province independently established to train teachers for vocational education, it has become the vice-director unit of the Professional Committee of Teachers of Vocational Education of Chinese Society of Technical and Vocational Education. It is also the director unit of both the Professional Committee of Application for Deep Process of Precious Metals of China Non-Ferrous Metals Industrial Association and the Professional Committee of Precious Metal Recycling of China National Resources Recycling Association. It was empowered to grant bachelors' degree in 1992 and became one of the first National Key Vocational Education Construction Bases of Teachers Training approved by the Ministry of Education in 1999.
JSUT is situated in Changzhou, the central region of the Yangtze River Delta and also a renowned historical and cultural city in Jiangsu Province. The city, of historical importance in its politics, economy, culture and academic studies, is widely known for its talented personalities and abundant natural resources. Its long history, cultural richness and education-focused tradition provide the university with an ideal environment.
JSUT covers an area of nearly 1,500 mus (approximately 100 hectares), with a total floor space of nearly 400,000 square meters. It owns 13 secondary schools and 1 institute, including School of Mechanical Engineering (namely, School of Automobile Engineering), School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, School of Electricity & Information Engineering, School of Computer Science & Engineering, School of Pedagogy, School of Economics & Management, School of Accounting, School of Art & Design (namely, School of Comic & Animation), School of Foreign Languages, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Mathematics & Physics, and Sino-German International Institute. It provides 34 undergraduate majors such as machinery designing, manufacturing & automation, chemistry engineering & technology, pedagogy, electronic information engineering, computer science & technology, artistic design, applied chemistry and accounting, and covers 7 academic disciplines, that is, engineering, education, management, economics, science, literature and law. It boasts of 5 provincial key construction disciplines, 1 provincial feature specialty, 1 provincial brand construction specialty, 4 provincial feature construction specialties, 1 provincial key construction laboratory, 1 provincial experimental teaching demonstration center, 2 provincial experimental teaching demonstration construction centers, 12 provincial brand or model courses, and 1 training base for vocational education of Jiangsu.
JSUT now has more than 15,000 full-time students, and over 1,100 staff members among which are 770-odd teachers, with 320-odd holders of high-ranking titles and about 500 doctors or masters. Of the teachers, more than 40 have been engaged as doctor supervisors, master supervisors or part-time professors by well-known universities like Southeast University, 7 have received “Government Special Allowance” granted by the State Council, 2 have been honored Excellent Teacher of the Nation and Model Worker of the Nation in the Field of Education respectively, 8 have become winners of Zeng Xianzi Prize of the Ministry of Education, over 30 person-times have been honored Excellent Teacher of Jiangsu, Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Experts of Jiangsu “333 Advanced Talent-training Project”, Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Experts of Jiangsu “Qinglan Project”, Model Worker in the Field of Education of Jiangsu, or Model Scientific and Technological Worker of Jiangsu. Moreover, JSUT has engaged more than 40 well-known experts or scholars at home and abroad like Qiu Dingfan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as honorary, part-time or even full-time professors.
Abiding by the principle of scientific development, JSUT has been consistent in maintaining development by the performance of the three strategies of “Development on Quality, Consolidation by Human Resources, Prosperity with Uniqueness”. It adheres to both the teaching-centered ideology and the priority of discipline construction and advocates its quality-oriented development and its improvement of teaching by scientific researches. It sticks to the development ideology that “the university owns its unique features, all specialties possess their distinguished particularities, and each student displays his/her own strong points”. It upholds the harmonious unity of “academy, technology and teaching ability” by practicing the “three- certificate system” (the diploma, the technology certificate, and the teacher’s certificate required for a student to graduate.) in order to cultivate both “double-skilled teachers”, who can be teachers in classroom and technicians in workshop, and special application-typed talents. It has achieved a great success by keeping on deepening education reform and innovating talent cultivation mode. 2 projects, for example, have been appraised of second-class “Teaching Achievement Award” at national level, 5 of second-class “Teaching Achievement Award” at provincial level, and 6 textbooks of Brand Textbooks or Under-construction Brand Textbooks of Jiangsu.
Till now, JSUT has developed more than 20,000 junior and regular college students. Because of their outstanding moral characters, rich theoretical learning and advantageous professional practice skills, graduates of the University are warmly welcomed by employment units and have made great contribution to local economic construction and social development. JSUT has kept the “Employment Rate at One Tim” of more than 96% for consecutive years.
JSUT has achieved great success in discipline construction, scientific research & development and teaching as well. In recent years, teachers of the University have published 3,500 academic papers, more than 200 of which have been retrieved by the famous SCI, EI and ISTP, and over 200 books or textbooks concerning various disciplines, and also have applied for 48 national patents, with 24 authorized. For the past 3 years, teachers here have undertaken more than 100 projects on scientific research at provincial or even higher level, among which over 20 projects are sponsored by National Key Technology R&D Program, by National Natural Science Fund, or by National Social Science Fund, with more than 30 million yuan (RMB) research funds for projects in hand. JSUT has won over 100 research awards at municipal or even higher level, among which over 20 belong to State Technological Invention Award, Progress in Science and Technology of Jiangsu, Excellence in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Jiangsu, etc. For years, it has laid stress on industry-university-research institute collaboration, devoting itself to applied research and technical development, encouraging its staff members especially the professors and doctors to develop research programs with enterprises, and helping a lot of enterprises achieve satisfactory economic results by completing more than 200 relevant programs of which over 100 have been put into practice.
JSUT attaches great importance to the improvement of teaching and infrastructural facilities and now possesses teaching & research instruments and equipments with the total value of 104 million yuan (RMB). In line with the construction of its provincial key construction laboratory, provincial experimental teaching demonstration construction centers for college basic courses and training base for vocational education of Jiangsu, it has developed multi-level research platforms such as research institutes or sections, key laboratories and engineering technology research centers by means of its own efforts or its cooperation with related enterprises or public institutions to effectively service the academic studies of its researchers in various disciplines. It now owns 5 school key (or key construction) laboratories and nearly 40 research institutes or centers or sections based on academic studies and engineering technology or development centers. It has a collection of nearly 1,200 thousand volumes of books and 560 thousand volumes of e-books, prescribes 1,898 Chinese or foreign journals or magazines every year, and possesses 24 Chinese or foreign databases such as CNKI, VIP, EI and EBSCO-HOST.
Since the performance of the 10th Five-year Plan, JSUT, as one of the first National Key Vocational Education Construction Bases of Teachers Training, has not only fostered about 10 thousand headmasters, management talents or backbone teachers ，for training & vocational schools in Jiangsu and other provinces in China, but also undertaken the task of teacher cultivation for overseas vocational education.
In addition, JSUT has carried out active international exchange and cooperation by selecting outstanding young and middle-aged teachers to further their studies abroad and participating in various international academic activities. It takes an active part in holding or cooperating in holding various advanced domestic and international academic conferences. In 2005, JSUT, for instance, undertook “Shuangqing Forum” sponsored by the Committee of National Natural Science Fund, held 2005 China Resources Comprehensive Utilization High-level Symposium, and cooperated in holding 2005 “World Recycling” Shanghai successfully and influentially.
By now, JSUT has successively established excellent exchange and cooperation with many higher institutions of learning and vocational & technical training institutions from different countries like Germany, Canada, USA, Ukraine, Republic of Korea and Norway. It has initiated “2+2”cultivation program of international graduates with German Merseburg University of Applied Science. Besides, it has cooperated with German F+U Saxon Vocational Training Institute and set up a Sino-German Know-how Automobile Training Base so as to meet the standards of German Automobile industry and vocational training and thus to develop professional automobile maintenance teachers and high-end technical talents urgently necessary for vocational education in China, and has also contracted with Norway and Germany for the joint training of postgraduates in related fields.
JSUT is persistent in the Party construction and spiritual civilization construction, aiming to develop diligent working attitudes, strengthening the code of profession in teaching and creating a good learning atmosphere so as to ensure its sound and healthy development in all aspects. After years’ hard work, it has achieved great successes and won more than 30 awards and titles such as “Advanced Collective for National Linguistic Work”, “National Advanced Unit for Carrying out ‘Three Activities Going to the Countryside’ of Graduates during Summer Vacation”, “Civilization Unit of Jiangsu Province”, “Advanced Collective for Ideological and Political Education among Institutions of Higher Learning of Jiangsu Province”, “Advanced Grass-Roots Party Organization among Jiangsu Institutions for Higher Learning”, “Civilization School of Jiangsu Province”, “Advanced University for Teaching Force Construction of Jiangsu Province”, “Advanced University for Physical Education of Jiangsu Province”, “Advanced Collective for Graduate Employment of Jiangsu Colleges and Universities” and “Civilization Unit Model of Changzhou City”.