Nanchang University

Nanchang University
南昌大学
Motto	格物致新, 厚德泽人
Established	1921
Type	Public university
President	Zhou Wenbin (周文斌), Ph.D.
Location	Nanchang, Jiangxi,  People's Republic of China
Campus	Urban: Nanchang: Qian-Hu campus, Qing-Shan-Hu campus, Dong-Hu campus Urban: Fuzhou campus Urban: Gongqing campus (共青城学院)
Affiliations	211 Project
Website	www.ncu.edu.cn

Nanchang University (NCU; simplified Chinese: 南昌大学; traditional Chinese: 南昌大學; pinyin: Nánchāng Dàxué) is an institution of tertiary education located in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. Nanchang University was established in 1940 as Zhongzheng University(simplified Chinese: 国立中正大学; traditional Chinese: 國立中正大學). Nanchang University is listed among the National Key Universities of China.

History

The history of Nanchang University could date back to Jiangxi Public Medical School and the National ZhongZheng University (国立中正大学; also National Chung-cheng University, given by Chiang Kai-shek, then president of the Republic of China) which were established in 1921 and 1940 respectively.

In the year of 1993, Jiangxi University and Jiangxi Industrial University merged into the new Nanchang University, from when the name was adopted until now. In 1997, Nanchang University was listed among the Top 100 key universities in China. In the year of 2004, the agreement on jointly developing Nanchang University was signed between the People's Government of Jiangxi Province and the Ministry of Education. NCU entered a new era of reform and development when it merged with Jiangxi Medical College in 2005.

Academic programs

NCU hosts a graduate school and 21 undergraduate schools including colleges of Liberal Arts, Foreign Language Studies, Art and Design, Law, Economics and Management, the Sciences, Life Science, Material Science and Engineering, Environmental Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Computer Engineering, Education, Medicine, and Software. These schools offer 82 undergraduate majors out of 11 academic disciplines including the liberal arts, history, philosophy, economics, management, law, science, engineering, agriculture, education, general medicine, public health， pharmacy, nursing and four clinical schools. These undergraduate programs have an enrollment of approximately 36,000 full-time students.

Although all the schools offer their own graduate programs, these programs belong to a single graduate school administratively. The NCU Graduate School offers 21 Ph.D. programs and 175 master degree programs with a graduate student body of about 6,800. In addition, NCU has two post-doctoral programs.

NCU emphasizes the importance of research. In addition to research labs and centers owned by individual schools, NCU owns and operates 26 national and provincial key laboratories and research centers and 56 basic training centers and professional labs.

NCU has a large-scale medical school. Not only does the medical school have a strong research orientation, it has 10 attached hospitals throughout the province. These hospitals accommodate the needs for teaching and internships for students of medicine.

Campus

NCU is composed of five campuses. Its main campus is located in Nanchang city, the capital city of Jiangxi Province. The main campus occupies an area of 300 hectares and is home to all of its undergraduate students, most graduate students, most research institutes and labs, and most faculty and staff.

Faculty and staff

NCU employs a teaching staff of 2,337, 52% of whom are professors and associate professors. Five of them are members of the distinguished Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. A number of them have received awards for their excellence in teaching and research from various government agencies ranging from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Health and the Jiangxi Provincial Government.

Facilities and resources

NCU has a comprehensive library network with a collection of 2.65 million books and 1338 periodicals including foreign language journals and magazines. The library boasts a collection of 61,400 rare books and 93,000 books in foreign languages. The library has over 1 million e-books and 34 subscribed databases and online libraries including EI, INSPEC, ISTP, SCI, AIP/APS, ELSEVIER, and PQDD, among others. With the abundance of e-books, subscribed online libraries, multimedia CDs and interactive videos and teaching materials, NCU students and teachers have a wide variety of resources to suit their needs for study and research.

To enhance the hands-on experience of students, NCU has nine large-scale multi-purpose labs for practical training. Their areas include electronics, physics, biology, computing, networking, chemistry, engineering, mechanics, and linguistics. NCU also has 47 professional research labs and 216 internship bases. To further facilitate research, NCU invested in a science and technology park which is now an incubator of 108 enterprises and research institutions on the premises. In 2004, this park was recognized as one of the “National Science and Technology Park by Universities”. NCU has found a partner in the nation's second-largest communication equipment maker ZTE. In 2005, ZTE Software Ltd was established which is a joint venture between NCU and ZTE. In 2010 NCU and Xinta Technologies Group of Singapore established a Food and Drug Technology Park dedicated to research and development.

International exchange and cooperation

NCU places great emphasis on international exchange and cooperation. It has established regular exchange programs with more than 30 universities and institutions from over 20 countries worldwide. The Confucius Institute in France, for instance, is a cooperative venture between Nanchang University and universities in France. It was the first Confucius Institute in Europe. Nanchang University has a long working relationship with the University of Abertay Dundee of the U.K. in jointly educating master degree students. Every year, a group of Nanchang University graduates go to Abertay Dundee for their master degrees in computer science. There are similar programs with universities from Ireland, Germany, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and other countries and regions.

In recognition of NCU's excellence in education and research, the Chinese Ministry of Education officially admitted Nanchang University into the national “211 Project” in 1997, signifying the inclusion of NCU into the elite 100 key universities in China. In 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Education signed an agreement with Jiangxi Provincial government affiliating Nanchang University with the Ministry of Education and Jiangxi Provincial government.

See also

• Medical College of Nanchang University
• Project 211
• List of universities in the People's Republic of China
• List of universities and colleges in Jiangxi

External links

• Nanchang University Official Website