Soochow University

Suzhou University was formerly Soochow University (founded in 1900), a key university of the national "211 Project", one of the first batch of universities recognized by the "2011 Plan", a university jointly built by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the People's Government of Jiangsu Province, and a key comprehensive university in Jiangsu Province.

Suzhou University is located in Suzhou, a historical and cultural city known as "paradise on earth". It is one of the first batch of universities listed in the national "211 Project" and "2011 Plan", a "double first-class" university jointly built by the Ministry of Education and the People's Government of Jiangsu Province, and a university jointly built by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the People's Government of Jiangsu Province. It is a key comprehensive university in Jiangsu Province. The predecessor of Soochow University was Soochow University (founded in 1900). It pioneered modern higher education and integrated the essence of Chinese and Western cultures. It was the earliest university in China to be organized with a modern university discipline system. In the history of higher education in China, Soochow University was the first to conduct graduate education and award master's degrees, the first to conduct professional education in law (Anglo-American law), and the first university to establish a journal. In 1952, the colleges and departments of mainland China were adjusted, and the College of Arts and Sciences of Soochow University, the Southern Jiangsu Cultural and Educational College, and the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Jiangnan University were merged to form the Southern Jiangsu Normal College, which was renamed Jiangsu Normal College in the same year. In 1982, the school was renamed Soochow University. Subsequently, Suzhou Sericulture College (1995), Suzhou Silk Institute of Technology (1997) and Suzhou Medical College (2000) were successively merged into Soochow University. From the brilliant stars in the Republic of China to the pioneering innovation in the Republic of China; from the persistence of the cultural context of teacher education to the strategic transformation and return of a comprehensive university; from the leapfrog development of multiple school mergers to the reshaping of glory by striving to create a first-class university, Soochow University has left a strong mark in the history of Chinese higher education.

For more than a century, generations of Soochow University have always adhered to the school motto of "nurturing the righteousness of heaven and earth, and following the perfect people of ancient and modern times", adhered to the supremacy of academics, applied what they learned, advocated freedom and openness, inclusiveness, and pursuit of excellence, insisted on being erudite and diligent, and stopped at perfection, and committed to cultivating model citizens with "free spirit, excellent ability, independent personality, and social responsibility". In the long-term process of running schools, more than 500,000 professional talents of various types have been sent to the society, including Xu Deheng, Zhou Gucheng, Fei Xiaotong, Lei Jieqiong, Sun Qimeng, Zhao Puchu, Qian Weichang, Dong Yinchu, Li Zhengdao, Ni Zhengri'ao (yù), Zheng Pijiang, Yang Tieliang, Cha Liangyong (Jin Yong) and other elite pillars and social celebrities; more than 50 academicians of the two academies, such as Tan Jiazhen, Chen Ziyuan, Yu Mingfang, Song Daxiang, and Zhan Qimin, have made important contributions to national construction and social development.

Soochow University currently has 12 major disciplines, including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management, and art. The school has 36 colleges (departments), with 27,897 full-time undergraduates, 15,943 master's students, 5,061 doctoral students, and 1,271 international students. The school currently has 132 undergraduate majors, 49 first-level master's programs, 33 professional master's programs; 31 first-level doctoral programs, 1 professional doctoral program, and 30 postdoctoral mobile stations; the school currently has 1 national first-class discipline, 4 national key disciplines, 20 Jiangsu college advantage disciplines, and 9 "13th Five-Year Plan" Jiangsu Provincial Key Disciplines. So far, 15 disciplines of the school, including chemistry, physics, materials science, clinical medicine, engineering, pharmacy and toxicology, biology and biochemistry, neuroscience and behavioral science, molecular biology and genetics, immunology, mathematics, computer science, agricultural science, environmental science and ecology, and general social science, have entered the top 1% of the global basic science index (ESI), and chemistry and materials science have entered the top 1‰ of the global basic science index (ESI).

The school currently has 2 national talent training bases, 3 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, 1 national virtual simulation experimental teaching demonstration center, 2 national talent training model innovation experimental zones, and 1 national off-campus practical teaching base for college students. 1 National 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center (lead unit), 1 key research base of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, 1 national key laboratory jointly built by the province and the ministry, 1 national engineering laboratory, 2 national and local joint engineering laboratories, 2 national international cooperation joint research centers, 1 national clinical medicine research center, 1 national "Belt and Road" joint laboratory, 1 national innovative talent training demonstration base, 3 national public service platforms, 1 national university science and technology park, 1 Jiangsu Provincial University National Key Laboratory Cultivation and Construction Site, 4 Jiangsu University Collaborative Innovation Centers, 24 provincial and ministerial key research bases in philosophy and social sciences, 33 provincial and ministerial key laboratories, 7 provincial and ministerial public service platforms, and 5 provincial and ministerial engineering centers.

The university currently has 5,847 faculty members and 3,319 full-time teachers, including 1 Nobel Prize winner, 10 academicians of the two academies, 8 academicians of developed countries, 34 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, 42 winners of the National Excellent Youth Fund, 1 "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" outstanding talent, 13 "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" science and technology innovation leaders, 4 "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" young top talents, 14 "Hundred Thousand Talents Project" national candidates and nearly 300 national talents of various types. A strong, well-structured and dynamic talent team has been initially formed.

Soochow University regards talent cultivation as the central work of the school, takes moral cultivation as the foundation, and takes the cultivation of outstanding talents with responsibility, innovation, application and internationality as the orientation, takes the integration of general education and professional education as the guidance, and focuses on improving students' comprehensive quality, consolidating professional foundations, and cultivating innovative and entrepreneurial capabilities. Actively deepen the systematic reform of talent cultivation and continuously improve the quality of talent cultivation. The School of Nanoscience and Technology of the University was listed as one of the first 17 national pilot colleges in the country, becoming a special zone for the reform of the higher education system and mechanism; the school has established three colleges and actively explored new models of talent training. Among them, Jingwen College is positioned as the "second classroom" outside of professional education, Tang Wenzhi College conducts liberal education in the "first classroom", and Ziqing College is committed to creating a testing ground for top innovative talents in "new engineering". The school has been approved for 28 national first-class undergraduate professional construction sites, 5 provincial first-class undergraduate professional construction sites, 23 courses have been approved as national first-class undergraduate courses; 41 courses have been recognized as provincial first-class undergraduate courses. In recent years, more than 700 students of Soochow University have won national awards every year, and have repeatedly won various domestic and international competitions such as the National "Challenge Cup" and the Olympic Games. Master students at the school have published papers in Nature as the first author, and the relevant results have been selected as the "Top Ten Advances in Chinese Optics in 2018".

The school implements the "top-to-bottom" scientific and technological innovation strategy, and has achieved fruitful results in scientific research and innovation. As of November 2021, in the field of humanities and social sciences, 45 National Social Science Funds were approved, including 1 major project in arts and 3 annual projects in arts, ranking 5th in the country; 14 National Social Science Fund Post-Funding Projects were approved, ranking 8th in the country, ranking first in the province for three consecutive years; 14 items were won from the Ministry of Education's 8th Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements Award for Higher Education Institutions (Humanities and Social Sciences), and the number of first prizes ranked 11th in the country. In the field of natural sciences, 317 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 1 key special project of the National Key R&D Program, and 1 major national defense project were approved; 1 second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2020, 1 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China in 2020 (first cooperation unit), 1 eighth Shulan Medical Award, and 1 third "Science Exploration Award" were won; the latest Nature Index ranking in 2021 ranked 41st among universities in the world and 14th among universities in China; 23 people were selected as "Global Highly Cited Scientists" in 2021, ranking 5th among universities in China. In 2020, 4,774 papers were published in the three major retrievals, of which 3,085 were included in SCIE, ranking 26th among universities in China; 1,390 intellectual property rights were authorized, including 681 domestic invention patents and 29 international patents, and 210 intellectual property transfers and licenses were achieved. In addition, Soochow University was also selected as one of the first pilot universities for the construction of specialized national technology transfer institutions by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education.

In accordance with the development idea of ​​"driving domestic first-class with international reputation", the school has comprehensively and deeply promoted the internationalization of education. The school has established inter-school exchange relations with more than 200 universities and research institutions in more than 30 countries (regions), and has more than 1,000 international students from all over the world. In 2010, it was selected into the "China-Africa University 20+20 Cooperation Plan" of the Ministry of Education to assist in the construction of the University of Lagos in Nigeria; in 2011, it successfully established China's first overseas university in Laos-"Laos Suzhou University", which has now become an important station and cultural business card on the country's "Belt and Road" initiative; in 2018, the school initiated the establishment of the China-ASEAN Medical Education University Alliance to create a China-ASEAN health community of destiny and promote the construction of the "Belt and Road"; in 2019, the world's first Red Cross International College was established to help build a community with a shared future for mankind; in 2020, the school was approved to establish the China-Portugal Cultural Heritage Protection Science "Belt and Road" Joint Laboratory.

Soochow University currently has four campuses, namely Tiancizhuang Campus, Dushuhu Campus, Yangcheng Lake Campus and Future Campus, covering an area of ​​4,586 mu and a building area of ​​more than 1.66 million square meters. The school has rich library materials, with a collection of more than 5 million books. It has rich Chinese and foreign database resources, more than 2.15 million electronic books, more than 1.92 million electronic journals, and more than 12.25 million electronic dissertations. The school sponsors three journals, namely the Journal of Soochow University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), the Educational Science Edition and the Law Edition, as well as professional academic journals such as Algebraic Collection, Modern Silk Science and Technology, Chinese Blood Rheology and Language and Semiotics Research. Among them, in recent years, the articles published in the Journal of Soochow University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) have been reprinted and excerpted by authoritative secondary documents such as Xinhua Digest and Renmin University Reprinted Newspapers and Periodicals, and its reprint volume has always ranked among the top ten comprehensive university journals. In 2018, the Journal of Soochow University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) and (Educational Sciences Edition) were both rated as core journals of Chinese humanities and social sciences journals. In 2021, they were both included in the Beijing Library (Overview of Chinese Core Journals) (2020 Edition). "Journal of Soochow University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition)" is a CSSCI core (2021-2022 Edition) source journal, "Journal of Soochow University (Educational Sciences Edition)" and "Journal of Soochow University (Law Edition)" are CSSCI extended version (2021-2022 Edition) source journals.

The new era breeds new opportunities and calls for new actions. All Soochow University people are taking the opportunity, taking advantage of the time, the location and the people with high spirits, open minds and global vision, insisting on strengthening the university with talents, quality and culture, relying on the strong economic strength and superior humanities and geographical conditions of the Yangtze River Delta region, and striving to build the school into a first-class domestic and internationally renowned high-level research university, an important base for cultivating high-quality innovative and entrepreneurial talents, high-level scientific research and high-tech research and development, and high-level decision-making consultation in the region, and a university with a better pattern, more feelings and more achievements.

(Relevant data statistics are as of November 2021)