Hefei University

Hefei University is a full-time public undergraduate college jointly built by the province and the city, with the city as the main body, which was "born in reform, grew up in opening up, and developed in innovation". Its predecessor was Hefei Union University founded in 1980. In 1985, the school became one of the two demonstration applied universities that Germany focused on building in China. In March 2002, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, it merged with Hefei Education College and Hefei Normal School. In 2018, the school as a whole entered the first batch of enrollment in Anhui Province and was approved as a master's degree awarding institution.

The school is known as the "Xiaogang Village" of China's higher education reform and the "vanguard" of the first echelon of China's applied undergraduate colleges. It is the vice chairman unit of the National Applied Undergraduate Colleges Special Committee, the chairman unit of the Yangtze River Delta Applied Undergraduate Colleges Alliance, and the permanent chairman unit of the Anhui Province Applied Undergraduate Colleges Alliance. It has won two first prizes and two second prizes in the National Teaching Achievement Award, the Fourth National Education Reform and Innovation Special Award, and two second prizes in the National Science and Technology Progress Award. On October 30, 2015, the prime ministers of China and Germany jointly inspected Hefei University. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out: "The development and growth of Hefei University over the past 30 years is a successful example of pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany." German Chancellor Merkel praised Hefei University as "a shining example of cooperation between China and Germany in the past 30 years." Premier Li Keqiang announced the establishment of a demonstration base and fund for Sino-German educational cooperation at Hefei University. On April 23, 2021, Sun Chunlan, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, visited Hefei University for inspection and research, fully affirmed the achievements made by Hefei University in international cooperation and talent training, and hoped that the school would continue to play a leading role in demonstration.

At present, the school operates on one campus, covering an area of ​​1,500 mu, with 14,460 full-time students, 1,051 full-time teachers, a school building area of ​​689,200 square meters, a teaching and scientific research and administrative area of ​​415,700 square meters, a total value of teaching and scientific research equipment of 369 million yuan, 1.4551 million paper books in the library, and 1.5672 million electronic books. There are 11 secondary colleges, covering 7 major disciplines: engineering, economics, management, literature, science, education, and art. There are 75 undergraduate majors, including 5 national characteristic majors, 4 national "Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program" majors, 1 national undergraduate major comprehensive reform pilot major, 6 national first-class undergraduate major construction points, 20 provincial first-class undergraduate major construction points, 2 first-level discipline master's degree authorization points, and 11 professional master's degree authorization points. The Sino-German cooperation logistics management major and economic engineering major have successively obtained German professional certification.

The school adheres to the strategy of strengthening the school with talents, and steadily builds a teaching staff with a reasonable structure, excellent quality and in line with the positioning. There are 355 teachers with doctoral degrees, 458 teachers with senior professional and technical titles, 231 graduate tutors, 6 doctoral tutors, and 570 "dual-capable" teachers. There are 20 provincial teaching teams, 24 provincial teaching masters, 2 provincial academic and technical leaders, and 119 top talents in Hefei. Among the foreign teachers, 4 have won the "Friendship Award" of the Chinese government, 11 have won the "Huangshan Friendship Award" of the Anhui Provincial Government, and 4 have attended the New Year's Symposium of Foreign Experts hosted by Premier Li Keqiang. There are 3 Nobel Prize winners as honorary professors of the school.

The school insists on being student-oriented, and the talent training model has developed from "eight transformations" to the deep integration of industry and education. In 2016, the school cooperated with the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Lille in Germany and Continental Group of Germany to open the "Continental Class" of Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation, the first "dual system" higher education with Chinese characteristics. The front page of China Education News featured a special report titled "Second Transformation and Restarting, Hefei University Explores International Dual Higher Education - Cultivating Outstanding Engineers Who Are Good at Innovation". As a typical university with experience in innovation and entrepreneurship in the country and a model unit for employment work in universities across the province, in the past five years, students have won 129 national A-level awards and 17 international awards in competitions, and the employment rate of school graduates has always been among the best in the province. In 2021, the employment rate of undergraduates reached 91.6%. About 65% of the school's graduates are employed in Anhui, and about 50% are employed in Hefei. It is known as the "Cradle of Engineers in Hefei". The school's "Undergraduate Teaching Quality Report for the 2019-2020 Academic Year" was rated as A-level, and only four universities in the province, including the University of Science and Technology of China, received this level. The Ministry of Education's "Briefing" specifically promotes Hefei University's approach to promoting the "eight transformations" in talent training. The "Quality Report of Newly-built Undergraduate Colleges in China" summarizes our school's experience as the "Anhui phenomenon, Hefei model" and promotes it nationwide.

The school insists on serving the local area and actively connects with regional development strategies and needs. The school has applied for and obtained approval for the first domestic economic engineering major and six new engineering majors such as intelligent manufacturing engineering, and adjusted 11 majors. It vigorously promotes the construction of industrial colleges such as rail transit, advanced manufacturing, and digital economy. It has increased the construction of four peak cultivation disciplines, namely "Environmental Science and Engineering", "Computer Science and Technology", "Materials Science and Engineering", and "Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering". There are 49 scientific research platforms, including 8 scientific research platforms at the provincial and ministerial levels (including 4 co-constructions). In the past five years, it has undertaken more than 400 scientific research projects at the provincial and ministerial levels, 629 industry-university-research cooperation projects, and the local funds for scientific research and services have reached 390.57 million yuan. It has obtained 867 national authorized patents and has been on the list of top 100 invention patents in Anhui Province for five consecutive years. It has published more than 300 SCI and SSCI papers. It has won 30 scientific research achievement awards at the provincial and ministerial levels.

The school adheres to open cooperation, and its internationalized school-running characteristics are increasingly prominent. As a demonstration base for Sino-German educational cooperation, the first batch of international exchange and cooperation bases in Anhui Province, a member unit of the Sino-German Economic Advisory Committee, and a strategic partner of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises. The school has established the "China Anhui-Germany Center" and the "China Hefei-Korea Center", actively providing services for foreign exchanges, cooperation and project settlement. It has established cooperative relations with 72 universities in Germany and other countries and Taiwan. More than 4,100 students have studied in friendly schools abroad, and more than 2,100 foreign students have come to the school for study and exchange. In 2020, the school passed the quality certification of higher education institutions in China for studying abroad by the Ministry of Education. In 2021, the school's "dual system" higher education has gone from pilot to full rollout, and it has co-built the Volkswagen College with the Volkswagen Group to continue to create the Hefei model of "dual system" higher education. It has signed a cooperative school-running agreement with the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, and has developed from the past one-way study abroad to two-way study abroad, and Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has entered a new stage. It has co-built the Sino-German open online learning platform with Shanghai Open University and the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück to create an online learning and exchange platform that never ends. The school has built the Stralsund Confucius Institute in Germany. German Chancellor Merkel personally unveiled the plaque and sent a congratulatory letter to the third anniversary of the establishment of the Confucius Institute. Since 2000, more than 500 delegations from the German government, social groups, friendly schools and enterprises have visited the school. It has hosted 14 Sino-German Applied Higher Education Seminars, 8 "Chinese Bridge" German Middle School Summer Camps, 12 Korean Speech Contests, and 4 "Hefei College Cup" Chinese Speech Contests.

The school firmly adheres to the socialist direction of running schools, adheres to the party building to lead and guarantee development, and conscientiously implements the fundamental task of cultivating morality and cultivating people. Since the implementation of the "Ten Major Projects" for the innovation of ideological and political work in 2016, the reform of the sports and art club has been demonstrated and promoted throughout the province, and successfully passed the mid-term evaluation of the pilot unit of the "Three-in-One Education" comprehensive reform in Anhui Province. In 2017, the school won the "National May 1st Labor Award". In 2019, it was successively selected as the first Anhui Civilized Campus, the first batch of pilot universities for the Anhui Provincial University Network Ideological and Political Work Center, the third batch of Anhui Province's "Three-in-One Education" Comprehensive Reform Pilot Project Unit, the Advanced Collective for Poverty Alleviation, the first batch of provincial party building work "demonstration university" cultivation and creation units, and the second batch of "National Party Building Work Model Branch" cultivation and creation units. Since 2015, the school has been rated "excellent" for six consecutive years in the comprehensive assessment of the provincial party committee.

November 2021