Northeastern University (NEU; ) is a Chinese

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

in Shenyang, Liaoning province with strengths in engineering and architecture. It is known for its prominent role in the

information technology industry Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, a ...

. The university's academic motto is "Striving endlessly for self-improvement, combining knowledge and action as one" (), the first half of which is from the ancient

Chinese classic Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...

Yijing The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

'', and the latter is a direct quote from

Wang Yangming Wang Shouren (, 26 October 1472 – 9 January 1529), courtesy name Bo'an (), art name Yangmingzi (), usually referred to as Wang Yangming (), was a Chinese calligrapher, general, philosopher, politician, and writer during the Ming dynasty ...

and also translated as "thinking-doing to theory" by the NEU's Engineering faculty. Having built China's first electronic analog computer, university research park, and university-run commercial enterprise, Northeastern is now part of a government plan to revitalize the

Northeast China Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of ...

economy with a focus on high-tech manufacturing. Its alumni include the founder and CEO of

Neusoft Neusoft Corporation is a Chinese multinational provider of software engineering services, Information Technology services, product engineering services, IT education and medical equipment headquartered in Shenyang, China. "Neusoft" is an ac ...

, the largest Chinese IT and software outsourcing corporation, the first Olympic athlete to represent China, in the 1932 Summer Olympics, and the founder of Amnesty International in Taiwan. With a total enrollment of over 20,000 students, Northeastern has received significant government funding through the

Double First Class University Plan The World First Class University and First Class Academic Discipline Construction (), together known as Double First Class (), is a tertiary education development initiative designed by the People's Republic of China central government in 2015 ...

, former

211 Project Project 211 () was an abolished project of developing comprehensive universities and colleges initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of China, with the intent of raising the research standards of comprehensive universities and cultiva ...

and

985 Project Project 985 () was a terminated project that was first announced by General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin at the 100th anniversary of Peking University on May 4, 1998, to promote the development and reputation of the Ch ...

, initiatives which sought to elevate the research standards of rising Chinese universities. In 2017, Northeastern was selected by the Chinese Ministry of Education as a Class B institution in the national

, a major government initiative to comprehensively develop a group of elite universities into "world-class institutions" by 2050.

History

The Northeastern University was founded on April 26, 1923, in Shenyang (then known as Fengtian), in response to warlord

Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...

's order in early 1921 to establish

tertiary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

and expand the

talent pool A talent community is a mechanism that employers use to keep active pipelines of talent for future recruitment. Talent pipelines consist of potential employees who are interested in working at a given employer, but are not ready to apply. This gr ...

of the Northeast. After Zhang Zuolin's assassination by the Japanese, his son

Zhang Xueliang Chang Hsüeh-liang (, June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also romanized as Zhang Xueliang, nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), known in his later life as Peter H. L. Chang, was the effective ruler of Northeast China and much of northern ...

inherited the command of the Northeast, assumed the title of co-president of the university in August 1928, and became the university's most important financial and political patron in its early history. With Zhang's generous support, the institution attracted top scholars and educators from throughout the nation (e.g.

Zhang Shizhao Zhang Shizhao (; March 20, 1881 – July 1, 1973), courtesy name Xingyan, pen name Huangzhonghuang, Qingtong or Qiutong, was a Chinese journalist, educator, politician of the early 20th century known for his advocacy first of revolutionary cultur ...

Huang Kan Huang Kan (Chinese: 黃侃; 1886 – 8 October 1935), courtesy name Jigang (季剛), born into a family of Hubei ancestry in Chengdu, Sichuan province, was a Chinese phonologist, philologist and revolutionary. As a teen, he tested into Wuchang ...

Liang Sicheng Liang Sicheng (; 20 April 1901 – 9 January 1972) was a Chinese architect and architectural historian, known as the father of modern Chinese architecture. His father, Liang Qichao, was one of the most prominent Chinese scholars of the early ...

and

Lin Huiyin Lin Huiyin (; known as Phyllis Lin or Lin Whei-yin when in the United States; 10 June 1904 – 1 April 1955) was a Chinese architect and writer. She is known to be the first female architect in modern China and her husband the famed "Father of M ...

), and quickly developed into a top-tier comprehensive university, with six schools for

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

. By the end of the 1920s, it was the biggest and best-resourced tertiary institute in China, with a budget tripling that of the Peking University. Less than a decade after the university was founded, the

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

ese Kwantung Army Mukden Incident, attacked and captured Shenyang on September 18, 1931, and then proceeded to invade and annex all of Northeast China and reorganized the region into the puppet state of Manchukuo. the Northeastern University was forced to evacuate its campus after the fall of Shenyang and became the first exiled university in Chinese history, being relocated to Beiping during the height of the December 9th Movement, with its more than 70 students continuing their study at the then-private Nankai University. Five years later, the university was relocated further west to Xi'an in 1936, then temporarily to a borrowed Henan University campus at Kaifeng in January 1937, before renamed National Northeastern University () and relocated back to Xi'an in June. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of North China. Like many other national universities in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Northeastern University was again displaced in 1938 and relocated further away from the approaching front line to Santai in Sichuan, where it remained for the next 8 years and contributed to the establishment of the National Northwest Institute of Technology (, the precursor of Northwestern Polytechnical University and Tianjin University). After Japan's surrender, the university returned to its original campus in Shenyang in May 1946, while some staff of its Education faculty remained in Sichuan and later became the Sichuan Normal University and China West Normal University. After the establishment of the China, People's Republic of China in 1949, Northeastern University was renamed Northeast Institute of Technology (, NIT) in August 1950 and became primarily an engineering school, before finally reverting to its original name of Northeastern University on March 8, 1993. Northeastern University was selected to participate in the

and Project 985, nationwide government initiatives to expand and modernize the Chinese university system, including significant government funding and subsidies for constructing state-of-the-art academic facilities. The university is also part of the national government's initiative to replace Northeast China's heavy manufacturing industry with a modern high-tech manufacturing economy.

Academics

Northeastern University consists of the School of Liberal Arts and Law, the School of Business Administration, the School of Sciences, the School of Resources and Civil Engineering, the School of Materials Science and Metallurgy, the School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, the School of Information Science and Engineering, Sino-Dutch School of Biomedical and Information Engineering, and the Department of Foreign Languages. It has 46 undergraduate programs, 53 master's degree programs, and 23 doctoral degree programs, as well as an adult education program.

Rankings and Reputation

In 2020, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked NEU at 301-400th globally. From the same rankings by subjects, "Metallurgical Engineering" was ranked at fourth in the world, together with "Instrumental science, Instrumental Science", "Mining engineering, Mining Engineering", "Control Science and Engineering", and "Computer science and engineering, Computer Science and Engineering", placed in the global top 100. The U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking 2022 ranked NEU as 668th in the world, 149th in Asia and 62nd in China. "Electrical and electronic engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering", "Mechanical engineering, Mechanical Engineering" and "Chemical engineering, Chemical Engineering" were ranked in the global top 100, while "Materials science, Material Science", "Engineering", "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology", "Energy and Fuels", "Computer science, Computer Science", "Condensed matter physics, Condensed Matter Physics", "Physical chemistry, Physical Chemistry" and "Optics" were placed in the global top 300 according to the same ranking. In 2020, the Times Higher Education ranked the university within the 801-1000 band globally.World University Rankings 2017-2018
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Campus

There are currently two campuses in Shenyang and one campus in Qinhuangdao, Hebei, Hebei province. Northeastern's two campuses in Shenyang are referred to as South Lake Campus and Hunnan Campus. The South Lake Campus in Heping District, Shenyang, Heping District, was built in 1952 and spans . The Hunnan Campus in Hunnan District, was built in 2013 and occupies . The official name of its Qinhuangdao campus is Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao. The campus was built at the Haigang District in 1976 and occupies .

Notable people

Faculty

, the warlord who controlled Northeast China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and instigated the Xi'an Incident, and was President of Northeastern University *

, the "father of modern Chinese architecture", founded the Department of Architecture at Northeastern *

(Phyllis Lin), the first female architect in modern China, taught in the Department of Architecture * Ding Lieyun, management scientist and educator, President of Northeastern University (2011-2014) and elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Liu Jiren - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011

Liu Jiren - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011

Prominent alumni

* Liu Jiren '80, computer scientist and CEO of Neusoft, Neusoft Group (an acronym of "Northeastern University Software"), the largest IT and software outsourcing corporation in China * Bo Yang, author and dissident of the Kuomintang dictatorship during Taiwan's White Terror (Taiwan), White Terror period, and founder of Amnesty International in Taiwan * Liu Changchun, sprinter who was the first athlete to represent China (as the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China) in the Olympic Games during the 1932 Summer Olympics * Shan Tianfang, famous Chinese ''pingshu'' performer and member of the China Society for Literature Popular Research * Guo Xiaochuan, Chinese poet and communist Eighth Route Army soldier considered a leading figure in the "political lyric poetry" style

References

External links

Northeastern University of China (Official website)
{{authority control Northeastern University (China), Educational institutions established in 1923 Project 211 Project 985 Universities and colleges in Shenyang 1923 establishments in China