Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU; ) is a national key

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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 ...

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The university is funded by the

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the Chinese government, established in March 2008, is the state agency of the People's Republic of China responsible for regulation and development of the postal service, Internet, wireles ...

. The university is a Chinese national Class A Double First Class University. It is also a member of the former Project 985 and

Project 211 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 ...

. NPU specializes in education and research in the fields of aeronautical, astronautical and marine engineering. As of 2012, NPU had 13,736 graduate students (3,063 full-time doctorate candidates, 7,087 master candidates, 3,586 professional degree candidates) and 14,395 undergraduate students. As of 2021, Northwestern Polytechnical University was listed as one of the top 450 universities in both the

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking.

History

NPU builds upon the legacies of its three major predecessors.

Northwestern Engineering Institute

In 1938, due to the

Japanese invasion of China The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific The ...

, many universities in the occupied east evacuated to "Free China" in the western hinterland. Among those that fled to

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...

, the National Beiyang Engineering Institute, the Engineering School of Beiping University, the Engineering School of the National Northeastern University, and the (private) Jiaozuo Engineering Institute were combined to form the National Northwestern Engineering Institute in

Hanzhong Hanzhong (; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gansu to the west. The founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, was once enfeoffed as ...

, a city surrounded by mountains. In 1946, after the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Na ...

, Northwestern Engineering Institute was relocated to the city of

Xianyang Xianyang () is a prefecture-level city in central Shaanxi province, situated on the Wei River a few kilometers upstream (west) from the provincial capital of Xi'an. Once the capital of the Qin dynasty, it is now integrated into the Xi'an m ...

East China Aeronautics Institute

In 1952, to meet the demand for concentrated aeronautics research, the departments of aeronautical engineering of the former

National Central University National Central University (NCU, ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Kwet-li̍p Chung-yong Thài-ho̍k'', Wade–Giles: ''Kuo2 Li4 Chung Yang Ta4 Hsüeh2'' or ''中大'', ''Chung-ta'') is a public research university with long-standing traditions based in Taiw ...

(later known as

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xian ...

), Jiaotong University and

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a National university, national public university, public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigiou ...

were relocated to

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

and combined to form the

East China Aeronautics Institute Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU; ) is a national key public research university in Xi'an, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The university is a Chinese national Class A Do ...

. This institute was relocated to Xi'an and renamed the

Xi'an Aeronautics Institute Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU; ) is a national key public research university in Xi'an, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The university is a Chinese national Class A Do ...

, which is the second predecessor of the NPU, in 1956. In 1957, the Northwestern Engineering Institute and the

were merged to form NPU, which concentrated its research efforts on defense technology for aeronautics, astronautics and marine engineering.

People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Institute

In 1970, due to deteriorating relations with the former

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

, the People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Institute, which was located in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest c ...

, was disassembled. Many of its departments were relocated from the city near the China-Soviet border; among these, its Department of Aeronautical Engineering (the third predecessor of NPU) was moved to Xi'an and merged with the other two predecessors to form NPU.

Campuses

NPU's campuses comprise about 4.58 km², with the Youyi Campus, located in Beilin District, Xi'an, comprising about 0.8 km² and the Chang'an Campus, located in Chang'an District, Xi'an, comprising about 2.6 km². and the Taicang Campus, located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, comprising about 1.18 km².

Youyi Campus

The Youyi Campus, often referred as the 'old campus', is divided into three parts: the South, the West and the North by the West Youyi Road and the South Laodong Road. The campus contains education facilities, apartments of teachers and students, stadiums, logistics facilities, a kindergarten and the primary and middle school affiliated with NPU.

Chang'an Campus

The Chang'an Campus, often referred as the 'new campus', is divided into two parts: the East and the West by the Dongxiang Road. This campus contains many newly built administration buildings, school buildings, experiments facilities, sports facilities and so on. It serves as the main base for undergraduate education of NPU.

Taicang Campus

The Taicang Campus，located at the border between Suzhou and Shanghai，is currently under construction and will start to run in September 2021. This campus will contain 10 schools including School of Artificial Intelligence, School of Flexible Electronics, School of Business etc. It will serve around 10,000 students.

Infrastructure development

NPU is building or going to build more facilities on both of these two campuses. Supported by the

and the former Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, NPU has received a 1.58 billion CNY (US$252.8 million) investment in infrastructure constructions from the central government and there're more than 20 construction projects running currently including the Material Science Building, the Innovation Science and Technology Building, the Reconstruction of Dangerous and Old Apartments after the earthquake, the #1 Student Apartment in the Youyi Campus and the New Library, Infrastructure Plan I & II, the High-tech Experimental Research Center and others in the Chang'an Campus.

Academics

NPU has a strong research capacity in engineering. It was confirmed as one of the

National Key Universities National Key Universities () previously referred to universities recognized as prestigious and which received a high level of support from the central government of the People's Republic of China. The term is no longer in official use by 1990s. Th ...

by the State Council in 1960. In the seventh and eighth Five-year plan, NPU was listed as one of the 15 National Key Developing Universities. In the ninth Five-year plan, NPU joined the

. And, in the tenth Five-year plan, NPU joined the Project 985. Since its establishment, NPU has educated more than 150,000 high level technicians and researchers for China's defense industry and national economy development. The first PhD from 6 disciplines in China was graduated from NPU. And, among NPU's alumni, there are more than 30 fellows of the

CAS Cas may refer to: * Caș, a type of cheese made in Romania * ' (1886–) Czech magazine associated with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk * '' Čas'' (19 April 1945–February 1948), the official, daily newspaper of the Democratic Party of Slovakia * ''CA ...

and the CAE, 30 generals in

PLA PLA may refer to: Organizations Politics and military * People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party * People's Liberation Army (disambiguation) ** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called t ...

and 6 recipients of China's TOP 10 Outstanding Youth Elite. NPU is one of the Seven Sons of National Defence.

Funding

The university's research funding has been continually rising every year. It reached 1.67 billion RMB in 2010 (US$0.26 billion), ranking fifth among all universities in China with funding per faculty member ranked first. And, in 2011, it reached 1.91 billion RMB.

Rankings and reputation

As of 2021, Northwestern Polytechnical University was listed as one of the world's top 450th universities in both the

and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking. As of 2022, NPU ranked 25th in the Best Chinese Universities Ranking compiled by Shanghai Ruanke. And, NPU's engineering ranked the tenth among China's engineering universities. According to the results of the third Evaluation of Disciplines by the

Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China is a cabinet-level department under the State Council responsible for basic education, vocational education, higher education, and other educational affairs across the country. The Mi ...

, the ranks of parts of NPU's disciplines are shown below.

Laboratories

The university has seven

State Key Laboratories The State Key Laboratories () is strong group of university and research institution laboratories receiving funding and administrative support from the central government of the People's Republic of China. These labs often specialize in areas su ...

and 28 Province/Ministry-level Key Laboratories. Only the

are listed below. These labs often specialize in particular areas of academic research and receive government funding: * Materials science *

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

Information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

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 ...

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

Organization

Education Experimental School

The Education Experimental School is the college with special honors in NPU. Its predecessor is the Education Reform Class established in 1985 which was upgraded to the current school in 2001. The aim of this school is to provide the most elite students of NPU with the best resources so that they can become future leaders in their fields.

Academic schools

NPU has 15 academic schools, 1 educational experimental school( known a
Honors College
, 1 independent school and some other administrative schools. The university offers 58 undergraduate programs, 117 master programs, 67 doctorate programs and 14 postdoctoral programs. Currently, there are 2 First-level National Key Disciplines, 7 Second-level National Key Disciplines, 2 National Key (to cultivate) Disciplines, 21 First-level Disciplines for Doctorate Degree Granting and 31 First-level Disciplines for master's degree Granting. Additionally, NPU has 7

, 28 Province/Ministry-level Key Laboratories and 19 Province/Ministry-level Engineering Research Centers. The 15 academic schools of NPU are listed here in the official order. #School of Aeronautics #School of Astronautics #School of Marine Science and Technology #School of Materials Science and Engineering #School of Mechanical Engineering #School of Mechanics, Civil Engineering and Architecture #School of Power and Energy #School of Electronics and Information #School of Automation #School of Computer Science and Technology #School of Science #School of Management #School of Humanities, Economics and Law #School of Software and Microelectronics #School of Life Science #School of Foreign Languages

Other schools

Besides the 15 major academic schools and the education experimental school, NPU has other schools or institutes. They are: * Engineering Practice Exercise Center * Physical Education Department * Continuing Education School * Internet Education School * International College * National Secrecy School * Mingde College (independent)

Student life

Innovation Study Base

The Innovation Study Base, directed by the Dean's Office of NPU, consists of multiple student competition programs including NPU's university team of Football Robotics, Dancing Robotics, Model United Nations, Mathematical Modeling, Model Airplanes and so on. In the 11th Five-year plan, NPU students won more than 1,400 awards at the international, state and provincial levels including 54 first or second place international level award and 147 first or second national level award.

Student Club Center

The Student Club Center, directed by the

Communist Youth League The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...

of NPU, serves all university-level student clubs. The center helps to organize and supervise student activities on the campus and acts like a bridge between the administration and students' clubs.

Affiliated secondary school

Notable alumni

* Wu Yi – Former Vice Premier of the

State Council of the People's Republic of China The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the pr ...

* Hao Peng –

Party Committee Secretary A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC); former Governor of

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

province * Zhang Qingwei – Communist Party Secretary of

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...

province; former Governor of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

province * Yang Wei – president of

, aircraft designer in 611 * Yuan-Cheng Fung – graduate from department of Engineering of National Central University (

, Present), which is one of the predecessors of Northwestern Polytechnical University * Jasen Wang - Founder and CEO of Makeblock

Notable faculty members

* Hu Peiquan, Founder of the Department of Engineering Mechanics and the ''Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical University'' *

Chuah Hean Teik Chuah Hean Teik PSM, DSPN () is a Malaysian eminent scholar, researcher, academic and industry leader. He has been the President and CEO of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia from April 2008 until September 2019. He is currentl ...

, Consultant Professor to Northwestern Polytechnical University and Former President cum CEO of

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (abbreviated as UTAR; ) is a non-profit private research university in Malaysia. It is ranked top 100 in the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2018 and top 1200 in the Times Higher Education Wor ...

References

External links

Official website

Official website

Non-Official Communities of Northwestern Polytechnical University
{{Authority control Project 211 Project 985 Vice-ministerial universities in China