East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), the first higher-learning institution specialized in Chemical Engineering in new China, was founded in 1952. It was among the first to be granted the permission to admit postgraduates in 1956 and was one of the 13 national key universities designated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1960. In June 1996, ECUST was selected into the national key subjects of the "211 Project". Its graduate school was accredited by the Ministry of Education of China in June 2000, and was permitted to construct the Project 985 Innovation Platform in 2008. After over half a century’s efforts, the University has developed itself into a national key research university with distinct characteristics of each discipline and a coordinated development of multiple disciplines.
ECUST has three campuses at present, located respectively in Xuhui District, Jinshan District and Fengxian District. The university has 15 academic schools and another 5 colleges. Academic fields of ECUST cover eleven branches such as science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, law, management, philosophy, economics, arts, history and education, and thirty-eight subjects. The university now is entitled to conform bachelor’s degree in 61 programs, master’s degrees in 121 programs, doctoral degrees in 73 programs, and Master of Engineering' Degrees in 18 programs. It holds programs for MBA, MPA, JM, and MSW (Master of Social Work). Apart from these, it also runs 11 post-doctoral centers. At present, the total number of full time students has reached over 28,331, including 8,750 postgraduates for master's degrees, 1,570 Ph.D. candidates and 18,075 undergraduates. Among its 3,621 staff members, there are more than 1000 professors and associate professors.
ECUST, with the vision of “a university in Shanghai and a university of the world”, has attached great importance to international cooperation and communication, and has established long term collaborations with more than 70 universities, enterprises and research institutes all around the world. A number of prestigious international research universities have become its overseas sister schools, with which it has signed cooperation agreement to promote the exchange among teachers as well as students, and to joint train students. In recent years, ECUST, with more than 1300 international students are studying various programs, enjoys a fast development of international students.
Today, ECUST is moving ahead to build an internationally preeminent, brilliantly characteristic, multi-disciplinary and research-oriented first-class university in the ten years to come.
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