General Information

Nanchang University (NCU) is a comprehensive university listed among the “the World First-class Disciplines” in the “Double First-Class” Initiative of China. NCU, as a whole, falls into the category of First-Class Universities Construction Project of Jiangxi Province. Located in Nanchang, the City of Heroes, NCU consists of 3 campuses which are Qian-Hu main campus, Qingshan-Hu campus and Dong-Hu campus. Among them, the Qian-Hu main campus covers an area of more than 288 hectares and a building area of 1.5 million square meters.

The history of NCU dates back to Jiangxi Medical College, Jiangxi University and Jiangxi Industrial University which were originated from Jiangxi Public Medical College, National Chung-cheng University and Jiangxi Industrial College founded in 1921, 1940 and 1958 respectively. In 1993, Jiangxi University merged with Jiangxi Industrial University to form Nanchang University, a decision made by Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government. In 1997, Nanchang University was included in the national “211 Project” key construction universities by the Ministry of Education. In 2004, it became a university jointly constructed by the Ministry of Education and the People’s Government of Jiangxi Province. In 2005, NCU and Jiangxi Medical College merged to form the new NCU. Over the years, leadership of Central Party Committee and Central Government, the Ministry of Education, Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the People’s Government of Jiangxi Province have attached great importance to the construction and development of NCU. “Nanchang University has unlimited prospects”, President Xi Jinping said when he first visited NCU in October 2008. In February 2016, President Xi visited Nanchang University again and delivered an important speech on the roles of universities played in scientific research innovation and talent cultivation. President Xi encouraged NCU to take a development path of innovation and motivated the students to cherish time and fulfill dreams.  

In 2017, the university entered the ranks of the national “Double First-Class” universities, with world-class disciplines. In 2018, the university became a high-level institution jointly constructed by the Ministry of Education and the People’s Government of Jiangxi Province. In February 2021, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and Long-Term Goals for 2035 of Jiangxi Province” explicitly stated the goal of “mobilizing the entire province to run Nanchang University well and strive to make it enter the ranks of world-class universities.”

The university currently has 42 teaching institutions and 91 majors enrolling undergraduate students, covering 13 disciplinary categories. NCU boasts 18 postdoctoral scientific research stations and a total of 22 disciplines have been authorized by the state to grant doctoral degrees, 3 disciplines to grant professional doctoral degrees, 49 disciplines to grant master’s degrees and 35 disciplines to grant master’s professional degrees. NCU has 5 affiliated hospitals, and 9 national clinical key specialist disciplines. The subject of Materials and Engineering was selected as a national “Double-First-Class” construction subject. Six disciplines were selected as provincial first-class disciplines. 14 subjects rank among the first 1% of ESI in the world, among which the subject of Food Science and Engineering ranks among the first 0.369‰. The food science discipline ranks 7th in the “US News Best Global Universities Rankings”.

The main campus of NCU has 4,274 staff members (2,680 are full-time teachers, and 1,600 of them have titles of professors or associate professors). The university has a total of 117 national-level talents, including three academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, two academician candidate of CAS, two academician of the International Academy of Food Science, nine recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and ten recipients of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars. It boasts two members of the discipline review group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, two national-level teaching teams, and two pilot construction sites of virtual teaching and research. In recent years, a batch of advanced groups and models with professional ethics and dedication to the fostering of virtue through education has sprung up in NCU. For example, National Silicon-Based LED Engineering Technology Research Center as the Advanced Collective in the National Education System, Engineering Mechanics Experiment Center as the Pioneer of National Workers, the team of teachers in the major of Food Science and Engineering as the Advanced Collective of Huang Danian-Style Team of Teachers in National Colleges and Universities, three people as national outstanding members of the Communist Party of China, two were awarded the title of “National Advanced Individuals in Fighting Against the COVID-19 Pandemic”, one as the winner of the Florence Nightingale Medal (the highest honor award in the international nursing field; Our university has produced a group of exemplary individuals represented by Jiang Fengyi, Xie Mingyong, Zhang Wei, Zhu Xingen, and Zou Defeng, who embody dedication to their work and the cultivation of moral character and Wang Yu, Model Teacher in Jiangxi Province, and Shi Qiujie as the “motherly doctoral supervisor”, who represents the “four loves” spirit of NCU teachers (love for CPC and the People’s Republic of Chins, love for one’s career, love for the University as one’s own family, and love students as one’s own children).  

The main campus of NCU has 36,100 full-time undergraduates, among them 1,400 are overseas students or students from Hongkong, Macao SARs and Taiwan, 18,600 graduates of all categories and among them 130 are overseas students or students from the above-mentioned regions. NCU actively promotes the reform of talent-cultivation models, namely the model of top-notch talent cultivation which features “three rules, three transformations, and three combinations”, the model of practical talent cultivation which treasures excellent talents, and the model of inter-disciplinary talent cultivation which is characterized by interdisciplinary integration and fusion. There are four curricula selected into national ideological politics demonstrative curricula, four distinguished teachers and teams into national ideological politics demonstrative curricula, one first prize in the National Exhibition of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Universities, one textbook into the First National Textbooks Construction Award for National Excellent Textbooks, one teacher into Advanced Individuals in National Textbooks Construction, four projects into “university ideological politics high-quality projects”. One office was awarded as National Model Office for University Counselors, one Library of Research on Ideological and Political Work in Universities Nationwide was recognized. NCU has one “National Advanced Grassroots Party Organization,” won two “National Party Building Work Benchmark Faculty”, six “National Party Building Work Model Branches”, two Party branch into Hundred Graduate Model Party Branches in Chinese Colleges and Universities, and three postgraduate students into Hundred Graduate Model Party Members in Chinese Colleges and Universities, and one National Universities “Dual Leaders” Party Branch Secretary Workshop for Teachers. Since its establishment, NCU has cultivated more than 500,000 outstanding talents and made important contributions to the national and local economic construction and social progress.

NCU insists in fostering virtue through education as its foundation, considers talent cultivation as its central task, and maintains teaching as its basis and undergraduate teaching as its priority. NCU adheres to the “Double Ten Thousand” Plan of the Ministry of Education. 59 national first-class undergraduate major construction centers are granted. 53 curricula have been selected as national “first-class curriculum”. NCU has won seven second-prize of national teaching accomplishments for three years in a row. It has obtained approval for five projects under the Ministry of Education’s New Engineering Research and Practice Program, three projects under the Ministry of Education’s New Agricultural Science Research and Reform Practice Program, and five projects under the Ministry of Education’s New Humanities Research and Reform Practice Program. NCU is among the first batch of reform demonstration universities for deepening the innovation and entrepreneurship education. NCU is the master node university of China Education and Research Network (CERNET) in Jiangxi Province, and the only university in Jiangxi Province to participate in the construction for China Next Generation Internet (CNGI). In previous sessions of China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (renamed as China International College Student Innovation Competition in 2023), NCU has won a total of 30 gold medals. One graduate student won the championship at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and also clinched the title at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, breaking the event record.

The university currently has a total of 82 national-level and provincial-level science and technology platforms in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine (excluding affiliated hospitals), among them are one State Key Laboratory, one National Engineering Technology Research Center, two National-Local Joint Engineering Research Centers, one National Demonstration International Science and Technology Cooperation Base, one China-Canada Joint Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (Nanchang), two Innovation Centers co-constructed by the Ministry of Education and Jiangxi Province, one National Demonstration Center for the Application of Gene Detection Technology, two Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Education, five Engineering Research Centers of the Ministry of Education, and one Medical Platform of the Ministry of Education. There are a total of 27 provincial-level and ministerial-level humanities and social science platforms, including one National University Ideological and Political Work Team Training and Study Center and one National Cyberspace Administration Office National Digital Literacy and Skills Training Base, one National Red Tourism and Innovative Development Research Base and 24 provincial key research bases in philosophy and social sciences. NCU has one national-level science and technology zone, one National Intellectual Property Right Information Service Center, one Science and Technology Achievement Transformation and Technology Transfer Base, four national-level engineering practice education centers, two national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, five national experimental teaching demonstrative centers and two state-level college students’ off-campus practical education bases.

Enhancing the coordinated innovation capability, NCU has obtained a batch of original, marked and characteristic scientific research achievements. Professor Jiang Fengyi and his team’s project “silicon substrate high photosynthetic efficiency GaN-based Blue LED” won the first prize for national technological invention in 2015, which was the first time that a local institution of higher education had won the first prize since the prize was established. Since then, the project has won many prizes for its innovative achievements and for its continuous breakthrough of the “bottleneck” problems in the development of China’s LED industry and its boost for Jiangxi Province to build Nanchang Optical Valley. In 2019, among the five achievements of high luminous efficiency yellow LED technology accredited by China Illuminating Engineering Society, NCU has four internationally leading achievements and one internationally advanced achievement. The achievement “Key Technologies and Industrial Application of Fermentation of Fruits and Vegetables with Probiotics” by the team led by Academician Xie Mingyong won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2016. Leveraging the unique agricultural resources in Jiangxi Province, the research in areas such as probiotic fermentation of fruits and vegetables has reached a world-class level and demonstrated exemplary effects. The team also established the first dedicated strain library for fruit and vegetable fermentation in China. The Ordered Matter Science Research Center of NCU has made new breakthroughs in the field of ferroelectric chemistry and has published papers in high-quality journals such as Science. The Center was awarded the first prize in the Natural Science Award in the category of the Excellent Scientific Research Achievement Award for Higher Education Institutions in 2022. Additionally, the university’s funding from National Natural Science Foundation projects has exceeded one hundred million yuan for seven consecutive years. Since 2017, the university has been approved for 179 projects funded by the National Social Science Fund, including 7 major projects and 12 key projects. The university has also been included in the first batch of national bases for the transformation and transfer of scientific and technological achievements in higher education institutions. In 2019 and 2020, NCU won the “Advanced Group” in the third-party evaluation of the effectiveness of the national targeted poverty alleviation work. The “Rice and Fishery Project” team served the Rural Revitalization Strategy and won the “China Youth May 4th Medal Group”.

The university attaches great importance to going global in education and has established exchange and cooperation relationships with over 230 universities and research institutions in more than 40 countries and regions. NCU has established Sino-German Research Institute, the Sino-Canada Joint Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (Nanchang), the International Science and Technology Cooperation Base on Food Safety, the International Food Innovation Research Institute, the International Materials Innovation Research Institute, and the first Russian Language Center in Jiangxi Province with Russian partners. The effectiveness and social impact of the cooperative project with Queen Mary University of London, UK, are continuously improving. NCU has co-established 4 Confucius Institutes and 2 Confucius Classrooms in France, Spain and Indonesia, and established a Chinese Language Research Center in Russia. NCU has so broadened the channels of international exchange for students that more than 5,000 students of NCU have joined international exchange programs to study overseas or in Hongkong, Macao SARs and Taiwan in recent years.    

A new journey will usher in new achievements. Standing at a new starting point, Nanchang University adheres to the fundamental principle of moral education and talent cultivation. We strive to further liberate our thinking, clarify our goals, enhance our capabilities, optimize our work style, and consolidate our strength. We will carry out three strategies (empowering NCU with talents, featuring innovation, and integrating industry and education) and strive for the grand goal of building itself into a world-class university with Jiangxi and Chinese characteristics.  

(Updated on March 2024)