Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China with an outstanding international reputation. It is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education and co-built with the support of Shanghai Municipality. After 121 years of unremitting efforts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has become a first-class, internationally renowned university that is “comprehensive, research-oriented, and global.”

In the late 19th century, following China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and amid national crisis, Sheng Xuanhuai, a renowned industrialist and educator of modern China, along with a group of visionary individuals, founded the predecessor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University—Nanyang Public School—in Shanghai in 1896, upholding the belief that “self-strengthening begins with nurturing talent, and nurturing talent must start with establishing schools.” From its inception, the university adhered to the principle of “pursuing practical knowledge and focusing on industry,” aiming to cultivate “first-class talent.” Through diligence and perseverance, it became a renowned institution of higher learning in China during the 1920s and 1930s and was hailed as the “MIT of the East.” During the Anti-Japanese War, faculty and students endured great hardships, relocating to the foreign concessions and later inland to Chongqing, yet they persevered in running the university. Many students put down their pens and joined the military, fighting bravely on the battlefield. On the eve of liberation, the university community actively participated in the democratic revolution, earning the reputation of being a “bastion of democracy.”

In the early years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, to meet the needs of national economic development, the university reallocated a significant portion of its top programs, faculty, and equipment to support the growth of other institutions across the country. In the mid-1950s, in response to the nation’s call to develop the northwest, and according to a State Council decision, part of the university relocated to Xi’an, splitting into the Shanghai and Xi’an branches of Jiao Tong University. In March 1959, both branches were designated as national key universities, and in July, they were approved by the State Council to operate independently. The Shanghai branch adopted the name “Shanghai Jiao Tong University.” Through changes such as the westward relocation, dual-campus operations, and independent governance, the university made significant contributions to building China’s higher education system and advancing socialist construction. During the 1960s and 1970s, the university came under the administration of the National Defense Science, Technology and Industry Commission and the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building, actively engaging in national defense talent cultivation and research. It made tremendous contributions to the development of “Two Bombs, One Satellite” and the modernization of national defense.

Address: 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, Postal Code: 200240, Tel: 86-21-54740000