Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.

SJTU was founded as Nanyang Public School in 1896. It was merged into Jiao Tong University in 1921, before gaining its current name in 1959. The university currently has 33 schools, 12 affiliated hospitals, 2 affiliated medical research institutes, 23 directly affiliated units, and 5 directly affiliated enterprises.

Public School to Industrial School
Nanyang Public School was founded in 1896, making it one of the earliest universities in China. Sheng Xuanhuai requested the Qing government open the school in October. The proposal was approved by the Guangxu Emperor in December, and Sheng became the school’s first president. As a member of Westernization Movement, Sheng aimed to weaken the imperial examination while promoting a Western academic model and a more practical approach to education. The university initially focused on business and political sciences to support the country’s development and the Self-Strengthening Movement.

In 1905, Nanyang Public School was transferred to the Ministry of Commerce and renamed High Industrial School. In 1907, it was handed to the Ministry of Posts and Communications and renamed Shanghai High Industrial School of the Postal Transmission Department. It was known as Grand Nanyang University from 1911 to 1912. After the Republic of China was established in 1912, it was transferred to the Ministry of Communications and renamed the Shanghai Special Industrial School.

Tang Wenzhi was the school’s president from 1907 to 1920. During this period, the school organized its curriculum based on Western engineering higher education. The school expanded its civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering programs and introduced a 4-year traffic management program as well as new industrial economy and factory management courses. Moreover, specialized coursework replaced general education requirements, and experiments and practice were prioritized in the curriculum.

From 1908 to 1920, foreign instructors, largely Americans, accounted for about half of the school's faculty in the disciplinary specialities, with American academics leading both the Departments of Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering, as the university lacked qualified faculty. However, in the 1920s, many returned student-educators replaced their foreign counterparts.

Jiao Tong University
The school was renamed National Chiao Tung University in 1929, and Chiao Tung University  in 1949.

In 1957, the school moved westward and the Jiaotong University was divided into the Shanghai part and the Xi'an part. In 1959, the Shanghai part of Jiaotong University became independent and adopted the name "Shanghai Jiaotong University". In 1999, the then Shanghai Agricultural College was merged into the school.

In 2005, the former Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the former Shanghai Second Medical University merged to establish the new Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In 2023, the university announced that its office of the president had merged into the university's Chinese Communist Party committee, which would directly administer the university henceforth.