Located in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province and the largest city in central China, Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST) is a key public higher learning institution that operates under the auspices of Hubei Provincial Government and the Ministry of Education of PRC. It is a university accredited with the National Project of Basic Capacity Building for Universities of Western and Central China and the Double First-Class Initiative of Hubei Province.
The University dates back to Hubei Gongyixuetang (Hubei Technical School) founded in 1898 by Zhang Zhidong (1837-1909), viceroy of Huguang Province in China’s late Qing Dynasty. It began offering undergraduate degrees in 1958 upon the establishment of Wuhan Iron and Steel Institute, the University’s forerunner in the modern times. In 1978 and 1998, WUST was authorized by China’s State Council to confer its first master’s and doctoral degrees, respectively. In 1995 the institution was granted university status and renamed Wuhan Yejin (metallurgical) University of Science and Technology when Wuhan Iron and Steel Institute merged with two other colleges also based in Wuhan and existing under the then Ministry of Metallurgy of PRC. The University acquired its current name—Wuhan University of Science and Technology—in 1999 following its handover from China’s Ministry of Metallurgy to the local Hubei Provincial Government for administration.
WUST has three campuses distributed throughout Wuhan, including two in the vicinity of the Yangtze River and a lake, which has earned the University as an ecological garden. WUST’s campuses cover an area of about 1.71 million square meters (422 acres), including a floor space of over 1.23 million square meters (292 acres) for academic and administrative use. The University houses over 2.77 million volumes of books in two main libraries and their branches, a state-of–art information system, and modern facilities in support of the academic and research activities on campus.
WUST claims traditional strengths in engineering and sciences, which are integrated with contemporary popular disciplines such as management, medicine, humanities, economics, law, philosophy, and art. For about 30, 000 full-time students (including over 24,000 undergraduates and about 6,000 postgraduates) hosted by 20 schools, 42 research centers and 1 hospital, WUST now offers a wealth of programs spanning across a broad range of disciplines. They include:
77 undergraduate programs;
171 academic master’s degree programs;
18 professional master’s degree programs;
38 doctoral programs;
8 post-doctorate programs.
Of all its disciplines, WUST has 3 subjects, i.e. Materials and Engineering, ranked top 1% globally by ESI. Its Materials Science and Engineering is also recognized as a national key discipline of minor category. This discipline, along with the Metallurgical and Mining Engineering discipline and the Mechanical Engineering discipline, are designated by Hubei Province for candidacy of first-class disciplines in China.
Currently WUST is the employer of 2,600 including a faculty of over 1,800. Among the faculty there are:
5 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering serving WUST as distinguished professors of adjunct status;
1 Chinese-national member of the Russian Academy of Engineering;
1 scholar accredited with the Changjiang Top Talent Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education of PRC; and
2 scholars accredited with the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.
Thanks to involvement of outstanding international scholars, WUST’s Overseas Expertise Introduction Base for Marine Steel and Its Applications is accredited with the Overseas Expertise Introduction Project for Discipline Innovation sponsored by the Ministry of Education and State Administration for Foreign Experts, PRC. At the local level, WUST has 16 distinguished professors accredited with the 100 Top Talents Project for Innovation and 181 accredited with the Chutian Scholar Project, both of which are sponsored by the Hubei Provincial Government.
WUST attaches great importance to quality assurance in teaching. Testimonials of its excellence in teaching include the students’ continued job placement rate of 94% plus and the faculty’s attainment of 65 national projects of education quality and 4 national teaching awards in recent years. This is further testified by our students’ quantities of awards earned since 2016 at the international level (93), the national level (678), and the ministerial/provincial level (983). Examples of these honors include the Climbers’ world and national championships in FIFA Robo World Cup, the Red Dot Design awards, and the women’s basketball championships in CUBA, CUBS and the National College Sports Games. For these achievements, WUST has been nominated by Ministry of Education of PRC as a National Exemplary University for Reform in Undergraduate Training for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Similarly, WUST is recognized by Hubei Province as one of the first few Provincial Exemplary Bases for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
WUST features cutting-edge research in areas such as metallurgy, materials, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and control technology. It is the home of 29 research centers accredited by the Central Government of China, Hubei Provincial Government, and Wuhan Municipal Government, including:
a state key laboratory (for refractory materials and metallurgy);
a state research center for engineering (for high-temperature materials and lining technology);
a key laboratory accredited by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (for Metallurgical Resources Utilization);
a national university-industry collaborative innovation center.
Since 2016 WUST faculty have undertaken 240 research projects sponsored by national research foundations of strategic importance. These projects have resulted in over 70 awards granted by governments at the national, or ministerial/provincial level and 2,400 publications indexed by SCI, EI and CPCI-S. Our faculty’s most notable achievements are the 13 National Awards for Scientific and Technological Advancement and 5 National Awards for Technological Innovation, the highest research prizes in China recognized annually by the Central Government of China since 2007.
In order to solve real-world problems, WUST has established strong linkages with the industry and the government. It engages over 30 large enterprises such as: China Baowu Steel, Evergrande, An Steel, Liu Steel, China First Metallurgical, WISDRI Engineering and Research, etc. A commendable outcome of this synergetic relationship is the birth of the WUST Baowu-Research Center for Engineering in Carbon Materials, WUST-Yixing Research Institute for Ceramic and Refractory Materials, and WUST Evergrande School of Management. The city governments in China that WUST partners include Yichang, Xiaogan, Huanggang, Suizhou in Hubei Province and Zhanjiang in Guangdong Province, among others.
WUST is proud of its prominent contribution of an outstanding alumni body to China’s diversified walks of life, with the graduates’ job placement rate maintaining 94 per cent in the last five years. Many alumni assume leadership roles in academia, industry, business and government. Examples of outstanding WUST alumni include: members of Chinese Academy of Engineering, central and provincial government leaders, top entrepreneurs, leading members of the National Women’s Team, etc. Most remarkably, WUST has produced a galaxy of technology and management personnel including dozens of CEOs and chief engineers in the country’s 36 major iron and steel companies, for which WUST is rightfully reputed as “the cradle of high profile talents for China’s metallurgical industry.”
In the 1990s WUST emerged as a pioneer in international education in Hubei province when it ran the China-Australia Iron and Steel Training Center and the WUST-RMIT joint education program in international business. Today WUST is engaged in Study Abroad programs that provide pathways for students to further study in partner universities in the US, the UK, Australia, Germany, Austria, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, etc. Currently the University runs four international education programs with the approval of the Ministry of Education of PRC, namely:
BE in Electronic Information in partnership with University of Bridgeport, US;
BE in Mechanical Engineering in partnership with Deakin University, Australia;
BE in Network Engineering, in partnership with Birmingham City University, UK;
M.E. in Computer Science run, in partnership with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.
As well, WUST is a destination of over 300 international students from various countries for pursuit of degree studies from bachelor’s to PhD.
Albeit a leader in many fields, WUST never stops in pursuing its mission through excellence in education, research and service. Its faculty, staff, and students are committed to advancing knowledge in engineering, sciences, and humanities for addressing contemporary issues in the local region, country-wide and the world over.
(Updated as of August 30, 2020)
