Northwestern Polytechnical University


Northwestern Polytechnical University is a National Key University, directed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China, located in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Double First Class University and is a member of Project 985 and Project 211.
NPU specializes in education and research in the fields of aeronautical, astronautical and marine engineering. As of 2012, NPU had 13,736 graduate students and 14,395 undergraduate students.

History

NPU builds upon the legacies of its three major predecessors.

Northwestern Engineering Institute

In 1938, due to the Japanese invasion of China, many universities in the occupied east evacuated to "Free China" in the western hinterland. Among those that fled to Shaanxi, the National Beiyang Engineering Institute, the Engineering School of Beiping University, the Engineering School of the National Northeastern University, and the Jiaozuo Engineering Institute were combined to form the National Northwestern Engineering Institute in Hanzhong, a city surrounded by mountains. In 1946, after the surrender of Japan, Northwestern Engineering Institute was relocated to the city of Xianyang.

East China Aeronautics Institute

In 1952, to meet the demand for concentrated aeronautics research, the departments of aeronautical engineering of the former National Central University, Jiaotong University and Zhejiang University were relocated to Nanjing and combined to form the East China Aeronautics Institute. This institute was relocated to Xi'an and renamed the Xi'an Aeronautics Institute, which is the second predecessor of the NPU, in 1956.
In 1957, the Northwestern Engineering Institute and the Xi'an Aeronautics Institute were merged to form NPU, which concentrated its research efforts on defense technology for aeronautics, astronautics and marine engineering.

People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Institute

In 1970, due to deteriorating relations with the former USSR, the People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Institute, which was located in Harbin, was disassembled. Many of its departments were relocated from the city near the China-Soviet border; among these, its Department of Aeronautical Engineering was moved to Xi'an and merged with the other two predecessors to form NPU.

Campuses

NPU's campuses comprise about 4.58 km2, with the Youyi Campus, located in Beilin District, Xi'an, comprising about 0.8 km2 and the Chang'an Campus, located in Chang'an District, Xi'an, comprising about 2.6 km2. and the Taicang Campus, located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, comprising about 1.18 km2.

Youyi Campus

The Youyi Campus, often referred as the 'old campus', is divided into three parts: the South, the West and the North by the West Youyi Road and the South Laodong Road. The campus contains education facilities, apartments of teachers and students, stadiums, logistics facilities, a kindergarten and the primary and middle school affiliated with NPU.

Chang'an Campus

The Chang'an Campus, often referred as the 'new campus', is divided into two parts: the East and the West by the Dongxiang Road. This campus contains many newly built administration buildings, school buildings, experiments facilities, sports facilities and so on. It serves as the main base for undergraduate education of NPU.

Taicang Campus

The Taicang Campus，located at the border between Suzhou and Shanghai，is currently under construction and will start to run in September 2021. This campus will contain 10 schools including School of Artificial Intelligence, School of Flexible Electronics, School of Business etc. It will serve around 10,000 students.

Infrastructure development

NPU is building or going to build more facilities on both of these two campuses. Supported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the former Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, NPU has received a 1.58 billion CNY investment in infrastructure constructions from the central government and there're more than 20 construction projects running currently including the Material Science Building, the Innovation Science and Technology Building, the Reconstruction of Dangerous and Old Apartments after the earthquake, the #1 Student Apartment in the Youyi Campus and the New Library, Infrastructure Plan I & II, the High-tech Experimental Research Center and others in the Chang'an Campus.

Academics

NPU has a strong research capacity in engineering. It was confirmed as one of the National Key Universities by the State Council in 1960. In the 7th and 8th Five-year plan, NPU was listed as one of the 15 National Key Developing Universities. In the 9th Five-year plan, NPU joined the Project 211. And, in the 10th Five-year plan, NPU joined the Project 985.
Since its establishment, NPU has educated more than 150,000 high level technicians and researchers for China's defense industry and national economy development. The first PhD from 6 disciplines in China was graduated from NPU. And, among NPU's alumni, there are more than 30 fellows of the CAS and the CAE, 30 generals in PLA and 6 recipients of China's TOP 10 Outstanding Youth Elite.

Funding

The university's research funding has been continually rising every year. It reached 1.67 billion RMB in 2010, ranking 5th among all universities in China with funding per faculty member ranked 1st. And, in 2011, it reached 1.91 billion RMB.

Rankings

In 2019, NPU ranked 27th in the Chinese university ranking, the most famous ranking in China. And, NPU's engineering ranked the 10th among China's engineering universities.
According to the results of the 3rd Evaluation of Disciplines by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the ranks of parts of NPU's disciplines are shown below.
DisciplineRank
Material Science and Engineering3
Aeronautical and Astronautical Science and Technology1
Armament Science and Technology3
Marine Science and Application5
Dynamics7
Computer Science and Technology12
Mechanics Engineering14
Control Science and Engineering14
Transportation Engineering15
Electronic Science and Engineering17
Instrument Science and Technology18
Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics18
Information and Communication Engineering20
Electrical Engineering23
BiomedicalEngineering23
Optical Engineering24
Architecture26
Mathematics36
Chemistry39
Civil Engineering46
Business Administration50
Foreign Languages and Literatures52
Public Management55
Applied Economics58
Biology64
Marxist Theory69
Laws72

Laboratories

The University has 7 State Key Laboratories and 28 Province/Ministry-level Key Laboratories. Only the State Key Laboratories are listed below. These labs often specialize in particular areas of academic research and receive government funding:
NameSupporting School
State Key Laboratory of Solidification ProcessingSchool of Materials Science and Engineering
State Key Laboratory of Airfoil, Cascade AerodynamicsSchool of Aeronautics & School of Power and Energy
State Key Laboratory of Torpedo Guidance TechnologySchool of Marine Technology
State Key Laboratory of Heat Structure and Inner Flow Field of Combustion of Solid Rocket MotorSchool of Astronautics
State Key Laboratory of UAV Special TechnologyInstitute of National Defense
State Key Laboratory of Superhigh Temperature Structural Composite MaterialsSchool of Materials Science and Engineering
State Key Laboratory of Space Flight Dynamics TechnologySchool of Astronautics

Organization

Education Experimental School

The Education Experimental School is the college with special honors in NPU. Its predecessor is the Education Reform Class established in 1985 which was upgraded to the current school in 2001. The aim of this school is to provide the most elite students of NPU with the best resources so that they can become future leaders in their fields.

Academic schools

NPU has 15 academic schools, 1 educational experimental school, 1 independent school and some other administrative schools. The university offers 58 undergraduate programs, 117 master programs, 67 doctorate programs and 14 postdoctoral programs. Currently, there are 2 First-level National Key Disciplines, 7 Second-level National Key Disciplines, 2 National Key Disciplines, 21 First-level Disciplines for Doctorate Degree Granting and 31 First-level Disciplines for master's degree Granting. Additionally, NPU has 7 State Key Laboratories, 28 Province/Ministry-level Key Laboratories and 19 Province/Ministry-level Engineering Research Centers.
The 15 academic schools of NPU are listed here in the official order.

  16. Other schools

Besides the 15 major academic schools and the education experimental school, NPU has other schools or institutes. They are:

Innovation Study Base

The Innovation Study Base, directed by the Dean's Office of NPU, consists of multiple student competition programs including NPU's university team of Football Robotics, Dancing Robotics, Model United Nations, Mathematical Modeling, Model Airplanes and so on. In the 11th Five-year plan, NPU students won more than 1,400 awards at the international, state and provincial levels including 54 1st or 2nd place international level award and 147 1st or 2nd national level award.

Student Club Center

The Student Club Center, directed by the Communist Youth League of NPU, serves all university-level student clubs. The center helps to organize and supervise student activities on the campus and acts like a bridge between the administration and students' clubs.

Affiliated secondary school

Notable alumni

Malaysia