Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), which works to be a model for higher education reform in China, set an even higher goal as the young university celebrated its first 10-year milestone anniversary yesterday.
At a conference celebrating its 10th birthday, the newly appointed president Xue Qikun, an academic of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the university will continuously stick to innovation and reform, will target bottleneck technologies, enhance basic research and make breakthroughs in various sectors.
“The biggest advantage of SUSTech is that it is deeply rooted in Shenzhen, a land of reform and innovation,” said Xue at the conference.
By 2025, SUSTech will join the rank of first-class universities in China and be a high-level research-type university in the world. By 2035, it will be among the leading universities in China. In 2035, it plans to be a first-class research-type university of global influence in the world, according to the university’s three-stage development plan.
“In the 30 days since I came to work at the university, I can feel the atmosphere of enterprising spirits have permeated the labs, libraries, and the bilingual international environment,” said Xue.
Over 10 years, SUSTech has developed a unique academic structure with a major focus on science, engineering, medicine and business, and complemented with featured humanities and social sciences. It became a doctorate-awarding institution within six years after establishment and was deemed a high-level STEM university in Guangdong.
It now has more than 1,000 teachers and a total of 7,500 students.
Wang Weizhong, Shenzhen’s Party chief, noted in a speech that SUSTech’s 10-year development elaborated the miracle of Shenzhen.
“Shenzhen takes a great leap forward to reinvent higher education. The development of SUSTech shows the Shenzhen Speed in higher education,” Wang said.
To mark the anniversary, on Thursday SUSTech also inaugurated its Yidan Library, a signature building that was built with funds donated by Chen Yidan, co-founder of Tencent.
The four-story building at SUSTech Center has a floor space of 9,010 square meters. It has about 1,000 seats and features various forms of spaces conducive to learning and other activities for academic purposes.
The university ranked 36th in the world and 1st on the Chinese mainland in the QS Top 50 Under 50 ranking released in October this year.
The QS Top 50 Under 50 ranks universities on key indicators including academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, faculty/student ratio, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio. The university has also been listed in several other important world rankings. Times Higher Education (THE) ranked SUSTech 8th on the Chinese mainland and 33rd in Asia in THE’s Asia University Rankings 2020.