Lanzhou University of Technology is located in Lanzhou,the provincial capital of Gansu Province,China. The city lies on the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Huang He) In an elongated valley and is approximately 30 kilometers in length. Once a significant fortress on China’s historic Silk Road, the city has developed into a major transportation and industrial center.

Lanzhou University of Technology was established in 1919 as anzhou Technical School. In 1958 the school was renamed Lanzhou Polytechnic Institute; and in that same year, after a merger with Gansu Communication College, the Institute was renamed Gansu University of Technology. In 1965, the University expanded it specialty curriculum when three specialties from Northeast Heavy-Machine Building Institute, and one specialty from Beijing Machine-Building Institute became a part of the University. The above specialties were a part of First Machine-Building Industry Ministry of China prior to transfer. Subsequent to the reorganization of the State Council of China in 1998, the University’s administration is under the control of both the central and local government, with the local government having the major responsibility for operation. The University was renamed Lanzhou University of Technology in May of 2003, following approval by the Education Ministry of China.

Lanzhou University of Technology is a comprehensive and well-recognized scientific and technological institution of higher learning. The University has great strength in engineering, a strong foundation in the science fields and excellent programs in liberal arts.

The University is comprised of fifteen of fifteen (15) colleges and departments, forty-two (42) Undergraduate and Specialty programs, twenty-three (23) Masters Degree programs, two (2) Doctorate Degree programs, one (1) National Key lab, five (5) Provincial Engineering Investigation Centers, and thirteen (13) University Enterprise Engineering Investigation Centers.

The University’s administrative and academic staff exceeds 1,900 persons, including 400 professors and associate professors. The University has a total of 22,000 registered students, of which 14,000 are full-time specialty and undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students.

The campus has a land mass area of 700,000 m2 and building area of 400,000 m2. The University’s Library has in excess of 550,000 books and magazines. The Library’s cataloging system is managed automatically with information searching and literature transferring service on the network. A campus computer system with information management and teaching platform is available.

The university promotes quality education for its students and constantly improves its educational and teaching procedures, as well as the quality of its educational system. In so doing, the university uses the principles of “thickening the base, broadening the caliber, and enhancing the quality” when teaching students to master their cognitive skills. As a result, the university has won two national awards for “Excellent Teaching Achievement of Class I”, six awards of Class II, and more than thirty provincial awards for “Excellent Teaching Achievement”.

The university promotes the use of the modern technology, especially information technology, to remodel its traditional specialties and improve the quality of the learning process.

The university is dedicated to the modernization of its administrative system of education, with its evaluation and assessment of educational programs and teaching quality. The evaluation of teaching quality, by students, is an essential part of this system. In all other matters, such as the quality of new freshmen, the organization of and supervision of their studies, and the pursuit of employment after graduation is considered. Implementation of this system assures that the training of the students is basically guaranteed, such that their employers favorably accept them, and their employment rate after graduation is above 96% continuously year after year.

The University’s academic discipline system is based on the instructive idea of “Encouraging the excellent ones, supporting the key ones, reforming the old ones, and helping the newly emerging ones”. The University’s objective is “Building first rate engineering disciplines, consolidating scientific ones, and highlighting the artistic ones”. Further, by strengthening the policy control and environmental creation of the academic disciplines while using the human factor as the core of academic echelon, the key points of the support and investigation base are established.

The University’s “Three-Programs” and the “Three-Funds” have been implemented. The “Three Programs” are: 1] “Key point subsidization program of academic echelon and investigation orientations”, 2] “Training program of excellent young professor”, and 3] “Initiation program of scientific investigation”. The “Three Funds” are: 1] academic exchange fund, 2] patent fund, and 3] publication fund for academic work. On the basis of the programming and funding academic disciplines on campus include: a] computer science and technology, b] development of novel materials and their application technique, c] information technology of manufacturing industry, d] modern control and modern design/manufacturing methods, e] modern enterprise management, and f] human-social science.

The university has 10 academic disciplines of Provincial importance that form an academic system with its own distinctive qualities.

The requirement for “gaining support by contributions” is enhanced by promoting the modernization expansions, development of personnel training, scientific investigations, and social services.

Serving the development of the local economy is a long-term obligation of this university. The University will assist in strengthening the economic structure by forming a scientific and technological system of basic investigations to help advance local industry.

Successfully completing significant transverse projects, establishing substantial investigation bases, refining significant scientific and technological results, and strengthening scientific and technological industries created the University’s developing momentum.

In the past 5 years, the University has completed more than 200 significant projects of national and local scientific and technological investigations, and more than 100 investigation results have been obtained and applied to production, especially in the areas of mechanical, electronic, materials, hydraulic, fluid power, civil, and management engineering. The University has achieved a prominent position at home and an advanced level for similar technologies abroad. The annual income for scientific and technological investigation is 60 millions Yuan. The number of papers published in leading journals and periodicals at home and abroad amounts to 1,000. The number of patent application amounts to approximately 30 annually.

The various investigation bases, such as the national key labs, the provincial engineering investigation centers, and the university-enterprise cooperative technological investigation centers have been set up on campus and collaboration with five areas, within and outside the Province, has been established.

A board of directors composed of university personnel and 80 enterprises and scientific institutes was formed, such that the innovative and creative personnel training base, scientific and technological result transfer base, and engineering investigation center is promoted through the University’s cooperation with local institutions and enterprises. The University provides support for the local economy by assisting with the remodeling of traditional industries, by providing new technology and transferring its results of scientific and technological investigation.

The cultural tradition of the University is promoted, such that a personal educational environment composed of a natural one and a humane one in harmony is being created. A new administrative and operative system where personal education for all is promoted, and the s0pirit of “working hard, realistically, and innovatively” has been put into practice, and the affluent scientific and technological activities have been actively launched on campus.

In recent years, the university has won the title of “National Advanced Institution of Higher Learning in Party Construction and Ideological and Political Activity”, and the title of “National Civilized institution”.

International exchange and cooperation programs are highly valued by Lanzhou University of Technology. The University has successfully established academic cooperation and exchange programs with 30 universities in more than 10countries. These countries include, but are not limited to, the U.S.A., Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and Russia. Over 100 persons annually are either sent abroad as visiting scholars of accepted by the University as visiting scholars. These exchange programs result in cooperative scientific investigation and technological development. Further, for training purposes the University annually sends a significant number of professors and students to colleges and universities in the U.S.A., Russia, and other foreign countries.

To accommodate the demand of social and economic development in China, and to strengthen the development of Western China and Gansu Province, the University insists on the modernization of its educational programs by regularly updating the school’s curriculum, improving personnel training and strengthening the student’s self-development.

The University planned and successfully implemented the development policy for the 20 year “three-stepwise progressing” plan. The first step is the stage of foundation conformity and consolidation up to the year of 2005 (the end of tenth five-year program of the National Government); during this period, the university will advance its position as a scientific and technological institution with outstanding performance and greater influence at home. The second step, is the stage of overall ascent up to the year of 2010 (the middle of eleventh five-year program of the National Government); during this period the university will become a known institution of higher learning at home and publicized as institution that features the development of studies, investigations, and industrial developments. The third step is the stage of overall fast development; during this period the university will step into the rank of universities with a definite international influence and higher academic achievements.