Introduction

Shandong University of Technology (SDUT), founded in 1956, is now a provincial key university of science and engineering fully-supported by the Government of Shandong Province. The campus is located in Zibo, the time-honored cradle of Qi Culture. At state level, SDUT is ranking among the National Pilot Institutions of Education Innovation, of the first state-level members of “Outstanding Engineers’ Educating & Training Project”, of College English Reform, of Education Informatization and the National Educational Bases of University Students’ KAB Entrepreneurship Education. At the provincial level, SDUT proudly sees itself ranking among the Pilot Institutions of “Application-Oriented Education Distinctive Schools” and among the first pilot universities of Scientific Research System Reform of Shandong Province.

SDUT has 25 colleges, 13 research institutes, and 1 post-doctoral research center in mechanical engineering. There are 4 authorized first-rate disciplines conferring doctoral degrees, 26 authorized first-rate disciplines conferring master degrees, and 4 authorized second-rate disciplines conferring master degrees. Among them, discipline of Agricultural Engineering was honored as one of the first-class disciplines supported by Shandong Province. There are 15 engineering disciplines and 4 agricultural disciplines conferring master degrees. SDUT also confers Master of Finance (MF), Master of International Business (MIB), Master of Interpreting and Translation (MTI), Master of business Administration (MBA) and Master of Fine Arts (MFA). There are currently 70 undergraduate disciplines which are subdivisions of 9 general disciplines, namely engineering, science, economics, management, literature, law, art, history and education. A discipline layout focusing on engineering with other disciplines developing coordinately is gradually taking shape in SDUT. At present, its full-time undergraduate student population totals up to nearly 33,300, and graduates nearly 2,900.

SDUT is competitive in its hardware facilities and its environment. Adhering to principles of “high starting-point, high quality and high grade” and upholding goals of “Ecologicalization, Gardenization, Digitalization, and Humanization”, SDUT has been increasing its investment continuously to improve its “hardware”. With lush trees and flowers everywhere, with green grasslands here and there, the 240 hectare SDUT campus is so pleasant and elegant that it is considered a good example of harmony between human and nature. Building area of SDUT is 1,054,700 square meters and there are 298 multimedia classrooms. With 164,000 square-meter of playground area, SDUT provides well-equipped facilities for its students. Its library has a collection of 3.22 million books, 3.52 million e-books, and more than 24,000 Chinese and foreign periodicals (electronic journals included). Total value of teaching and research facilities of SDUT add up to ￥475 million. The university is home to 21 laboratories supported by the central and local governments, 4 national education centers for engineering practice,1 national and 3 provincial demonstration centers for experimental teaching, 1 national virtual teaching center for simulation experiment, 20 laboratory centers for backbone discipline teaching and a national vocational education teacher training center. Network is available all over the campus. SDUT is also home to public service platforms such as education technology center and analysis & testing center.

As to its software, SDUT has always been attaching great importance to personnel. It made and is now carrying out “High-level Personnel Priority” Strategy. Faculty cultivation is always treated as primary task. “Attracting talents, building teams, cultivating masters” is the guideline of personnel policies. SDUT not only recruits but also cultivates special personnel to build its well-constructed, dedicated high-level faculty teams. SDUT now has 2,016 teachers, including 229 professors and 671 associate professors, among whom 786 are doctors. Among the teachers, 5 are double-hired academicians, 4 are “Thousand Talents Program” experts, 2 are “Ten Thousand Talents Program” leading talents, 2 are “Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions to the Country”, 4 are national “New Century Talents Project” Candidates. Apart from this, 16 teachers get “Special Allowance from the State Council”; 1 top talent is from “One Case, One Discussion” Program of Shandong Province; 1 is from “Hundred Talents Program” of Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2 are from the “Program of New Century Excellent Talents in University” by Ministry of Education of China; 12 professors are respectively granted with the titles of “Mount Tai Scholars”; 20 are “Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions for Shandong”; 31 are “Distinguished Professors” of SDUT and 12 are Distinguished Teachers of Shandong Province”.

Teaching is always the focus of SDUT, which can be proved by facts that education and teaching reforms are always promoted and encouraged, that innovation in education-modes is always taking place and that high-level professionals with expertise, social responsibility, innovative spirit, practical ability and mental and physical health is always the core of SDUT teaching practice. SDUT is always stressing the importance of cultivating majors, disciplines and its faculty: the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” has seen the university win 50 provincial teaching performence awards, 3 second prizes of national teaching performance, 2 national teaching teams and 7 provincial teaching teams. There are 5 national and 14 provincial specialty disciplines, 8 provincial high-level application-oriented pilot discipline groups, 5 state-level featured majors, 3 state-level resource-sharing featured courses, and 1 national bilingual exemplary course, 56 provincial quality courses, 15 quality textbooks of Shandong Province, 32 national planning textbooks. SDUT emphasized its reform of innovation and entrepreneurship education by implementing its training plans for its students’ research and innovation, for entrepreneurship cultivation and for innovative and entrepreneurial talents. As a result, the innovative spirit, entrepreneurial awareness, and innovative entrepreneurial practice ability of SDUT students have been improved dramatically. The Dahonglu Maker Space has been awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology as one of “National Registered Maker Spaces” and one of  entrepreneurship incubation demonstration bases of Shandong Province. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, more than 7,000 awards have been won in various competitions, namely “Internet Plus”, “Challenge Cup”, “Creating Youth”, National College Students Mathematical Modeling, ACM International College Student Programming and among which, over 2,300 awards are international or state awards. Thanks to the fairly high rate and quality of its graduates’ employment, SDUT has been entitled as one of the Outstanding Organizations of General University Graduates Employment of Shandong Province. Postgraduate education in SDUT is also undergoing profound reform and consequently it has qualified itself to recommend its undergraduates for graduate study without taking entrance examination. What’s more, it has 18 provincial graduate bases for graduate collaborative teaching. It also has been entitled as one of the Outstanding  Institutions of Postgraduate Education Management and Discipline Development of Shandong Province.