Introduction

Shanghai Maritime University (SMU) is a multi-disciplinary university that encompasses such areas as engineering, management, economics, law, liberal arts, and science, with special emphasis on shipping, logistics and ocean. Chinese maritime education originated at Shanghai and grew out of the Shipping Section of Shanghai Industrial College founded in 1909 (towards the end of the Qing Dynasty). SMU was established by the Ministry of Communications in 1959. According to the university layout adjustment in Shanghai, and for better service of construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center, Lingang new campus inaugurated in 2008. On October 20 2019, SMU had celebrated its 110th anniversary.

At present the university runs 3 post-doctoral research stations, 23 doctoral programs, 60 master’s degree programs, 48 bachelor’s degree programs, and 12 associate degree programs. SMU boasts 12 provincial and municipal key research institutes and laboratories, 1 state-level key discipline, 5 state-level specialties with special features, 9 ministerial or municipal key disciplines, and 17 Shanghai municipal “educational heights”. Besides,engineering discipline of SMU has ranked top 1% in ESI ranking across the globe. SMU owns an aquatic training center, the Yufeng Ship, a 10-thousand-ton container ship for teaching and internship training, and a newly-built 48-thousand-ton Yangtze handymax bulk carrier for teaching and internship training ship, named Yuming ship. 

In the MOE evaluation of undergraduate education in 2004, SMU was awarded an “A”(Excellent). Then in 2006 the SMU English-language specialty won another “A” in the MOE assessment. The university has won multiple awards for research including national awards for science and technology projects and awards for scientific and technological progress above the municipal and ministerial level in 2017. 

SMU presently consists of Merchant Marine College, College of Transport and Communications, School of Economics & Management, College of Logistics Engineering (Sino-Dutch Mechanical and Electronic Engineering College), School of Law, College of Information Engineering, College of Foreign Languages, College of Ocean Science and Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, Scientific Research Academy, etc. SMU has over 24,000 full-time students, of whom over 16,500 are undergraduates and over 5,000 are postgraduate students. Of the over 1,200 full-time teachers, 160 are professors and 63 percent hold a doctorate. Over the past decades the university has produced specialists of various types at various levels for the country’s shipping industry. The graduated students are employed in shipping companies, port enterprises and government institutions. Deservedly, SMU has been honored as a “cradle of international shipping specialists”.