Jiangnan University (JU) functions directly under the Ministry of Education，enjoys a preferential status as both a distinguished national key “211 Project” and "985" platform university. Its roots stretch back to its earliest predecessor, San Jiang Normal School which began in 1902, and it became a part of National Central University (later renamed as Nanjing University). In 1952, the department of Food Industry at Nanjing Institute of Technology (now Southeast University) was established from a combination of several related departments of former National Central University, Fudan University, Wuhan University, Zhejiang University and the original Jiangnan University. In 1958, the department was moved to Wuxi and consequently Wuxi Institute of Light Industry was founded. In 1995 it was renamed as Wuxi University of Light Industry. In 2001, approved by the Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University was formed through a merger of Wuxi University of Light Industry, Jiangnan College and Wuxi Normal College. In 2003, Wuxi Campus of Donghua University was incorporated into JU.

Known as the “Pearl of China’s Light Industry Higher Education”, Jiangnan University’s motto is “Learning and Practice to Perfection”. Our objectives are to excel in the field of light industry in order to serve the community, to cultivate talents to become pillars of industry through innovative education, and to build a distinctive research university with distinct features.

The campus of Jiangnan University is located at 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi (Jiangsu Province) at the foot of Xuelang Mountain near the scenic Taihu Lake. Designed with the vision to evolve into an “eco-campus”, Lihu Campus was completed in 2005, covering 213 hectares of land in total, 27 hectares of which is covered by water and 107 hectares by buildings. It was awarded the first prize in campus planning by the Ministry of Education and was among the first batch of “Demonstration Colleges for Energy-Saving Renovation” selected by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Jiangnan University consists of eighteen schools with ten disciplines covering science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, literature, law, economics, management, education and the arts. JU has five post-doctoral research centers, five doctoral degree programs and twenty four master degree programs. JU offers a national key discipline as well as five sub-level national key disciplines. In the third round of national academic discipline assessment, four disciplines were ranked among the top five in each of their respective fields, with Food Science and Engineering defending the first place, Light Industry and Engineering being ranked the second, Designs fourth and Textile Engineering fifth. In addition, four disciplines including Engineering, Agriculture, Biology and Biochemistry, and Chemistry were ranked among the top 1%, according to the latest ESI Global Impact Assessment rankings.

Jiangnan University has established eight national scientific research centers including the State Key Lab of Food Science and Technology and the National Engineering Lab of Food Fermentation Technique and Technology. Since the implementation of China’s Eleventh Five-Year Plan, Jiangnan University has undertaken 2150 national, provincial or ministerial projects which include the specially designated “973 Projects”, “863 Projects”. JU also undertakes both National Key Special Projects and National Key Projects in the fields of Science and Technology. JU receives funding for these initiatives from entities such as the National Natural Science Fund, and has won 392 awards at national, provincial or ministerial level including fifteen State Science and Technology Prizes. In addition, the numbers of patent applications for inventions (1392) and granted patents (451) rank high among China’s intuitions of higher learning and in top 3 at the provincial level.

The faculty consists of 3,096 members including 1,753 full-time teachers, 788 of which are postgraduate supervisors. Of the faculty, 69% are professors or associate professors, 52% hold doctoral degrees, and 28% have had at least one year of overseas training. Jiangnan University boasts a member of the China Academy of Engineering as well as fourteen faculty members supported by the following programs of “One Thousand Talents”, “1000 Youth Experts” and “1000 Global Experts” from Central Organization Department. JU also has 8 professors getting the honor of “Cheung Kong Scholars”, 3 achieving “Outstanding Young Investigator Award”, 6 selected into “New Century Talents Project”, 1 appointed as the chief scientist of “973 Projects” and 3 supported by “Ten Thousand Talents Project”.

The quality of our teaching is highlighted by the success of our researchers: they have won ten national teaching achievement prizes and fifty two provincial teaching achievement prizes. The competition of our students is shown in Challenge Cup for National College Students Contest, and, in recognition of their work, three doctoral candidates won the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations. In 2014, undergraduate enrollment is implemented in 51 programs.

Jiangnan University is committed to the success of our graduates in different areas including securing employment, pursuing further studies, or becoming entrepreneurs. JU has about 80,000 registered students, among which there are approximately 20,000 full-time undergraduates, 7,627 doctoral and master degree candidates and 782 overseas students. The success of our graduates in finding employment (over 95%) and large number of nearly 150,000 alumni (we have established sixty five alumni chapters throughout the world) is giving JU an increasing global reach. Twenty-five percent of graduates also continue with further education. In addition, as one of the first beneficiaries of Jiangsu Entrepreneurship Scheme, JU is contributing to the development of the students’ entrepreneurial skills. Our University Science Park now consists of more than 70 startup enterprises by graduates with survival rate over 70%.

Experience abroad is seen as a key component of the internationalization of education and is thus a current priority of JU. About 18 percent of the undergraduates have been involved in international exchanges and we have been successful in securing funding from the China Scholarship Council for both undergraduates and postgraduate students in recent years. The university has built a network of global contacts in thirty-one countries or regions including 131 universities and research organizations. Furthermore, there are nearly one hundred international and bilateral academic exchanges in Jiangnan University annually. In collaboration with the University of California, Davis, the world’s first Confucius Institute devoted to the Chinese food and beverage culture has been established. In addition to Jiangnan-North American College which was awarded as “Top 10 Sino-Foreign College”, JU has four “Project 111” Talents Introducing Bases under the auspices of Ministry of Education and SAFEA, and four international co-operative laboratories.

In an effort to promote internationalization, the current Deans of the School of Business and the School of Design were chosen from a pool of global applicants and we boast approximately fifty foreign faculty members in total.

In the context of the national expansion of access to education for all, JU remains committed to the identification of especially promising students for enhanced educational opportunities. With this in mind, the Honors School was established in 2009. Jiangnan University also arranged over a thousand part-time jobs for students so as to promote the development of professional cognition and practical capacities as well as to strengthen bonds between the students and the university.

Jiangnan University provides a rich cultural life for our campus community. Through the establishment of a number of museums for fields such as History Science, Wine Technology, Design, Folk Costume, Qian Shaowu Museum of Art, JU achieved selection into the National Educational Union of College Museums. Jiangnan University is dedicated to the promotion of physical activity and healthy living, a key aspect of which is participation in sports. JU boasts high-level baseball and women’s football teams. In the finals of the 9^th National College Student Baseball/Softball Tournament, the baseball team won the High-level section championship.

Jiangnan University has a very close relationship with well-known enterprises in China including COFCO, ICBC Jiangsu Branch, Inner Mongolia Little Lamb Stock Raising S&T Corporation and Zhejiang Wu Fang Zhai Industrial Corporation in more than thirty cities throughout the country. A budget of 380 million yuan has been made available for the school construction “Twelfth Five-Year” project, recently concluded with the municipal government

In the future, Jiangnan University will continue to strive to build an institution of distinction in terms of teaching quality, talent development, flexibility in management mechanisms, all-round service, and campus culture. Our objective is to build an outstanding research university and to cultivate greater numbers of talents to promote national rejuvenation and social progress.