China University of Geosciences (CUG) is a national leading university directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education of P. R. China, and is among the first Universities joining the national “211 Project” which is designed to develop one hundred first-rate universities in the 21st century and in 2006 was also selected as one of the group of pilot universities for the "Platform for National Advanced Disciplines Innovation" program. It was one of the first universities to be entitled to establish state-approved graduate schools. It is renowned for the study of geosciences with 2 national key disciplines: geology,geological resources and geological engineering and at the same time it maintains a balanced program of science, engineering, humanities, management, economics, law, education and philosophy.
CUG(Wuhan) is adjacent to the national high-tech development zone and China Optical Valley, with the scenic East Lake by its side. The university is a member of the National Civilized Units, and one of the best Civilized Units of Hubei Province. In CUG, there is a 4A level national scenic area: Yifu Science and Technology Museum, which is the first and only 4A level national spot among all the Chinese universities in China. The school covers an area of 1,102,003 square meters and a building area of 757,217 square meters. The campus is divided into the east campus, the west campus and the north campus. It is widely accepted that the campus environment is very beautiful, and the academic atmosphere is very strong. With modern teaching buildings, libraries, student apartments and ten thousand Internet computers and other related facilities, CUG provides its students with good learning, living and growing environment.
CUG takes Premier Wen Jiabao’s inscription "hard work and plain living, being pragmatic" as its motto(Premier Wen Jiabao is one of the outstanding alumni of CUG ). On the basis of summing up the experience in education and looking to the future development trends, the school sets up its period and long-term goals: constructing high-level university with first-class Earth Sciences and coordinated development of multi-disciplines as the period goal; and constructing a university with world first-class Earth Sciences as its long-term goal. The university insists on stressing its characteristics, perfecting the discipline system, continuously improving the quality of personnel training, and enhancing the scientific and technological ability for innovation, which provides the intellectual supports for the building of a well-off society in an all-round way, and for the building of a resource-conserving and environmentally-friendly society.
Now CUG (Wuhan) is proud of its teaching and administrative staff of 3150 people. Among them, there are 405 professors and 478 associate professors including 8 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 182 doctoral supervisors, 5 academicians of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, 2 of the Russian Academy of Engineering, 5 professors listed in the “National Talents Project”, 9 professors receiving funds from the “Cheung Kong Scholars” program, 9 winners of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and 13 professors receiving funds from the “ChuTian Scholars” program. In the recent 5 years, 2 national innovation research teams,3 Innovative Research Teams from MOE(Ministry of Education),4 Teaching Teams at State-level, 1 national teaching master, 4 teaching masters of Hubei Province have been added, which shows that CUG has made great progress. In 2008, professor Cheng Qiuming, following professor Zhao Pengda (a professor of CUG, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), became the second Asian that won the Karen Penn Award (the highest award of IAMG).
Nowadays, CUG has 86 research institutes and laboratories, among which there are 2 national key laboratories, one national engineering laboratory, and 17 provincial or ministerial key laboratories, engineering research centers, humanities and social science research base. The school library has a wealth of literature resources, taking scientific and technical literature as the main body, the Earth science literature as the main features of the collection system. With its more than 1,550,000 paper books and more than 650,000 electronic books and 1500 kinds of periodicals on hand for our students, it is an ideal resource. Besides, teachers and students can easily get access to 20 Database in both Chinese and foreign languages.
CUG has a complete personnel training system: Bachelor – Master – Doctor. There are 54,000 students, of which nearly 25,000 full-time students, more than 2,400 part-time professional postgraduate students, 27,000 adult education and online education students, 500 international students.
CUG has been vigorously building its Earth Sciences-oriented discipline system, and actively developing the applied science, the frontier science and new interdisciplinary subjects as information technology, nanometer, material science, biology, energy, environmental protection that are closely related to national economic construction and social development. At present, the University has 8 national key disciplines, 13 provincial or ministerial key disciplines, among which two first-class disciplines, namely, geological resources and geological engineering, and geology, rank the first in China respectively. And now there are 17 schools which offer 60 undergraduate programs. In addition, the school has a national geology science personnel training base and a geology engineering personnel training base which is affiliated to the Ministry of Land and Resources. There are 9 post-doctoral research centers in the school. CUG has been given the authority to award doctoral degree in 13 disciplines (first-class) and to award master degree in 38 disciplines (first-class). Besides, the university has the right to award Professional Degrees in Engineering Master, MBA、MPA、MFA、J.M. etc.
In the past 60 years, CUG has fostered a large number of outstanding graduates. Among them, Premier Wen Jiabao is the representative of the so many management elites; Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of the "Chang E Project", is the representative of 29 academicians; Li Jiulin, chief engineer of the national stadium "Bird's Nest", is the representative of a large number of engineering Wizards. The majority of our graduates are on their own efforts to win honor for the school and provide support for the school. And in the meantime, CUG will also make more prominent contributions to solving the sustainable economic and social development issues and seeking harmonious development between mankind and the earth.