North China University of Technology (NCUT), located on the western side of Beijing, is a multi-disciplinary university that combines the natural sciences and engineering with liberal arts, economics, management and law. Growing out of the former state-run Peking Advanced Vocational School of Technology, founded in1946, NCUT has undergone dramatic changes ever since. In 1978, with the approval of the State Council, NCUT began to offer full undergraduate degree programs. In1985, it was renamed as the North China University of Technology.NCUT targets the development of qualified, high-level, application-oriented professionals with solid basic theoretical knowledge and strong practical skills and creative abilities. The university currently includes 8 colleges with an enrollment of over 10,200 undergraduate students, 1500 graduate students, 200 international students, and 2400 students studying at the College of Continuing Education. Within these colleges there are 32 undergraduate degree programs, 19 Primary Discipline Master Degree programs which focus on academic research with three years study, and 11 Professional Master Programs which focus on practice and application with two years study. NCUT has 1260 faculty and staff, which include 748 teaching faculty of whom 85% hold Master’s and Doctoral degrees.
A quality education is the university’s lifeline. Teaching is a primary focus at NCUT and the center of its activities, while the university also emphasizes the importance of research and the contribution research can make both to the educational environment and to address local and national needs. The undergraduate program offers a full range of undergraduate degrees; there are also numerous graduate degree programs, as well as continuing education programs. The academic education is complemented with moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic training in order to build well-rounded students prepared to meet the challenges of modern society.
To support its on-going research efforts, NCUT has established numerous research institutes, including a Computer Application Institute,Electrical Engineering Institute,Automation Control Institute,Intelligent Traffic Institute,Economic Law Institute,Management Institute, Jurisprudence Institute,Language and Culture Research Center, and an Architecture Design Institute. Professors associated with these institutes undertake many important national and international projects and have achieved national recognition and outstanding awards.
NCUT is also active internationally through over 30 cooperative partnerships and exchanges. Partnerships had been established with universities in the USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Australia and New Zealand and elsewhere. NCUT is qualified to accept international students, who may choose to study in short-term and long-term Chinese language programs or in undergraduate or master degree programs. NCUT students participate in study abroad programs with partner universities through exchange programs or degree-seeking programs.
In athletics, NCUT has award-winning baseball and softball teams. Since 1998, the baseball team has won championships for 5 years and visited Japan in 2000. The Softball team has won 2 championships. In addition, the male basketball team, male volleyball team, and female Ping Pong team have always been in top 3 among universities in Beijing.
The continuing trend toward globalization in higher education challenges NCUT, its faculty, staff, administrators, and students, to become even more attractive to the educational environment, through both teaching and research. The demands of globally competitive job markets, emerging technologies, and human factors demand that NCUT remain at the leading edge of developments in the sciences, technology, the arts, business, and the many other areas in which the university has built its reputation and expertise. The challenge is real but so are the commitment and the resources at NCUT to meet those challenges.