Shandong University of Aeronautics (SDUA) is a regular undergraduate university directly under the People’s Government of Shandong Province. It is located in the hometown of the great military strategist Sun Tzu, the old revolutionary base of Bohai, and Binzhou City---the beautiful and prosperous central city of the Yellow River Delta. The predecessor of the university was Beizhen Normal School founded in 1954. In 2004, the school was rebuilt as Binzhou University. In 2012 and 2018, the university passed the undergraduate teaching qualification evaluation and review evaluation held by the Ministry of Education of China. In 2021, the university was approved as a master’s degree granting unit and one of the first supporting units for the construction of applied undergraduate universities in Shandong Province. In 2023, the university was renamed as Shandong University of Aeronautics. In 2024, it was approved as a doctoral degree-granting project construction institution.
During the 70-year history of education, the university has fully implemented the Party’s educational policy, promoted the school spirit of “constantly striving for self-improvement, upholding the educational principles and achieving more advantages with own characteristics”, adhered to the school motto of “high virtue, assiduous learning, constant innovation, lofty aspiration”, pursued the school ethos of “true-seeking, meticulous, united and enthusiastic”, insisted on its own characteristics in running schools, served the major needs of the country and industry, liberated the mind, united to strive for progress, made reform and innovation, and pursues excellence, so that the comprehensive strength and overall level have been significantly improved. At present, the university covers an area of nearly1,912 mu (approximately 127.7 hectares), establishes 19 secondary colleges, 3 directly affiliated scientific research institutions, 58 undergraduate majors, and has more than 18500 full-time students enrolled in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country. There are nearly 20,300 full-time regular students ( including over 20,200 undergraduates and 160 postgraduate students).
The university adheres to the principle of fostering virtue through education, persistently using Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to cultivate students’ ideological and moral foundations. It integrates students’ ideological and political education throughout the entire talent cultivation process, and has been approved as a Provincial Model Marxism College and a Provincial First Model Center for Curriculum-Based Ideological and Political Education Research. By deepening the strategy of “introducing, aligning, co-building, and integrating”, the university has established a collaborative talent cultivation mechanism that combines school-enterprise collaboration, industry-education integration, and convergence of science and education. This initiative aims to vigorously cultivate high-quality application-oriented talents and build eight industry-aligned applied discipline clusters: aerospace, ecological and environmental protection, materials and chemical engineering, intelligent manufacturing, information technology, intelligent control, biomedical pharmaceutical,teacher education. The university has 12 national and provincial first-class undergraduate major construction sites, 4 high-level applied professional clusters in Shandong Province, and 8 majors certified in engineering education and teacher training. Additionally, it has secured approval for 44 national and provincial first-class undergraduate courses.The university has established one national practical education base, two provincial innovation pilot zones for applied talent cultivation, three provincial modern industry colleges, four provincial model featured colleges, one provincial elite innovation talent training base and 32 national new engineering research and practice projects and provincial education reform projects.In the past three years, the students have won more than 4200 national awards and 4400 provincial awards in subject competitions, and have established over 400 national and provincial innovation and entrepreneurship training programs.The university has been ranked in the top 300 in national college student competition for three consecutive years and in the top 100 in national new undergraduate college student competition for four consecutive years. The rate of graduate entrance examination and enrollment has remained stable at over 30%, and the high-quality employment rate has remained above 50%. The university has already provided more than 220000 outstanding talents to the country.
The university adheres to discipline-driven development and is in peak discipline construction by enhancing core disciplines. It has established a “one body, two wings and three supports” discipline layout with an applied discipline chain as the main body, serving the aviation discipline group and regional discipline group as the two wings, and the science, information and humanities discipline groups as the three supports. The university focuses on establishing tiered disciplinary structure of aerospace science and technology, transportation engineering, and environmental science and engineering as peak disciplines. It cultivated a high-level applied disciplinary system with engineering as the main bod, coordinated development of arts, sciences, economics, management, education, arts, and distinct aeronautics and regional characteristics. The university establishes 7 provincial-level key disciplines, including applied mathematics and ecology, has 11 master degree authorization points in transportation, resources and environment, digital economy, sports, museology, electronic information, mechanical engineering, materials and chemical engineering, civil engineering and hydraulics, biological and pharmaceutical sciences, and design. Notably, its engineering discipline has entered the top 1% in the ESI global academic rankings.
The university adheres to strengthening the school with talents, has nearly 1200 full-time teachers, including more than 430 teachers with doctor degrees, more than 450 teachers with senior academic titles, more than 550 teachers with “double qualification”, more than 40 high-level talents at or above the provincial level, such as government special experts of the State Council, Mount Taishan scholars, experts with outstanding contributions to the province, famous teachers of the province, and 26 provincial teaching and research teams such as Huang Danian style teacher team, youth innovation team, and has created a high-quality professional teaching team with noble professional ethics, excellent professional skills, reasonable structure and full vitality.
The university adheres to innovation driven development, elaborately develops distinctive research brands such as aerospace and the ecological environment of the Yellow River Delta, and has established 12 provincial or ministerial innovation platforms and 7 university-level innovation platforms in Shandong Province, including Shandong Yellow River Delta Ecological Environment Key Laboratory, Shandong General Aviation Operation and Manufacturing Engineering Research Center, Shandong Aviation Materials and Devices Engineering Technology Research Center, etc. In recent five years, over 60 national projects and 260 provincial or ministerial level projects have been approved with an average annual scientific research funding of nearly 100 million RMB. More than 800 high-level papers have been published in SCI, SSCI, CSSCI, EI, CSCD and Chinese core journals; more than 260 monographs have been published; more than 300 invention patents have been authorized; 7 provincial and ministerial level scientific research achievement awards, 6 important social force awards and National Golden Bridge Award have been achieved, and Shandong Province Technology Transfer Service Institution has been approved.
The university adheres to characteristic development and set up the major of flight technology in 2005, becoming the first local undergraduate institution in China to cultivate pilots, filling the gap in aeronautics higher education in Shandong Province. Currently, the university has 14 secondary colleges aiming at cultivating talents in aeronautics field and offering 52 majors (directions) related to aeronautics such as Flight Technology, Aircraft Design and Engineering, etc. The university has received approval for 12 provincial or ministerial aeronautics - related research innovation platforms, such as the Shandong Province Aeronautics Materials and Components Engineering Research Center. It also possesses 7 industry qualification platforms accredited by the Civil Aviation Administration of China(CAAC), including 141 flight schools, becoming one of the three undergraduate institutions in China with aviation schools. The university has founded an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Research Institute and a UAV Industry Innovation Research Institute to systematically promote the research and development of key core technologies in the low-altitude economy sector. It has jointly set up 149 practice teaching bases with astronautics-related enterprises and conducted “order-based” joint training of astronautics talents with over 30 enterprises. To date, the university has trained more than 8,000 professionals in specialized fields such as aircraft design, aircraft manufacturing, unmanned aircraft systems engineering, flight operations, aircraft maintenance, and flight dispatch, among whom, over 630 pilots have been promoted to aircraft captains, solidifying its position as a nationally significant aerospace talent development base.
The university adheres to openness and integration, focuses on national major strategies such as building a strong transportation country, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin , as well as the needs of the construction of Green, Low-carbon and High-quality Development Pioneer Zone of Shandong Province, has achieved joint construction of the university between Shandong Province and Binzhou City, and deepens the integration of industry and education, science and education, and school-enterprise cooperation. The university has undertaken more than 900 social service projects, signed more than 300 cooperation agreements, had more than 200 cooperative units, and has built more than 70 industry-education-research cooperation bases and platforms. Continuing education has trained more than 60000 talents of various types. The university deepens international exchange and cooperation, establishing friendly cooperative relationships with over 60 universities and educational institutions, obtaining the approval for 2 Sino-foreign cooperative undergraduate education projects and sending more than 100 teachers and students to exchange and study abroad every year.
The university has been highly praised by the Communist Party of China (CPC), the governments and all sectors of society, and has successively won more than 40 honorary titles at provincial level and above, such as “Advanced Unit of National Legal Publicity and Education” “National Green Model Unit” “Advanced Unit of National University Student Apartment Management and Service”, etc. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the General Party Branch of the Flying College of the university won the honorary title of “National Advanced Grass-roots Party Organization” and Ministry of Education of China (MOE) Certified “National Party Building Model College”. The media such as China Education Daily, China Economic Herald, China Civil Aviation Daily, Dazhong Daily, Higher Education Leaders Reference, Xinhua Net, Guangming Net and Dazhong Net have repeatedly reported on the construction and development of the university.