In 1952, during restructuring of higher education happened after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the engineering related departments of Nanjing University (stretches back to San Jiang Normal School which founded in 1902 in Nanjing and later renamed National Central University), merging engineering departments of private Jiangnan University and several other engineering departments of universities in east China area, including Fudan University, Wuhan University, Zhejiang University, etc. Later, they formed Nanjing Institute of Technology, now Southeast University in Nanjing.[3]
In 1958, the Department of Food Technology of Nanjing Institute of Technology moved to Wuxi and established Wuxi Institute of Light Industry (无锡轻工业学院) which was named Wuxi University of Light Industry in 1995.
In 2001, Jiangnan University (江南大学) was formed by the combination of Wuxi University of Light Industry (无锡轻工大学), Jiangnan College (江南学院) and Wuxi Education College (无锡教育学院).
Campus
The newly completed university campus covers 208 hectares with floor space of 1.05 million square meters. It is located by Lake Li (蠡湖), an inner lake of Lake Tai and also a national scenic resort in the south of Wuxi. It was designed and built to demonstrate the concept of an "Eco-campus".
Lihu CampusLihu CampusLihu Campus
Schools
Jiangnan University consists of 17 schools and offers 48 undergraduate programs with 9 disciplines including science, engineering, medicine, literature, economics, management, law, education and arts. Jiangnan University has 7 Post-doctoral Research Stations in the fields of Light Industry Technology and Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Chemical Engineering and Technology, Control Science and Engineering, Environment Engineering, Textile Engineering and Design. It is entitled to confer master's degrees in 58 programs, and doctoral degrees in 28 programs.
Southwest:
School of Food Science and Technology
School of Biotechnology
School of Chemical and Material Engineering
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Wuxi School of Medicine
Southeast:
School of Business
School of Law
School of Marxism
School of Foreign Studies
School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science
Northwest:
School of Textile and Clothing
School of Design
School of Internet of Things Engineering (incorporated by School of Communications and Control Engineering and School of Information Engineering)
According to the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities, Jiangnan University ranked 401st-500th among world universities.[6] Jiangnan University is regarded as one of the world's top "Food Science and Technology" research institutions.[7][8][9] As of 2022, the "Food Science and Technology" program was ranked No.1 Globally by the Shanghai Ranking,[8] and URAP ranking,[9] and 3rd in the world by the U.S. News Rankings.[7]
Research
The school has devoted itself to the mission of making China an innovation-driven country. The school has taken a leadership role in founding the Collaborative Innovation Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, and has founded five "111 Plan" Base for Innovation and Talent Recruiting and 18 international joint laboratories.
Since 2012, the school has been awarded 7 State Scientific and Technological Progress Awards and State Technological Invention Awards, tied for 20th in China, and was ranked 17th in the Patent Award for Chinese Universities list in 2016. It is ranked 50th on the Chinese University Evaluation handbook, and is one of China's fastest growing universities.
Key research institutes
The National Key Lab of Food Science and Technology (食品科学与技术国家重点实验室)
The National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology (粮食发酵工艺与技术国家工程实验室)
The National Engineering Research Centre for Function Food (国家功能食品工程技术研究中心)
Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education (工业生物技术教育部重点实验室)[10]
Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education (糖化学与生物技术教育部重点实验室)[11]
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education (合成与生物胶体教育部重点实验室)
Key Laboratory of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education (生态纺织教育部重点实验室)
Faculty
The university has 3393 faculty members, including 2137 full-time instructors. 63.8% of faculty holds a senior title, 68.9% has a doctoral degree, and 42.1% has more than one year of overseas experience.
The school has three academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 14 "Thousand Talents Plan" awardees, 13 "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" distinguished professors, 5 National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars awardees, five National Science Fund for Outstanding Scholars awardees, one "973 Program" chief scientist, eight "Ten Thousand Talent Program" awardees.[12]
International engagement
The university has signed cooperation and exchange agreements with 190 universities and research institutions in 39 countries and regions, and 28.6% of the students have overseas exchange and exchange experience; it has built the world's first Confucius Institute with the theme of Chinese food culture in cooperation with the University of California, Davis.
Jiangnan University began to accept international students from 1964, and has cultivated students from more than 80 countries. The university specially establishes "President Scholarship",[13] "Taihu Scholarship”[14] and “New Student Scholarship” for international students. In 2010, the university recruited 25 self-enroll Chinese Government Scholarship students.[15]
Doctoral Program for international students mainly includes: Food Science, Fermentation Engineering, Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology, Textile Science and Engineering, Control Science and Control Engineering, Chemistry Engineering and Technology, Environment Engineering, Light Industry Machinery and Packaging Engineering, Product Design Theory and Technology, etc.[16]
