Beautiful University Town of Shenzhen is located aside the Xili lake in Nanshan District of Shenzhen with a total area of two square kilometers. Campus is surrounded by hills with the rippling Sha River. University Town of Shenzhen began to be structured in 2002, and the whole construction of educational infrastructure was completed in September, 2003. It includes teaching and research buildings (360,000 square meters), student apartments (66,000 square meters), one library (46,000 square meters)，and a sports center (under construction) with a total building area of 38,000 square meters occupying 17,000 square meters land which comprises three parts: a gym, a stadium, and a natatorium.

 

■Background■

      As the unique full-time branch campus aggregation of some leading graduate schools authorized by the Ministry of Education, Shenzhen University Town is jointly founded both by Shenzhen Municipal Government and top Universities in China. It aims to accomplish advanced education leap-over development, promote scientific and technological innovations, improve the quality of economy, population, and culture taste, and accelerate the modernistic progress. With the effort of 8-year development, four platforms have been established: platform of regional higher education base and congregation, platform of advanced scientific research, platform of innovative science information, and platform of high-level international communication.

 

      Four graduate schools are located in University Town of Shenzhen: Graduate School at Shenzhen of Tsinghua University; Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Graduate School , and Shenzhen Financial Engineering School (Nankai University). These four schools are the unique full-time graduated educational institutes affiliated with their mother universities.

 

■Students■

      University Town of Shenzhen holds 5,544 full-time enrolled students, including 793 doctorial students researching 63 subjects, and 4,751 graduate students studying 80 subjects. 3,800 students have been graduated. 9,344 students have been educated.  

 

      Innovative training modes have been developed with the effort of experiences and exploring. Features listed bellowed show our education specialties:

 

      Approximately 800 faculties work in the University Town. Furthermore, 22 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, one member of National Academy of Engineering, USA, and 7 professors selected by Cheung Kong Scholars Program are involved in training programs. There are 606 full-time instructors, within whom, 62.1% hold senior title, 86.8% hold doctor degree, and about 80% got their degree overseas. 16 professors come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, and other countries.

 

      University Town of Shenzhen has invited dynamic, practical, and creative teaching teams with innovative knowledge and powerful higher education background. Based on the full-time instructors as our core teaching resource, teachers from the mother institutions, chair professors, visiting professor, and postdoctoral researchers act as our helpful backups.

 

      University Town of Shenzhen holds the following laboratories:

1 key national laboratory Shenzhen Branch;

2 sub-centers of national engineering research center;

1 sub-center of Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education;

2 key laboratories of Guangdong Province;

11 key laboratories of Shenzhen; and

9 key national laboratories under construction.

 

■Research achievements■

      90 monographs and 2,800 articles have been published since establishment, within which, more than 1,600 articles are published in core journals, and over 1,100 articles are included by four world’s leading scholarly literature citation index databases. 184 patents have been issued, and 60 patents have been authorized. 350 national and 250 provincial research programs are in process, and some significant technology innovations have been obtained.

For example:

 

Important scientific discovery:

      Professor LaiQiang Huang and his team published the article Pollination Self-fertilization strategy in an orchid in Nature in June, 2006. This article is the first one written by Shenzhen local scientists and published on the leading academic core journal. This research won the Important Chinese Scientific Development Prize of the year 2006, and was accepted one of the most influenced scientific discoveries national wide and world wide in the research area of biology. Encyclopedia of Britannica has included this research.

      Conducted by Chemical Biology Key Lab of Guangdong Province, great breakthrough has been achieved in the research of the anti-neoplastic effectiveness of phosphoryl peptide derivatives. It is the first time to be found in the world that this derivative induces the dying of neoplastic cell via mitochondria condition. This research applied for 6 inventive patents (one has been authorized), and three new gene sequences were published by the gene bank.

 

Tackling Key Science & Technology Problems:

      High-efficient nutritive anti-insect super hybrid rice with internationally leading reputation has been researched and developed by staff in Super Hybrid Rice Key Lab (Shenzhen Branch supervised by Academician Yuan Longping).

As a breakthrough in China, researchers from the Advanced Technology of Energy and Electrical Engineering Lab have successfully explored the key technologies applied in the projects of Qing-Zang Railway power transmission and transformation, Northwest Power Network 750 KV power transmission and transformation, and ultra-high voltage power transmission and transformation.

A high-end Logistic Mock Key Lab has been built up in Shenzhen, which won the first prize of China Federation of Logistics Science& Technology Progress Prize, the highest prize in the industry of China logistics.

 

Important Research Subjects:

      Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and United Nations Environment Programme jointly released the Shenzhen Environment Outlook. First time in China, assessment standards set up by United Nations Environment Programme is applied to analyze Chinese environment, which symbolizes the fact that Shenzhen has been the first city in China to be integrated with international standards in the field of environment protection.

 

■Cooperation and Exchange■

      Graduate schools in University Town has been developing extensive cooperation and research exchange programs with top-level universities world wide, such as, Harvard University, University of California, Kyoto University in Japan, British Manchester University, London University, World Bank, Lincoln Foundation, USA National Research Institute, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and City University of Hong Kong, est. Meanwhile, a group of foreign instructors and students are coming to join us by working or studying here in University Town, which forms the atmosphere of globalization.

      Graduate schools jointly establishes research institutes & programs, internship, and technical cooperation with Shenzhen Multiple Government and 257 Shenzhen companies, such as, Huawei, Zhongxing, Foxconn, Qinghua Tongfang, Chuangwei(Shenzhen), Haiwang, and Shenzhen Fangzheng. This approach promotes the regional economy by setting up a new structure combing productive industry, education and research all together.

 

■Campus Culture■

      Interweaving with this city’s spirit: be bold enough to be the first in the world, each graduate school in University Town has formed sophisticated academic atmosphere and attractive campus spirit. Resources are sharing among schools by means of various academic discussions, seminars, sports and other activities to create a self-contained campus spirit. Teachers, students, industrial personal, and common citizens are highly interested in a series of speeches given by  Redbud Rostrum, Nature Rostrum, Eastern Culture Rostrum, and Postdoctoral Innovative Seminars, which forms sophisticated academic atmosphere and improve urban culture taste. High-level international academic conferences held in this University Town create fertile academic atmosphere and international communication, and accelerate the global influence of University Town as well as the city of Shenzhen.