Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST)

HISTORY AND STATUS QUO

Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), founded in 1960 and renamed from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 2004, was designated as one of the national key institutions of higher education in 1978. NUIST is co-constructed by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and the Ministry of Education. In 2017, NUIST is on the list of China’s “Double First-class” construction universities and disciplines as well as Jiangsu high level universities. 

In recent years, NUIST's comprehensive ranking in the international mainstream university rankings has risen rapidly. In 2022, it ranked around 50th among Chinese mainland universities and 900th among world universities in the four major global university rankings of Times, U.S. News, ARWU, and QS. 

ADVANTAGEOUS DISCIPLINES

NUIST has a complete higher education system with undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral programmes as well as post-doctoral research centres. The eight disciplines of Geoscience, Engineering, Computer Science, Environmental Science & Ecology, Chemistry, Agricultural Science,Materials Science and Social Science have entered top 1% ESI rankings, among which Geoscience and Computer Science have entered top 1‰. The discipline of Atmospheric Science ranks No.1 in the discipline evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education of China and the 6th in the world according to ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. 

STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Currently, NUIST has about 35800 full-time students, including 28,300 undergraduate students, 6,200 postgraduate students and 1,300 international students. There are more than 2,000 full-time faculty members, with  more than 120 high-end scholars including academicians of Chinese, EU, French, and Russian Academies of Sciences, MOE Special Professors and National Distinguished Young Scholars. 85% of the full-time teachers have doctorates and 67% of them have experiences of studying or working abroad for no less than one year. 

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

NUIST has established cooperative relationship with over 100 overseas universities and colleges from over 30 countries and regions including Yale University, Harvard University, the University of Reading, the University of Manchester, South East Technological University, Carlton University, Delft University of Technology, Macquarie University and Monash University. NUIST was admitted to such programmes as Chinese Government Scholarship, the Confucius Institute Scholarship and Jiangsu Government Scholarship. To date, the WMO Regional Training Centre Nanjing at NUIST has trained over 4,300 senior meteorological and hydrological professionals for 158 countries and regions and become the world’s largest training centre of top quality.

Diversified cooperation modes with worldwide first-class universities is a characteristic of NUIST’s international cooperation, among which to establish joint research institutes is the most effective one. Typical examples include the NUIST- Harvard Joint Laboratory for Air Quality and Climate (JLAQC) and Yale - NUIST Atmospheric Environment  Research Centre.  JLAQC  has gained a large number of creative scientific achievements. In recent 3 years, 12 papers from the JLAQC research fellows were published in top international academic journals such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications, PNAS, Advanced Materials. The cooperation with Yale University was reported as a model of Sino-US scientific research cooperation  in the article titled Science superpowers find common ground by Nature . Besides joint laboratory (research center), there are many other cooperation methods like applying for joint scientific research programmes, jointly cultivating PHD students and postdoctors, and co-hosting international conferences,workshops or seminars.  

Another successful cooperative mode is transnational education institutions and programmes, such as NUIST Reading Academy co-constructed with the University of Reading and NUIST Waterford Institute co-constructed with the  South East Technological University. Moreover, there are various short-term students’ or teachers’ exchanging programmes between NUIST and our global partners.

International Association of Meteorological Education and Sciences (IAMES)

Environmental pollution and meteorological disasters have become common challenges faced by mankind. The International Association of Meteorological Education and Sciences (IAMES) was established in December 2020, which was initiated by NUIST and supported by more than 30 colleges, universities and scientific research institutions from over 20 countries.

IAMES is a non-governmental, non-profit, academic and scientific organization, dedicated to international promotion and coordination of scientific studies and education on meteorology (atmospheric science, hydrology, environmental science and other meteorology related disciplines). IAMES encourages the application of this knowledge to social needs, such as weather forecast, climate change, mitigation of natural hazards and environmental preservation.

IAMES is established to stimulate meteorological education and research, promote scientific and technological innovation, share high-quality platform resources, provide government policy consultation, and enhance the coordination ability to respond to major scientific issues.

There are 34 members in IMAES, such as NUIST, Nanjing University, Sun Yat-sen University, Princeton University, the University of Reading, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, Seoul National University and Cairo University.

The establishment of IAMES got strong support from Chinese government (e.g. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Commerce, China Meteorological Administration) and international organizations such as World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of WMO, sent a video in April, 2021 to show his support on behalf of WMO to congratulate the establishment of IAMES.

College of International Students (CIS)

NUIST started to enroll international students  in 1990 and the international degree programmes were approved in 1996. The College of International Students undertakes admission, teaching and administration of international students studying in a variety of programmes including Chinese language and other bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes taught in Chinese and English.

The number of international students reached 1700+ from over 120 countries, 82% of whom are degree students, and 29% of whom are postgraduates.

WMO Regional Training Center Nanjing (WMO RTC Nanjing)

The World Meteorological Organization Regional Training Centre Nanjing (WMO RTC Nanjing) is located at NUIST. Approved by the Executive Council of WMO, the RTC Nanjing was established in 1993. It has held about 200 international and dozens of bilateral training courses since 1990. Nearly 4,000 meteorologists and hydrologists from 157 countries (regions) have been trained at NUIST; many of the trainees have been the backbones of their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs).