An Introduction to Suzhou City University
Suzhou City University (SZCU) originates from Wenzheng Collegeof Soochow University, the first publicly-administered, privately-funded
secondary college registered with China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) in1998. The College was changed into an independent college as approvedin 2005, and transformed into Suzhou City University after the MOE
replied Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government with approval by letter inDecember 2020.
Suzhou City University is an independent public undergraduate
university managed by Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, run by
Suzhou Municipal People’s Government, and supported by Soochow
University. Adhering to the mission of being “local, application-oriented,open, and specialized”, SZCU is dedicated to developing itself as a worldrenowned, first-class, modern, high-level, and application-based university
with distinctive characteristics.
Located in Suzhou International Education Park in the southwest of
the ancient Suzhou city, our campus is adjacent to Shihu Lake Scenic Areaof Taihu Lake National Scenic Spot. With fascinating natural beauty andabundant historical and cultural resources, SZCU was listed among the firstbatch of “Green Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province” in 2022.
Notably, SZCU library is one of the masterpieces designed by Wang Shu,
winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Nobel Prize in architecture.

The library at the side of the beautiful Cuiwei Lake also received anExcellence in the category of public buildings of China Architecture ArtAward in 2003.
In Suzhou City University, the Department of Fundamental Subjects
and 8 schools are established, including School of Marxism, City Culture
and Communication College, School of Urban Governance and PublicAffairs, School of Digital Economics and Management, School of Art andDesign, Computing Science and Artificial Intelligence College, School ofOptical and Electronic Information, and Institute of Intelligent
Manufacturing and Smart Transportation. These departments provide
altogether 52 undergraduate programs for nearly 12,000 students in theUniversity, covering such 7 disciplines as humanities, sciences,engineering, economics, management, law and arts.
Suzhou City University insists on innovation-driven development anddevotes to serving the socio-economic development of Suzhou. The
University fully implements the strategic deployment of the Suzhou
Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government on expandingand strengthening the Arts and Humanities disciplines, and has established
17 scientific research platforms including Suzhou Development ResearchInstitute, Contemporary Suzhou Research Institute, Ancient Book
Collation and Research Institute, Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritanceand Protection Research Institute, Contemporary Writer Creation andResearch Center, and Suzhou Future Urban Design Research Institute. The

University proactively took the major task of the Suzhou Municipal Party
Committee and the Municipal Government on building the Taihu Lake
Research Institute. In September 2023, the Taihu Lake Research Institutewas officially established, dedicated to the ecological resource reorganization, cultural inheritance, and innovation development in the Taihu
area. The Institute has collaborated with the Industrial Culture
Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology on two projects, and has successfully received approval onSuzhou Municipal Social Science Fund Major Special Project. Wenzheng
Think Tank has been rated as Suzhou Municipal New Think Tank since theend of 2021, and has since then published 45 decision-making andconsulting achievements at municipal level and above, of which 28 havebeen commented by the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party
Committee level and above, and has won two first prizes and one second
prize of the CTTI Annual Think Tank Outstanding Achievements. In orderto implement the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal
Government’s decision to strengthen the protection, inheritance, andresearch of intangible cultural heritage, the University has establishedSuzhou Pingtan Personnel Training Alliance and Suzhou Kun Opera
Personnel Training Alliance in collaboration with troupes, theaters,museums, and companies. Suzhou Pingtan School and Suzhou Art School
have also been successfully listed as affiliated schools of SZCU. Throughthe collaboration of various parties, we aim to build an Art personnel
training system featured with Suzhou characteristics, and collectively
promote the systematic protection, living inheritance, and innovative
development of intangible cultural heritage.
Suzhou City University insists on the win-win cooperation concept of“Seeking development through service, seeking support throughcontribution”. The University have reached over 400 collaborations withlocal government, companies, as well as industry associations, and areproactively adjusting and optimizing disciplines and majors per Suzhou
industry transformation and development needs. SZCU has successfully
obtained the approval of the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology to establish the Opto-electronic Information “Specialized,Refined, Differential, and Innovative” Industrial College, and has
established 4 university-level industrial colleges, namely the Healthcare
Industrial College, the Digital Finance Industrial College, the Artificial
Intelligence Industrial College, and the Intelligent Transportation
Equipment Industrial College. In addition, the University has set up 6
micro-majors, including Urban Digitalized Construction, Operation andMaintenance, Health Service and Management, New Energy Generation
Technology, Digital Economy and Digital Transformation, Intelligent
Manufacturing and Transportation, and Semiconductor and Flat Panel
Display.

In December 2022, Suzhou City University successfully obtained theapproval for Master’s Degree Granting Institution Development Project.
At present, the University holds the following featured disciplines andmajors: Optical Engineering as the Provincial “14th Five-Year Plan” Key
Discipline; Bio-photonics Science and Technology Key Laboratory as theSuzhou Municipal Key Laboratory (category A); Archival Science,
Photoelectric

Information

ScienceandEngineering,Information

Engineering, Electronic Information Science and Technology, Computer
Science and Technology, Chinese Language and Literature, and English
majors as the Provincial First-class Major Development Projects;
Electronic Information Science and Technology, Internet of Things
Engineering, and Information Engineering majors as the Provincial
Industry-Academia Integrated Brand Major Development Projects;
English major as the Provincial International Personnel Training Brand
Major Development Project; and Computer Science and Technology major
as the Provincial Outstanding Engineer Education Training Plan 2.0 Major.
Committed to a socialist path of education, Suzhou City University
puts talent cultivation as the top priority, implements the fundamental
mission of fostering virtue, and improves a coordinated framework toeducate people, aiming to nurture high-quality, application-oriented talentswith moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic
sensibility and work skills, as well as solid foundation, abundant

knowledge, strong sense of social responsibility, entrepreneurship, andpractical abilities. Specifically, with an aim to explore the cultivating mode
for interdisciplinary talents in an application-based university, SZCU
founded Wenzheng Academy, in which selected students form classes andget intensive training of humanities theories or engineering skills. Besides,
by establishing a governance mechanism for a shared community bystudents and teachers, SZCU was listed among the MOE pilot colleges anduniversities for the “One Stop” Comprehensive Management Mode ofStudent Community.
The University upholds openness and promotes high-quality
international cooperation. With a focus on student exchange program, staff
exchange visit, academic exchange, and scientific research collaboration,
SZCU has established friendly and cooperative relations with more than 50
universities and colleges in more than 10 countries or regions. Currently,
we have two Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Programs incollaboration with University of Idaho in the United States, namely,Electrical Engineering and Automation, and Internet of Things
Engineering, as well as one program of Sino-American Cooperation on
Higher Education and Professional Development with such three majors as
Finance, Journalism, and English. In addition, dedicated to an integration
between academic education and innovation, the University takes it as theguideline, starting point, and goal of talent education to cultivate students’awareness, capacity and spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Suzhou City University will hold high the great banner of Socialismwith Chinese Characteristics, follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thoughton Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and embark on
the “Six Strategies” to get the University vitalized by Innovation,strengthened by Talent, accomplished with Quality, renowned for Features,improved by Culture, and optimized by Resources. SZCU will muster thecourage to act for a world-renowned, first-class, modern, high-level, andapplication-based university with distinctive characteristics, so as to makemore contributions to Suzhou as a leader city for Chinese modernization.