University of Science and Technology of China

The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a public university in Hefei, China. It is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education of China, and the Anhui Provincial Government. It is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
The university was founded in Beijing by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in September 1958. In the beginning of 1970, the university moved to Hefei during the Cultural Revolution. The university has 13 schools, 11 national research platforms, 8 science-education integration colleges, and 5 joint cooperative institutes with local governments. The university is a member of the C9 League.
The university was founded in Beijing by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in September 1958. The director of CAS, Guo Moruo was appointed the first president of USTC. USTC's founding mission was to develop a high-level science and technology workforce, as deemed critical for development of China's economy, defense, and science and technology education. The establishment was hailed as "A Major Event in the History of Chinese Education and Science." CAS has supported USTC by combining most of its institutes with the departments of the university. In 1959, USTC was listed in the top 16 national key universities, becoming the youngest national key university.
In the beginning of 1970, the university moved to Hefei during the Cultural Revolution.
In 2012, USTC and the National University of Defense Technology signed a strategic agreement to cooperate on quantum computing research at a ceremony attended by Pan Jianwei and Yang Xuejun.
Presidents:
Honorary President:
Since its participation in the CAS Experimental Program of Knowledge Innovation, USTC has achieved a batch of important and innovative results in the basic research of nano science and technology, quantum information science, life science research, fire science, and fire protection technology, polar scientific investigation and research, bio-mass clean energy research.
USTC is generally considered one of the most competitive universities in the country, and consistently ranked among the top universities in Asia according to several major international university rankings. The joint THE-QS World University Rankings 2005 ranked USTC 4th in China (after Peking, Tsinghua and Fudan), 13th in Asia and 93rd in the world. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011 placed USTC 49th in the world, 7th in Asia and 2nd in China after Peking. It ranked 10th in Asia and 4th in Emerging countries & Mainland China in 2020 by Times Higher Education.
As of 2023, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked USTC 57th overall in the world. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the "Shanghai Ranking", placed USTC 42nd in the world, 6th in Asia, and 5th in China. The 2022 QS World University Rankings ranked USTC 93rd overall in the world. The 2024 US News Best Global Universities ranked USTC 82nd overall in the world and 6th in mainland China. USTC is regarded as one of the most reputable Chinese universities by the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings where they ranked 51–60th globally.
USTC was ranked # 6 in China, # 13 in Asia and #61 worldwide in 2024 in terms of aggregate performance from the three most widely observed university rankings (THE+ARWU+QS) as reported by the Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities.
The Nature Index Research Leaders 2024, which measures the largest groups of papers published in 145 leading high-quality science journals, ranks USTC the No.2 university in China and the Asia Pacific region, and 3th in the world among the global universities (after Harvard and UCAS). In 2024, USTC is ranked 44th globally by the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities with "Engineering" & "Natural Science" related-fields ranked in the global top 10.
In the 2024 ARWU Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, the USTC had seven disciplines in the world's top 20, 17 disciplines in the world's top 50 and 21 disciplines in the world's top 100.
Nature Index tracks the affiliations of high-quality scientific articles and presents research outputs by institution and country on monthly basis.
Only the National Laboratories, State Key Laboratories, and Key Laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are listed below, among which the National Laboratories have the highest qualification. USTC is the only university in mainland China which possess two National Laboratories at the same time.
National Laboratories (2)
State Key Laboratories and Ministerial Level Units
Key Laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Highlights: USTC set up the first graduate school in China in 1978 to effectively cultivate its postgraduate students.