Located in Shanghai, Donghua University is composed of the Yan’an Road Campus at the downtown area and the Songjiang Campus at the historical cradle of the city. The history of Donghua University can be traced back to the establishment of Nantong College in 1912 by Zhang Jian, a famous industrialist in Qing dynasty. In 1951, East China Institute of Textile Science & Technology was founded; in 1985, the name was changed to China Textile University; in 1999, it was changed again to Donghua University. Donghua University was approved as the state-key university in 1960 and it is one of 75 universities that directly under the Ministry of Education of China. Donghua University has 5 post-doctoral research centers, 28 doctoral degree programs, 60 master’s degree programs and 56 undergraduate programs. There are over 2700 faculty members and nearly 30,000 enrolled students.
The leading disciplines of Donghua University are Textile, Fashion, Materials and Trade, etc. Textile Science & Engineering, the state-key discipline, ranks No. 1 in the Assessment of First-level Discipline announced by China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Center (CDGDC). The total number of its research theses abstracted in SCI, EI and ISTP was more than the total amount of the other nine famous textile institutions worldwide for two successive years. Besides, many research achievements have found applications in the fields of aviation and aerospace, military, construction, environmental protection, new materials, etc., special contributions have been made to China’s Manned Space Projects such as Shenzhou V, Shenzhou VI and Shenzhou VII.
Donghua University values international cooperation and exchanges. It has established cooperation with more than 100 famous universities, research centers and enterprises all over the world. Since 1995, it successfully hosted the International Fashion Forum during the Shanghai International Fashion Culture Festival. Apart from the 83th World Textile Conference, Donghua University has held many high-leveled international academic conferences such as International Academic Forum for PhD Students on Textile Science & Engineering, the 25th International Data Engineering Conference, 2009 American Fiber Society Conference, and International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology, etc.
As early as 1954, Donghua University commenced to accept international students who were among the first group of overseas students enrolled by Chinese universities. It has been appointed by Shanghai Municipal Government to accept international students with Shanghai Government Scholarship. In 2002, International Cultural Exchange School was established, taking full responsibilities of the recruitment, cultivation and management of the international students. Thereafter, international student education has developed by leaps and bounds, and for several successive year, its scale’s growth ranks top among the higher education institutions all over the country. In 2014, there were 4734 international students from 136 countries studied at Donghua University. This population ranks No. 5 in Shanghai and No.11 in China.