INTRODUCTION
Shihezi University is a new comprehensive university, located in Shihezi, the Garden City, located by the river of Manas on the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. In April 1996, Shihezi Medical College, Shihezi Agricultural College under the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, Wujiaqu Economic College and Kuitun Normal College were merged into Shihezi University. In August 2000, the Central Government designated the university as a key institution to develop in northwestern China. The following year, the Ministry of Education appointed Peking University, and later Tianjin University, to offer direct and all-encompassing aid to the university. Shihezi University was ranked among the key constructed university under the 211 project in Dec 31, 2008.
Shihezi University offers eleven specialties--Agriculture, Medicine, Engineering, Economics and Trade, Management, Literature and Arts, Sciences, Education, Law, and History. The university offering 5 doctorate degrees, 143 masters degrees, 86 bachelors degrees programs, 13 specialties that enroll on-job-teachers for masters degrees, 3 post-doctoral mobile stations. The university has jointly set up graduate education bases with Peking University and Tianjin University, as well as a program for culture oriented quality-education for Chinese university students. The university has 16 disciplines of Ministry of Agriculture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), 2 key laboratories co-constructed and supported by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the XPCC. It has 4 key laboratories of XPCC, 4 key bases for art and scientific research. The university has become one of key scientific research bases of XPCC and XUAR.
FEATURES
The University now has a faculty of 2,586, including 1,726 full-time teachers , 224 professors, 624 associate professors. The university employs more than 10 foreign experts and teachers every year. The students of the university come from 31 provinces and regions. The total enrollment of students numbers 41, 475, including 23,264 undergraduates 3,490 postgraduates and 390 international students from eight countries, such as United States, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakstan, South Korea, Bangladesh etc.
The University is equipped with the most up-to-date teaching and scientific research facilities. It has a well-equipped library, a large gymnasium, a multi-functional stadium and modernized teaching buildings. The University covers 1,830,000 square meters. It has 1,170,000 square meters of building, and the area of its laboratories is 180,000 square meters .The library has a collection of 2,900,000 Chinese and foreign books and periodicals, and is only one model project in Xinjiang, as university digital libraries in State High-tech Project 863.There is also a book collection spot of UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in it.
Shihezi University has established intercollegiate relationship with the universities in the US. Canada, Australia. Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, etc. The University has also carried out an all-round exchange and cooperation with many famous domestic universities such as Peking University, Tianjin University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Nankai University, Wuhan University, Xi'an JiaoTong University etc.
At present, Shihezi University is entering into a new stage of historical development and marching on to its goal to become a nationally and internationally renowned teaching and research university with vitality and distinctive character.
