Shandong University of Aeronautics is a regular undergraduate university directly under the People’s Government of Shandong Province. It is located in the hometown of the great military strategist Sun Tzu, the old revolutionary base of Bohai, and Binzhou City---the beautiful and prosperous central city of the Yellow River Delta. The predecessor of the university was Beizhen Normal School founded in 1954. In 2004, the school was rebuilt as Binzhou University. In 2012 and 2018, the university passed the undergraduate teaching qualification evaluation and review evaluation held by the Ministry of Education. In 2021, the university was approved as a master’s degree granting unit and one of the first supporting units for the construction of applied undergraduate universities in Shandong Province. In 2023, the university was renamed Shandong University of Aeronautics.
During the 70-year history of education, the university has fully implemented the Party’s educational policy, promoted the school spirit of “constantly striving for self-improvement, upholding the educational principles and achieving more advantages with own characteristics”, adhered to the school motto of “high virtue, assiduous learning, constant innovation, lofty aspiration”, pursued the school ethos of “true-seeking, meticulous, united and enthusiastic”, insisted on its own characteristics in running schools, served the major needs of the country and industry, liberated the mind, united to strive for progress, made reform and innovation, and pursues excellence, so that the comprehensive strength and overall level have been significantly improved. At present, the university covers an area of nearly1.34 million square meters, establishes 19 secondary colleges, 3 directly affiliated scientific research institutions, 58 undergraduate majors, and has more than 18500 full-time students enrolled in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country.
The university adheres to discipline leadership and has established a “one body, two wings and three supports” discipline layout with an applied discipline chain as the main body, serving the aviation discipline group and regional discipline group as the two wings, and the science, information and humanities discipline groups as the three supports. The university focuses on building a “246” goose-formation disciplinary structure with transportation engineering and ecology as the main disciplines, forming a high-level applied disciplinary system with engineering as the main focus, coordinated development of literature, science, economics, management, education, arts, and distinct aviation and regional characteristics. The university establishes 7 provincial-level key disciplines, including applied mathematics and ecology, has 2 master degree authorization points in transportation, resources and environment, focuses on building 8 applied specialty groups closely integrated with industries, including aviation, ecological environment, chemical engineering, mechanics and electronics, information, civil engineering, teacher education and intelligent control, and has 13 national and provincial-level first-class undergraduate specialty construction points and 4 high-level applied specialty groups of Shandong Province.
The university adheres to characteristic development and established the major of Flight Technology in 2006, filling the gap in higher education of aviation in Shandong Province. It has become the first local undergraduate university to cultivate pilots in China. Currently, the university has 14 secondary colleges aiming at cultivating talents in aviation field and offering 51 majors related to aviation such as Flight Technology, Aircraft Design and Engineering, etc. With 7 qualification platforms of aviation industry, including 141 Aviation School, the university has become one of the three undergraduate universities with aviation school in China. The university has established one national practical education base, two innovative experimental zones for cultivating applied talents in Shandong Province and 22 aviation research and innovation platforms. Jointly cultivating aviation talents with 149 aviation units such as Air China, Shandong Airlines, Shandong Airport Group, etc., the university has trained a large number of aviation professionals in flight, maintenance, dispatch control and aircraft manufacturing. More than 600 pilots have been promoted to captain positions, and the university has become an important aviation talent training base in China.
The university adheres to the principle of cultivating morality and talents, persistently concentrates and forges the soul with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and integrates ideological and political education throughout the entire process of talent cultivation. Provincial-level demonstration Marxist College and curriculum ideological and political teaching research demonstration center of the first batch have been approved. The university deepens “introduction, docking, co-construction and integration”, and has established a collaborative education mechanism of school-enterprise cooperation, industry-education integration and science-education integration, vigorously cultivating high-quality applied talents. Currently, the university has 6 majors certified in engineering education and teacher training, 26 national and provincial-level first-class undergraduate courses and provincial-level ideological and political education courses, 3 provincial-level modern industry colleges and 32 national new engineering research and practice projects and provincial-level education reform projects. In the past three years, the students have won more than 4200 national awards and 4400 provincial level awards in subject competitions, and have established 369 national and provincial innovation and entrepreneurship training programs. The university has been ranked in the top 300 in national college student competition for two consecutive years and in the top 100 in national new undergraduate college student competition for three consecutive years. The rate of graduate entrance examination and enrollment has remained stable at over 30%, and the high-quality employment rate has remained above 50%. The university has already provided more than 220000 outstanding talents to the country.
The university adheres to strengthening the school with talents, has nearly 1100 full-time teachers, including more than 400 teachers with doctor degrees, more than 420 teachers with senior academic titles, more than 550 teachers with “double qualification”, more than 40 high-level talents at or above the provincial level, such as government special experts of the State Council, Mount Taishan scholars, experts with outstanding contributions to the province, famous teachers of the province, and 23 provincial-level teaching and research teams such as Huang Danian style teacher team, excellent guidance team, youth innovation team, and has created a high-quality professional teaching team with noble professional ethics, excellent professional skills, reasonable structure and full vitality.
The university adheres to innovation driven development, elaborately develops the research brands with distinctive characteristics in aviation, the Yellow River Delta and Sun Tzu culture, and has established 81 scientific research and innovation platforms, including Shandong Yellow River Delta Ecological Environment Key Laboratory, Shandong General Aviation Operation and Manufacturing Engineering Research Center, Shandong Aviation Materials and Devices Engineering Technology Research Center, etc. In recent five years, 50 national projects and 224 provincial and ministerial level projects have been approved with an average annual scientific research funding of nearly 100 million RMB, more than 800 high-level papers have been published in SCI, SSCI, CSSCI, EI, CSCD and Chinese core journals, more than 260 monographs have been published, more than 300 invention patents have been authorized, 7 provincial and ministerial level scientific research achievement awards, 6 important social force awards and National Golden Bridge Award have been achieved, and Shandong Province Technology Transfer Service Institution has been approved. Journal of Binzhou University has been awarded the titles of “National Excellent Journal of Social Sciences in Higher Education Institutions” and “National Excellent Journal of Local Universities”.
The university adheres to openness and integration, focuses on national major strategies such as building a strong transportation country, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin , as well as the needs of the construction of Green, Low-carbon and High-quality Development Pioneer Zone of Shandong Province, has achieved joint construction of the university between Shandong Province and Binzhou City, and deepens the integration of industry and education, science and education, and school-enterprise cooperation. The university has undertaken more than 800 social service projects, signed more than 300 cooperation agreements, had more than 200 cooperative units, and has built more than 70 industry-education-research cooperation bases and platforms. Continuing education (distance education) has trained more than 60000 talents of various types. The university deepens international exchange and cooperation, establishing friendly cooperative relationships with 59 universities and educational institutions, obtaining the approval for 2 Sino-foreign cooperative undergraduate education projects and sending more than 100 teachers and students to exchange and study abroad every year.
The university has been highly praised by the Party, the government and all sectors of society, and has successively won more than 40 honorary titles at provincial level and above, such as “Advanced Unit of National Legal Publicity and Education”, “National Green Model Unit”, “Advanced Unit of National University Student Apartment Management and Service”, etc. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the General Party Branch of the Flight Academy of the university won the honorary title of National Advanced Grass-roots Party Organization. The media such as China Education Daily, China Economic Herald, China Civil Aviation Daily, Dazhong Daily, Higher Education Leaders Reference, Guangming Net and Dazhong Net have repeatedly reported on the construction and development of the university.
The university has stepped into a new era and embarked on a new journey. The Fourth Party Congress of the university made the overall deployment of “1,2,3,4,5,10”, established the positioning of regional, industry-oriented, application-oriented, high-level and international education, and clarified the development goal of comprehensively building a high-level application-oriented university with distinctive aviation characteristics. The university will persist in the guidance with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, undertake “the priorities of the country”, adhere to the original aspiration of cultivating virtue and talents, fulfill the mission of educating talents for the Party and the country, advance towards the grand goal of being a national first-class and world-renowned high-level aviation university, and make new and greater contributions to realizing the dream of building a strong higher education country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.