Officially founded in 1954 and with the history started from 1925, Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST) is one of the top 100 universities in China, and the largest university as well as the only polytechnic university across Yunnan Province. KUST has 3 campuses, all located in Kunming City, the capital city of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, a province with 46 million population. Kunming is known as the Spring City of China, due to its mild weather all year round.
With 30 faculties (schools/colleges) and 3,900 staff members, KUST is offering over 300 degree programs at Bachelor, Master and Doctor levels to around 40,000 full time on-campus students. The programs cover engineering, science, management, economics, medicine, law, arts, philosophy, agriculture, and education. In 2005, KUST was ranked by the Chinese Ministry of Education as the first Excellent University in Yunnan Province for its excellent undergraduate programs. The disciplines of engineering, material science and chemistry of KUST are ranked by ESI as the top 1% worldwide.
The research in KUST is at the top level in Yunnan Province, in both funding and achievements, with the important feature of very close connections to industries. In certain fields, especially the subjects related to mineral industry, KUST is at the top level of research in China. The annual research fund of KUST in recent 5 years has been taking a proportion of over a 60% of the total funding to all the universities in Yunnan Province. KUST has 17 national level key-labs or research centers, and 91 of provincial/ministerial level ones and around 100 university level ones.
The goal of KUST is to develop into a high level research university in the international region, to serve the sustainable development of the region, and serve the wellbeing of mankind, by offering excellent teaching, research, social services, and also by promoting culture inheritance and exchange. KUST has established partnerships with over 150 universities in more than 30 countries, for the cooperation in research, student and staff exchange, joint programs, technical transfer etc. As a representative institution of Chinese universities, KUST has been playing an important role for China in the cooperation with the neighboring Southeast Asia and South Asia countries, including in the mechanisms of Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), China-ASEAN Cooperation, GMS Cooperation etc., and also in the other international and regional cooperation mechanisms including China-EU Cooperation, Asia-Europe higher education programs, among the others.