Sanda University | Chinese Universities

Shanghai Sanda University was originally founded in June 1992 by professors from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Peking University and Tsinghua University, as the first full-time private institution of higher education in Shanghai，under the background of the development and opening up of the Shanghai Pudong District, was officially named “Shanghai Sanda University” approved by Shanghai Higher Education Bureau in August 1992, and started its first enrollment of students nationwide in the autumn that year. It was approved and recognized by China State Education Commission in February 1994 as an officially established and registered higher education institution, and further on, was approved and endorsed by the Ministry of Education in March 2002 as a full-time regular undergraduate institution under the name of Sanda University, which is the first undergraduate private institution of higher education in Shanghai. The University was authorized by Shanghai Academic Degrees Committee as a higher education institution to confer bachelor’s degree in August 2005. In 2015 and 2020, it passed the undergraduate education evaluation and assessment by China’s Ministry of Education.

We, leaders, faculty and staff members of the University, in the 29 years since its establishment, strictly abides by the principles that the education of the institution is for the public welfare and always in the non-profit nature, adheres to the school-running philosophy of "To win the trust of the society with rigorous education management, and to repay the society with higher education quality." With all the above-mentioned in mind, we have established a democratic and systematic mechanism for the University in which the board of directors is the top authority, the president is the chief executive officer, the CPC committee provides the institution with the core guarantee, and faculty members govern academic teaching and learning. We have positioned the target of our University to become a multidisciplinary, international, high-level applied and technological institution of higher education, and cultivate high-quality application-oriented and talented personnel needed for the economic and social development.

The University has two campuses, one in the Pudong District of Shanghai and the other in Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province, covering a total area of 133 acres with a building area of 3,875,000 square feet, 270 million RMB worth of teaching equipment, and 1.58 million paper books in the library. The University has 8 academic fields of study including Economics, Law, Literature, Engineering, Management, Art, Medicine and Education, offering 40 undergraduate majors and 6 junior college majors. It has Shengxiang School of Business, School of Management, School of Information Science and Technology, School of Foreign Languages, School of Art and Design, School of International Medical Technology, School of Education, School of Engineering, Jiashan Guangbiao School, School of Marxism, School of Hudong Polytechnic, Office of Physical Education, and School of Continuing Education, and others. There are more than 640 full-time faculty members working for the university, 39.1% of them own the professional title of associate professor or above, and 92.9% have received the master’s or higher level of education (including 29% owning the doctoral degrees), teaching and serving a total student enrollment of more than 15,000 full-time students including more than 14,000 undergraduates. The university has cultivated more than 50,000 graduates.

Sanda University has, in cooperation with large and medium sized enterprises, established School of Fashion, School of Marriott Hotel Management, CLPS School, Huawei ICT School, School of Sugon Big Data, School of Creation and Entrepreneurship and others to carry out teaching training and graduation design, and jointly build practical teaching bases, and to form an industry-university cooperative education pattern of diversified subjects, flexible models, active interaction, and social satisfaction. Sanda has, with government-support special funds and self-owned matching funds investment, accomplished more than 90 disciplinary-connotation related construction projects. As a result, we now own a Comprehensive Experiment and Training Teaching and Learning Center, a Mechanical and Electronic Engineering Experimental Teaching and Learning Center, a Modern Medical Technology Comprehensive Experimental Center, a Hotel Management Experimental Teaching and Learning Center, as well as more than 140 teaching-learning laboratories of various specialties.

Sanda University has, over the years, won numerous honorary titles and awards including the honor of being a construction unit for “Academic Major with Special Features at National Level’, the honor of undertaking Undergraduate Teaching Project, a national off-campus practical education base for college students, and also one of the first experimental education bases for Shanghai university innovation and entrepreneurship, the honors of undertaking Shanghai First-Class Undergraduate Construction Leading Plan Cultivation Project, Provincial First-Class Undergraduate Major Construction Majors (including nursing, hotel management, finance, computer science and technology, health education, physical therapy, tourism management, and visual communication design), Application-oriented Undergraduate Institution Pilot Academic Majors (including nursing, health education, physical therapy, finance, hotel management, computer science and technology, and international economics and trade), the First and Second prizes of Shanghai Teaching Achievements, key courses, English exemplary courses, and excellent textbooks, being selected to undertake Shanghai Famous Teacher and Overseas Famous Teacher projects, being designated to be the Pilot Unit for Secondary-higher Vocational and Secondary Vocational-Undergraduate Articulation Cultivation Mode, and the First Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Party Building, Ideological and Political Work in all Private Colleges and Universities in China.

The University is devoted, for the life-long development of every student, to strengthen its management, encourage students to enhance their self-confidence and independent learning ability, to make their foreign language and computer skills their strong suits, and to cultivate them to possess basic abilities such as team spirit and fine inter-personal communication skills. Sanda students have made outstanding achievements in various discipline competitions at all levels and won a large number of awards in national, provincial and municipal competitions. The average employment rate of graduates from the university in the past three years is 98%, which is higher than that of similar institutions of higher education in the entire city of shanghai.

Facing the 14th Five-year Plan, the University's vision is to become the most attractive private university in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the mission of the school is to let every student harvest the growth suitable for their own. Starting from 2021 (celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of the university) to 2030 (celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the university), the University will be initially built into an application-oriented private university with distinctive educational characteristics that can meet the economic and social needs of the Yangtze River Delta region. By 2040 (celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the university), the University will be fully established as a private university with significant advantages and wide appeal in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Sanda University has also won, in addition to the above-mentioned achievements, more various honorary titles and awards including being the founding and demonstration institution of Shanghai private institution of higher education, being among the first batch of pilot units to implement the construction of modern university system in Shanghai, being among the first batch of member institutions of China Alliance Universities of Applied Sciences, being an initiator and member of National Non-profit Private University Alliance, being among the first batch of pilot institutions of “Data China's Hundred Schools Project”, being among the first batch of members of Excellent Innovation Alliance under School Planning and Construction Development Center of Ministry of Education, the honorary title of National Advanced Non-governmental Organization, being rated “Five A” unit of Chinese social organizations, and Excellent Private Higher Education Institutions in China, being a National Demonstration Unit of Open and Democratic Management of School Affairs, the Shanghai Municipal “May 1st” Labor Award, the honorary titles of Shanghai Civilized Campus 2017-2018 (first session), Shanghai Civilized Unit, and Shanghai Municipal Model Institution Governing by Law, the honorary title of Shanghai Municipal Advanced Basic CPC Party Organization granted by Shanghai Municipal CPC Party Committee to Sanda University CPC Party Committee, and the honorary title of Striving for Excellence - Pioneering Action of World Expo, Five Good Grassroots CPC Party Organization.