Officially founded on the 4th of September, 1954, Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST) was called Kunming Institute of Technology (KIT) until it was renamed to its current name in 1995. The former Yunnan Polytechnic University was merged into KUST in 1999. With an area of 261 hectares, KUST consists of three campuses: Lianhua, Xinying, and Chenggong. Its main campus is located in Chenggong University Town in Kunming.
Over the past 68 years, KUST has become a comprehensive, engineering-orientated university that combines theory with application and coordinates multiple disciplines. As one of the key universities in Yunnan province, KUST boasts its full capacity of education, featuring diverse, levelled programmes and complete disciplines. KUST plays an important role in the field of the non-ferrous metals industry in China and makes major contributions to regional, economic, and social development. A large number of innovative talented teachers have emerged and made major achievements in science and technology. Professor Qu Weide pioneered the “Shock Dissipation Principle,” which was applied to the development of China's first artificial earth satellite. Professor Liu Beichen designed the world's first inverted-arch, steel bridge. Professor Li Menggeng's invention of the "technology and equipment for the removal of lead and bismuth from crude tin through electrothermal continuous crystallizer" has been hailed by the Western metallurgical industry as "the greatest invention in tin metallurgy in the 20th century". Professor Li Menggeng's technology, together with Prof. Yongnian Dai's "Vacuum Separation of Lead and Tin in Solder," constitutes the modern pyrotechnic tin-refining technology, which has been extended to tin refineries worldwide. At the same time, “the endothermic, multi-stage, continuousvacuum-distillation, metal-separation technology” is the world's leading technology. The "large-scale, continuous, automated, microwave, metallurgical-reaction device” has realised the independent innovation and production of 10,000-tonne sets of equipment. KUST also has the world's first innovative nickel-smelting technique with a three-furnace system linkage of top-blowing, melting-flash, and autothermal melting. The new technology and equipment for the vacuum distillation of complex tin alloys have brought the world's tin refining to a new level. The key technology for the vacuum gasification separation of precious metal alloys has built a new generation of green and efficient precious-metal-refining technologies. The primate-targeted, gene-editing technology is regarded as a milestone in human diseases research. All of these have made important contributions to national and even global scientific and technological progress.
On the 21st of January, 2015, President Xi pointed out in an important speech during his visit to Yunnan: "Yunnan is rich in scientific and educational resources. It is home to nationally renowned universities like KUST, high-level institutes like Kunming Branch Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as many provincial, scientific research institutions. It's necessary to give full play to these resources and embark on stable, innovation-driven development. Efforts need to be made to cultivate and attract talent with innovation to address the weakness of a shortage of talent in the province." This is not only the lofty honour to all the KUSTers, but also the developmental direction for KUST. Keeping President Xi’s words in mind, KUST integrates into the development of Yunnan province, gears toward the rest of China, services industries, and influences southern and southeastern Asia. Its distinctive and coordinated development is based on a great academic atmosphere, talent, high quality, and openness, and it tries its best to offer core disciplines, special supporting disciplines, prominent emerging disciplines, and excellent disciplines in humanities. With remarkable achievements in the cultivation of talent, scientific research, social service, cultural development and innovation, as well as international communication and cooperation, KUST is committed to providing talent-support for high-quality, socio-economic development in Yunnan province.
KUST has 1 academic division, 27 faculties, 7 research institutes, 14 clinical teaching bases (including 10 affiliated hospitals, 3 teaching hospitals, and 2 hospitals for internships), 3 bases for applied talent-training, and graduate schools. Furthermore, KUST has 4,001 staff members, including 2,732 full-time lecturers and 1,861 professors and associate professors. 112 people are granted national talent titles, such as "academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering”, “Changjiang scholar", "Distinguished Young Scholar", "leading talent of science and technology in Yunnan Province", and "Yunling Scholar". 737 people own other provincial- and ministerial-level talent titles. Currently, KUST is home to 49,838 students (including 697 overseas students), and among them, there are 34,017 undergraduate students (including 281 overseas students), and 15,821 graduate students (including 416 overseas students).
Several subjects of KUST were listed in the top 1% in ESI, including engineering, material science, chemistry, environmental science and ecology, botany and zoology, and agricultural science. Now KUST has 1 national key discipline, 1 national key cultivation discipline, 23 provincial key disciplines, 9 key disciplines jointly built by provincial colleges and universities, 11 national postdoctoral research stations, 8 provincial postdoctoral research stations, 17 first-level discipline doctorate degree awarding units, and 3 professional doctorate degree awarding units. KUST also has 44 master's degree programmes in first-level disciplines and 21 professional master's degree programmes. There are 107 undergraduate and 35 second bachelor's degree programmes. In addition, nationally, it has established 37 correspondence education centres, 43 majors of undergraduate evening studies and correspondence courses. In Yunnan province, KUST has 16 higher education examination assistance centres for self-learners, 22 undergraduate and vocational majors for self-taught higher education examinations, 1 national continuing education base, and 2 provincial training bases for professional technicians.
KUST has delivered remarkable achievements in innovation development since 2000. It has won 1 first prize and 6 second prizes of the National Teaching Achievements Award, 72 provincial teaching achievement awards, 1 first prize and 9 second prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, 6 second prizes of the National Technological Invention Award, 1 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, and 472 provincial and ministerial science and technology achievement awards. It has published 2,206 works, 13,832 authorised patents, and built 22 national platforms for scientific and technological innovation, including National Engineering Research Centres and Laboratories, National Key Laboratories jointly established by Yunnan province and the Ministry of Education, and the National University Science Park. It also enjoys 135 provincial and ministerial platforms for scientific and technological innovation, including Engineering Research Centres and Laboratories of the Ministry of Education and provincial key laboratories, 56 teams for innovation, including teams of the Ministry of Science and Technology in key areas, teams of the Ministry of Education, and teams at province level, as well as 1 Grade A Design Institute. In 2021, the scientific research fund of KUST reached 2.42 billion yuan.
KUST is listed as one of the National Demonstration Universities for Deepening Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform and involved in the Pilot National Programme for the Innovation of University Students. It has won 1 medal, 8 silver medals, and 22 bronze medals in China College Students' "Internet +" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and gained the approval of 470 National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Programmes for College Students. It is engaged in the Plan for Educating and Training Outstanding Engineers made by the Ministry of Education and the National Basic Ability Construction Project of Western and Central China. It has 28 majors gaining national assessment and 32 for first-class undergraduate education. It has launched 32 state-level courses, published 10 textbooks, and built 3 teaching teams, 17 experimental teaching demonstration and practical education centres, 10 research and practice projects related to Emerging Engineering Education and Emerging Agricultural Science Education.
Based on its distinctive disciplines and unique location, KUST keeps strengthening international cooperation and communication. As of now, it has signed cooperation agreements with 110 colleges, universities, and research institutions in 36 countries and regions, and built a Confucius Institute with Souphanouvong University in Laos, and a Confucius Classroom with NEXT EDUCATION GROUP in Ballerup, Denmark. It is the leading university in the cooperation between universities in Yunnan province and Thailand and has setup 3 colleges in Thailand. It is listed as the new base for the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities. The foreign experts in KUST have won the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award and the Friendship Award issued by the Chinese government. In 2020, KUST received 1,013 international students. Now it has played a special and important role in cultivating engineers and talented managers, and offering international technical transfer for neighbouring countries, as well as establishing high-level cooperation on research and communication between teachers and students with developed countries.
In the new era, KUST keeps in mind the fundamental task of fostering skilled individuals with virtue and follows the spirit of "keeping the passion for its red land and being persevering and patriotic," as well as its motto of "refining your personality, shouldering responsibility, and guiding yourself with the rich knowledge you've been equipped with". With this intangible foundation, KUST embraces an open-intention development. People in KUST are united, practical, and hard-working while implementing new philosophies of development in this new stage to build a new development pattern. That is how KUST moves faster toward a high-level, research-orientated "double first-class university" and turns a new page of high-quality development.
Updated in: June, 2022
