Founded in 1951, Donghua University (DHU) is a state-key university. It is also one of the first institutions of higher education authorized to confer Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in China. Over the past 50-plus years, Donghua University has developed from a single-disciplinary textile institute into a multi-disciplinary university with Engineering at its core and Natural Science, Management and Liberal Arts developing correspondingly.

At present, the university has 12 colleges: College of Textiles, College of Fashion & Art Design, School of Business & Management, College of Mechanical Engineering, College of Information Science & Technology, College of Computer Science & Technology, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology, College of Materials Science & Engineering, College of Environmental Science & Engineering, College of Humanities, College of Sciences and College of Foreign Languages. In addition to these 12 colleges, Donghua is home to the Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation, International Cultural Exchange School, School of Continuing Education, Department of Physical Education and DHU-Raffles Design Institute. DHU offers 5 postdoctoral research programs, 7 doctoral programs in first-level disciplines, 24 master’s programs in first-level disciplines, 6 professional master’s programs, 17 programs conferring the degree of Master of Engineering and 56 undergraduate programs across 10 disciplines including Engineering and Natural Science. Donghua University accommodates 1 first-level national key discipline, 5 second-level national key disciplines, 1 national key (developing) discipline, 7 Shanghai municipal-level key disciplines, and 12 research bases at the national, provincial and ministerial levels, 2 national bases for “University Discipline Innovation and Talent Introduction” and 1 national university science park.

Over 30,000 students are enrolled at DHU, including approximately 15,000 undergraduates, 6,000 postgraduates, 5,000 students pursuing continuing education and more than 4,500 international students. DHU employs approximately 2,300 faculty and staff members, including 1,300 full-time teachers, of whom 54.3% have doctoral degrees, and over 800 of whom are holders of senior professional titles and awardees in such programs as “Changjiang Scholars” (some chaired professors), “Thousand Young Talents,” and the “National Science Fund for Distinguished Scholars.”

The university has made continuous progress in scientific research in multiple disciplines. In 2012, 7 disciplines of DHU were listed as “Shanghai First-class University Disciplines for Development.” In the third round of first-level discipline rankings conducted by the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center, Textile Science & Engineering held the lead, earning the Triple Crown; two disciplines, Materials Science & Engineering and Design Science, ranked among the top 20% nationwide, with the latter being No.1 among institutions in Shanghai. Engineering, Chemistry and Materials Science were among the world’s top 1% in ESI rankings. DHU also entered the top 150 for its Engineering programs in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) launched by Shanghai Jiaotong University. DHU sticks to the tradition of universities cooperating with enterprises and research institutes to combine research and application, and by relying on national, provincial and ministerial research bases, tries to strengthen collaborative innovation so as to tackle key problems in science and technology and to promote economic growth and social progress. For three consecutive years, DHU has been on the list of “Top Ten Scientific and Technological Progresses,” and for 11 successive years, has obtained 19 national technology awards. The total number of its textile-related research theses abstracted in SCI, EI and ISTP exceeds the sum total of the other 9 noted textile institutions worldwide. In 2011, it was ranked 16th among China’s institutions of higher education in terms of the number of its international patents. Donghua University now endeavors to create a new pattern of discipline development with Textile as its main body and Materials Science and Design as the two supporting wings, and to accelerate the construction of the industry-oriented Collaborative Innovation Center for Key Textile Technologies, the regional Collaborative Innovation Center for Civil Aviation Composites, as well as the Collaborative Innovation Center for Fashion based in the Greater Donghua Fashion and Creative Industries Complex. Also, scientific research at DHU has been applied to applications in the fields of aviation and aerospace, military defense, architecture, environmental protection and new materials, and has contributed significantly to the development of strategic weapons as well as to the successful launch of the Shenzhou-series manned spacecraft and Tiangong-1.

Donghua University has established close relationships with over 100 world-renowned institutions of higher education, research institutes and enterprises. Joint educational programs have also been pushed forward between Donghua University and Carleton University (Canada), Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and Bunka Fashion College (Japan). In 2010, DHU was approved by the Ministry of Education to join the “20+20 Project” in which 20 universities from China were twinned with 20 universities from Africa, training professional talents from African countries in Textiles and Fashion Design. In 2014, the first Confucius Institute jointly prepared by DHU and Moi University (Kenya) was set up. In the same year, the Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation, jointly founded by DHU and the University of Edinburgh, received its first batch of students. Currently, negotiation over joint programs is underway between DHU and world-class fashion design institutes including the London College of Fashion.