Kunming University of Science and Technology (KUST) () is in

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

, the capital city of

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

Province,

Southwestern China Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Xizang. Geography Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, ...

. As the goal by 2010, KUST was to become a key university with a strong science and engineering background. The university is to be developed into an important provincial training base for advanced technical personnel, a research base for applied fundamental research and a

hi-tech High tech refers to "high technology". It may also refer to: * High-tech architecture, an architectural style that emerged in the 1970s * HiTech, a computer chess program * Hi-Tech Automotive, a car builder and automotive design house * Hi-Tech ( ...

research, an

industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

base for hi-tech, and a research consulting center for the national social and economic development. Yunnan University Science Park (YNUSP) was established as an experimental site of University Science Park in 1999 and was awarded the status of national university science park in May 2001. The park is supported by Yunnan University, Kunming University of Science & Technology, and Yunnan Normal University.

Brief Introduction

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.

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

praised KUST “a famous university in China” in early 2015 during an inspection tour of Yunnan province. KUST has 3 campuses, all located in Kunming, the capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan province. 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.

History

Early in 1925, the beginning departments of KUST started admitting undergraduate students for bachelor degrees. In September 1954, KUST, formerly called KIT (Kunming Institute of Technology) became an independent public higher education institution. In 1999, the former KIT and former Yunnan Polytechnic University amalgamated into the current KUST.

Academics

Accreditation and memberships

KUST is a member of SAP University Alliances.

Programs

With the current 29 faculties (schools) covering the fields ranging from science, engineering and economics to administration, arts, law and education, KUST offers a complete list of degree programs including Ph.D., MS., MSEng., MEng, MA, BS, BSEng and BA, as well as programs including

post-doctorate A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

, preparatory,

continuing education Continuing education is the education undertaken after initial education for either personal or professional reasons. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada. Recognized forms of post-secondary learning activities within the d ...

vocational training Vocational education is education that prepares people for a Skilled worker, skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self em ...

and

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

training for international students.

Faculties

Graduate School Division of Life and Medical Sciences Faculty of Life Science and Technology Center for Pharmaceutical Sciences and Engineering Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering Medical School Department of Clinical Medicine Department of Basic Medicine Faculty of Agriculture and Food Department of Agricultural Mechanization Department of Agricultural Electrification Department of Agricultural Hydraulic Engineering Department of Food Science & Engineering Department of Food Quality & Safety Institute of Primate Translational Medicine Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering Department of Metallurgical Engineering Department of New Energy Science and Engineering Department of Energy and Power Engineering Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering Department of Materials Physics and Chemistry Department of Metallic Material Science Department of Inorganic & Non-metallic Material Science Department of Material Process Engineering Department of Gemmology and Materials Technology Materials Experiment and Testing Center Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering Department of Environmental Engineering Department of Environmental Science Department of Renewable Resource Science and Technology Faculty of Land Resources Engineering Department of Geosciences Department of Land Information and Mapping Engineering Department of Resource Exploration Engineering Department of Mineral Process Engineering Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering Department of Packaging Engineering Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation Department of Computer Science Department of Automation Department of Telecommunication Engineering Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Electric Power Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Hydraulic Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics Department of Civil Engineering Department of Engineering Mechanics Department of Municipal Engineering Department of Construction Management Institute of Building Environment and Energy Engineering Faculty of Architecture and City Planning Department of Architecture Department of Urban and Rural Planning Department of Landscape Architecture Faculty of Chemical Engineering Department of Chemical Engineering Department of Process Equipment and Control Engineering Department of Biomass Engineering Faculty of Transportation Engineering Department of Traffic Engineering Department of Traffic and Transportation Department of Logistics Engineering Department of Vehicle Engineering Faculty of Civil Aviation and Aeronautics Faculty of Public Security and Emergency Management Department of Safety Engineering Faculty of Management and Economics Department of Business Administration Department of Accounting Department of Applied Economics Department of Finance Department of Marketing Department of Management Science and Information System Law School Center of Criminal Law Center of Constitution and Administrative Law Center of Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center of Civil and Commercial Law Center of Economic Law Center of Laws of Southeast Asia and International Law Center of Theories of Jurisprudence Yunnan Provincial Institute for Local Legislation Yunnan Provincial Institute of Intellectual Property Development Faculty of Science Department of System Science and Applied Mathematics Department of Electronic Science and Applied Physics Department of Applied Chemistry Faculty of Art and Communication Department of Environmental Design Department of Industrial Design Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Department of Visual Communication Department of Fine Arts School of Marxism Teaching & Research Centre of Fundamental Principles of Marxism Teaching & Research Centre of Sinicized Marxism Teaching & Research Centre of Ideological and Political Education Teaching & Research Centre of Development of Modern Chinese Society Research Centre of Philosophy and Social Sciences Education Centre of Humanistic Quality Faculty of Foreign Languages and Cultures Department of English Language and Literature Department of College English Teaching Department of English Teaching for Non-English Major Postgraduates MTI Education Center City College Department of Architecture Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Information Engineering Department of Civil Engineering Department of Art and Design Department of Accounting Department of Language Enhancement Department of Management and Economics Department of Earth Sciences Department of Public Foreign Language Teaching Department of Sports Department of General Core Courses Department of Communication Engineering Department of Traffic Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Logistics Engineering School of International Education School of Continuing Education Oxbridge College

Students

KUST recruits students from all over China, including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. In addition, KUST is authorized to recruit international students for degree programs ranging from Bachelor to Master and Ph.D. There are about 28,000 students studying at KUST; among them, nearly 2,000 were graduate students (2004). KUST offers 64 Bachelor programs, 49 Master programs, and eight Ph.D. program areas. There are three state-authorized post-doctoral stations, one state-level key academic subject, and 14 province-level key academic subjects.

Staff

The staff numbers about 3,844 including academic and non-academic ones. Nearly 1,100 are professors and associate professors, and about 1,600 are full-time teaching staffs. There is one academician of China Academy of Engineering working for KUST and there are 17 academicians of China Academy of Science and of China Academy of Engineering jointly working for KUST.

Campuses and facilities

KUST is composed of three

campuses A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

, Chenggong, Lianhua, and Xinying. All are in Kunming City, occupying an area of about 120 hectares. The buildings on the campuses occupy over 730,000 square meters, and many important construction projects are in progress. The

university library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

has about 1.7 million volumes of books and periodicals, and the library is authorized as a state-level research document collection unit. KUST has founded a state-level engineering research center, two provincial and/or ministerial level test stations, two research and development centers, two key laboratories of provincial level, and one class-A design and research institute. There are 32 research institutes, 13 research laboratories, and 13 research centers.

Rankings and Reputation

In 2023, KUST ranked 401-500th globally by the

Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

(ARWU). The 2023 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranked KUST at #332 in the world based on their publications for the period 2018–2021. As of 2025, the Best Chinese Universities Ranking ranked KUST 2nd best in

Province after Yunnan University and 117th nationwide.

Exchange and cooperation

Domestic

The university has ties with over 100 domestic local governments, institutions of higher education and research, as well as enterprises. The research activities in KUST play an important and critical role in

Province as well as in the southwest region of China. For the past two years, the increment of the research fund for KUST took a proportion of over two-thirds in the total increment for all the universities in Yunnan Province.

International

It has established cooperative and exchange relationships with nearly 70 universities in about 30 countries. One is

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

References

External links

*http://www.kmust.edu.cn/ {{authority control Universities and colleges in Kunming 1954 establishments in China Technical universities and colleges in China