In March 1999, Yancheng Teachers University was established on the basis of the merger between two former independent colleges(both of which were founded in 1958), namely Yancheng Teachers College and Yancheng Institute of Education. In 2002 the former Yancheng Business School, a national key polytechnic, was incorporated into YTU.
Under the direct auspices of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, YTU is a comprehensive university whose fields of study cover many branches of learning, namely philosophy, literature, history, education, science, economics, law and engineering. The university now offers 37 specialties (21 of which are non-pedagogy-oriented) in undergraduate studies in 15 schools: Liberal Arts, Economics, Jurisprudence & Politics, Social Sciences, Foreign Studies, Music, Physical Education, Fine Arts, Education, Business, Urban Planning & Resource Environment, Mathematics, Physics & Electronics, Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Life Science & Technology, and Informatics. The university also runs a non-government-funded college, namely the Yellow Sea College. Besides, the university has 3 Provincial key specialties and 4 provincil-level key laboratories. At present, the university enrolls 17,000 full-time students. In addition, YTU is the authorized coordinator of higher institutions of North Jiangsu.
YTU is proud of its qualified and devoted teaching and administration staff, among whom 888 are full-time teachers, including 74 full professors and 271 associate professors, nearly 40 of them being postgraduate or doctoral supervisors with Nanjing University, East China Normal University, Tongji University, Hehai University, Soochow University, Xuzhou Normal University and Anhui Normal University.
Endowed with a pleasant climate, picturesque surroundings and a favorable academic atmosphere, YTU is an ideal place for teaching, research and learning. With 2 campuses of Tongyu and Xinchang, the university covers an area of 235 acres and a floor space of 424,200m2. To date, it has set up 17 research institutes, including Jiangsu Provincial Research Centre Coastal Development, Centre for Process Studies, Research Institute of Applied Mathematics, Research Institute of Applied Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Research Institute of New 4th Army. The University library stocks collections in excess of 1,700,000 items. And an easy access to the Internet and to the state-of-the-art teaching, living and sports facilities on the two campuses makes a rich learning and living experience at YTU.
YTU always attaches great importance to educational reform and gives priority to educational quality. The quality education YTU offers is best highlighted by the high employment rate of its graduates, which has remained above 97% for several consecutive years. In addition, the university has won quite a number of awards and titles at both the provincial and national levels. What deserves to be mentioned in particular is that in 2007 YTU passed with distinction the quality supervision administered by China’s Ministry of Education.
Dedicated to discovering and realizing the potential of the students, YTU is ideally positioned to respond to the cultural, economic and educational environment in the 21st century China and is building for a first-class teachers university in the near future.