Founded in June 1951, Donghua University was originally named East-China Textile Institute of Science and Technology. In September 1985, the name of it was changed to China Textile University and changed once again to Donghua University in August 1999. It has been a state-key university since 1960 and is one of the first educational institutions in China that have been authorized to confer all the three-level degrees: bachelors, masters, and doctorate.
Located in Shanghai, Donghua University consists of the Yan’an Rd. Campus, the Songjiang Campus and the Xinhua Rd. Campus, covering a total area of 147 hectares. The beautiful campuses have gained it the title of “Garden-like Unit of Shanghai”. Sticking to the idea of “relying the university’s prosperity on good concepts, outstanding academic works and excellent management”, Donghua University has won great reputation both at home and abroad.
After half a century’s development, Donghua University has developed from a single disciplinary textile institute into a multi-disciplinary university with engineering as its main focus and natural science, management and liberal arts developing correspondingly. At present Donghua University has 12 colleges including College of Textiles, College of Fashion & Art Design, College of Material Science & Engineering, Glorious-Sun School of Business & Management, College of Mechanical Engineering, College of Information Science & Technology, College of Computer Science & Technology, College of Environmental Science & Engineering, College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, College of Foreign Languages, College of Basic Sciences, College of Humanities.
Donghua University has three postdoctoral programs and has been authorized to offer 24 doctoral programs, 48 master programs and 39 bachelor programs. The disciplines of Donghua fall into nine major categories including engineering and natural science. It also has four state-key disciplines, three Shanghai municipal key disciplines, a batch of state and ministry key laboratories, national and ministry engineering research centers.
Donghua University has a total enrolment of over 20,000 students and a faculty and staff of over 3,300, including four academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, two professors specially engaged as "Changjiang Scholars" and about 600 full and associate professors. A great number of overseas students from 83 countries have graduated from the university.
Known as the cradle for textile professionals in China, Donghua University adheres to its good school spirit of “strictness, diligence, concreteness and innovation”. In the past few years, students of Donghua University have won a lot of high-grade awards and prizes in such national and international competitions as International Collegiate Programming Contest and so on. The employment rate for postgraduate students has reached 100% for six successive years. In 2003 and 2004, the employment rates for graduates were 97.07% and 98.30% respectively, while the rates for graduates from the vocational college reached 97.90% and 98.80% separately.
Backed up by state-key disciplines including textile engineering, material science, textile chemistry and dyeing & finishing engineering, fashion design and engineering, Donghua University concentrates its efforts on the cross-disciplinary building.
At the same time, Donghua University has always paid great attention to international exchange and cooperation. It has established cooperative relationships with over 60 institutions for higher education as well as well-known enterprises around the world.