Suzhou University of Science and Technology (SUST) was established on September 1, 2001, with the approval of the National Ministry of Education and the Government of Jiangsu Province, through the merging of the former Suzhou Institute of Urban Construction and Environmental Protection and the former Suzhou Railway Teachers College. The newly established university is a multi-disciplinary institution of higher education with engineering as its focus, covering other well-coordinated disciplines as engineering, technology, natural sciences, liberal arts, management and art. Centering upon undergraduate programs, actively developing postgraduate programs and concurrently carrying out the adult further education, the University undertakes the responsibility of training application-oriented talents.
Situated in New District, the west of Suzhou, SUST now consists of three campuses: Jiangfeng Campus, Shihu Campus and Tianping Campus, with a total area of 2,011 mu (approximately 134 hectares) in addition to a new campus area of 727 mu (approximately 48 hectares) to be constructed. SUST has 21 teaching departments such as Department of Architecture, and 34 institutes and service organizations such as Institute of Applied Technology of Environmental Protection. The University offers 42 undergraduate programs covering 7 general fields, namely engineering, natural sciences, arts and humanities, management, history, law and agriculture. As of 2006, SUST boasts an enrolment of 13,837 full time students on campus, including 12,159 undergraduate students and 316 postgraduate students. SUST presently offers 10 master programs: Urban Planning and Design, Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, World History, Disaster Prevention and Reduction Engineering and Protection Engineering, History of Particular Subjects, Fundamental Mathematics, Applied Chemistry, Municipal Engineering and Ethics. There are 3 key provincial disciplines: Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering and World History; 1 provincially featured specialty: Urban Planning and Design; 3 key construction sites of provincially featured discipline: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and History; 2 key provincial laboratories: Environmental Science and Engineering Lab, and Structural Engineering Lab; 3 construction sites of the Fundamental Experiment Teaching Model Center of Jiangsu province.