With the strategic adjustment of the economic structure of China and in order to meet the urgent needs of the software industry for talents, Software College, as a national demonstration college of software, was set up in 2001 with the ratification of the Ministry of Education and the Committee of Development and Reform of China. Since it was established, the college has been carrying out the outline on developing and promoting software industry formulated by the State Council and the government of Shandong Province.
It also explores actively the reform in higher education system and mechanism as well as the operation model of pluralistic investment in education. As a result, it achieves a successful cooperative running of a school by building on the advantages of the computer discipline of Shandong University.
Market-oriented, the college implements teaching practice according to international principles with the goal of cultivating high-level, engineering-typed and internationalized talents. In the course construction, we lay more emphases on the combination of computer with such related disciplines as mathematics, on such contents as CMM, engineering management, system analysis and system design, and on practice teaching by constructing an interactive system of certification, training and practice with international IT field. In the textbook construction, we introduce original English textbooks from abroad: more than 50% courses are taught in English or in bilingual form. In the international exchange, we lay more emphases on the all-round cooperation with high-level universities abroad in course construction, faculty engagement, scientific research, students exchange, etc. Top students will obtain the opportunity of being exchanged to excellent foreign universities.
In order to meet the needs of local economy and IT industry, the college cultivates talents according to the strategic objects of national economy of Shandong Province and informationizaiton construction. We set up Software Engineering Department and Digital Media Department:, establish a “2+X”cultivating mode, offer four branches: software engineering, embedded system, electricity software and digital media technology, develop various cultivating modes such as CIMS-oriented, military informationizaiton-oriented, and Japan’s software market-oriented cultivating modes: introduce latest knowledge and form, home and abroad, and frontier theory and technology into cultivating system. By doing so, we bridge the gap between the traditional education and social requirements. There is an optimistic prospect of employment for graduates.
In the college, there are 24 labs, 1052 computers, a dozen of servers of various kinds, campus-wide network, 19 multimedia classrooms, 4 aural classrooms each containing 80 seats, High Performance Computing Center of Shandong Province, one of the first 12 main nodes of “China Grid” , whose investment adds up to 15,400,000 Yuan and whose aggregated computing power amounts to 13 Tflops and storage capacity 18TB, 50 practice bases constructed in well-known enterprises home and abroad which provide students with a platform to participate in the development of projects, explore manufacturing procedure of software industry and software market, learn and apply software developing and managing knowledge and promote innovation ability.
The college lies in Software Garden of Jinan Hi-tech Development Zone, a base of national level. With an area of 400 mu and structures of 150,000 square meters, the campus stands against mountains and enjoys fresh air and beautiful scenery. The whole environment is a combination of university culture, digital technology, opening-up idea and environmentalism. The imposing buildings stand there elegantly. They reveal both the flavor of the new age of the advanced technology and the culture of humanism. It is really a college with lasting appeal.
The Software College enrolls different types of students, including 4-year undergraduates, “2+2” undergraduates, students who can get a bachelor’s degree of software engineering as their second degree, and students who can get a master’s degree of software engineering. The college has a faculty of 140 teachers, 1323 students at present, including 863 undergraduates and 440 graduates. We plan to recruit 200—300 new undergraduates and 150—200 masters of software engineering each year.