Universities

Shandong Jianzhu University (SJU), founded in 1956, is in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province and a historic cultural city. It has grown into an applied research university focused on engineering, especially civil engineering and architecture, with coordinated development across engineering, science, management, literature, law, agronomy, and art. The campus covers more than 160 hectares with about 700,000 square meters of buildings. There are 20 schools (departments), 64 undergraduate programs, 4 research (design) institutes, and over 26,800 full-time students. SJU is described as the only university in China designated to cultivate doctoral talent for green architecture to meet special national needs, and the only university in Shandong that has passed national professional evaluation (certification) for all civil engineering majors. It was the first undergraduate university in Shandong in the national industry–education integration demonstration project. ESI engineering ranks among the top 1% worldwide. Architecture and civil engineering are first-class disciplines in Shandong; architecture is listed as a high-level advantageous and characteristic discipline. Civil engineering, building environment and energy application, urban and rural planning, and water supply and sewerage engineering are provincial high-level application key construction majors. Architecture, civil engineering, electrical engineering and automation, and environmental design have been rated national characteristic majors. The university has strong research strength in new urbanization, building industrialization, green building, smart city, and ancient building fields )

Shandong Normal University was established in 1956 in Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province. It operates across two campuses and maintains a strong academic focus on teacher education and humanities, with additional programmes in social sciences, natural sciences, and management. The university integrates elements of Qilu cultural tradition into its teaching and research environment. Its library holds extensive collections, and it hosts multiple discipline-specific research centres. Student enrolment spans undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels across several schools and faculties.

Shandong University is among the founding institutions of modern Chinese higher education. Its main body, Shandong Imperial College (Shandong Da Xue Tang), was established in 1901 as the second national university in China after the Imperial University of Peking, and the first university founded and run under a chartered constitution. The university has 8 campuses in three cities — Jinan, Qingdao, and Weihai — covering over 533 hectares. It has 4 affiliated hospitals, 3 non-subordinate affiliated hospitals, and 11 teaching hospitals. Teaching and administrative staff number about 10,200 (including Weihai Campus and 3 affiliated hospitals). Full-time students total about 60,000: 41,437 undergraduates, 16,607 postgraduates, and 2,456 international students. Faculty include 1,107 professors, among them 907 Ph.D. supervisors. As a comprehensive university, it covers 13 general disciplines: philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, military science, management, and fine arts. It has 40 first-level doctoral programs, 55 first-level master’s programs, 28 professional doctoral and master’s programs, 116 undergraduate programs, and 38 mobile post-doctoral research stations. Key discipline figures include 2 national key first-level disciplines (including 8 second-level), 14 national key second-level disciplines, 3 key national second-level disciplines (incubating), and 70 provincial key disciplines )

Shandong University of Finance and Economics is a provincial university in Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, formed in 2011 through the merger of two earlier institutions founded in 1952 and 1986. It operates across four campuses and comprises 24 schools delivering 62 undergraduate, 73 graduate, and 9 doctoral programmes. The university hosts around 33,000 full-time students and employs over 1,900 academic staff, including more than 900 professors and associate professors. Its teaching and research focus strongly on economics, finance, management, and related social sciences, with 16 provincial-level key disciplines and several dedicated research bases in regional economic development, public finance, and service industry innovation. Faculty members hold national and provincial honours, including Taishan Scholar titles and recognition under national talent programmes. SDUFE maintains an open approach to academic collaboration, supporting domestic and international exchange as part of its institutional ethos.

It focuses on applied talent cultivation and offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs, with the right to recommend postgraduates exempt from admission examinations. Jinan is the provincial capital (“city of springs”), near Mount Tai and the Yellow River; Shandong is described as China’s third-largest economic province and the home of Confucianism. The university has four campuses covering over 2.43 million square meters, 26 schools, and 3 post-doctoral research centers. Disciplines include Economics, Law, Education, Literature, History, Science, Technology, Management, and Art. Six disciplines, including Chemistry and Material Science, are in the ESI top 1%. It has cooperative relationships with 120 international counterparts in countries including the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. More than 4,000 international students have graduated from the university.