One of China’s most prestigious higher education institutions, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), commemorated its 130th founding anniversary Wednesday with a grand formal ceremony hosted at its sprawling Minhang campus. The milestone gathering drew a diverse lineup of high-profile attendees, including senior officials from China’s Ministry of Education and the Shanghai municipal government, as well as institutional leaders and distinguished scholars from more than 130 universities across the globe. Also in attendance were representatives from the university’s key strategic collaborative partners, descendants of early pioneers who shaped SJTU’s century-long development, retired and incumbent university leadership, and elected delegates from the school’s teaching faculty and current student body.
In his keynote address to the assembled guests, Xiong Sihao, member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Education and vice-minister of education, laid out clear expectations for the university’s next chapter. He urged SJTU to leverage its century of accumulated expertise to deliver new, transformative contributions to China’s national push to build global leadership in education, scientific research, and talent development.
Speaking on behalf of the university, SJTU president Ding Kuiling outlined the institution’s bold strategic vision as it enters its 131st year of operation. Ding stressed that to reach its long-term goals, the university must prioritize cultivating a world-class hub for exceptional talent through deliberate, long-term strategic planning, generate groundbreaking original research and lead global academic progress through proactive, forward-thinking initiative, and build an open, interconnected academic ecosystem rooted in a global outlook.
A day ahead of the main anniversary ceremony, the university unveiled a new statue of Qian Xuesen, widely known as the founding father of China’s space program and a 1934 graduate of SJTU, on its Minhang campus. Inscribed on the statue’s stone pedestal is a message Qian left to his alma mater: “In the 21st century, (the faculty shall) strive to build SJTU into a world-class university.”
Reaffirming the university’s long-term roadmap during Wednesday’s celebration, Ding announced SJTU’s official timeline for global academic leadership: the institution aims to secure a place among the world’s leading top-tier universities by 2035, and rise to join the very top ranks of global higher education by 2050, fulfilling the vision set out by its famous alumnus decades ago.