History of Ankang University (AKU)

Ankang University (AKU), administered by the Shaanxi Provincial Government, is the only public university in Ankang City. The university’s primary mission is to train applied talents with high comprehensive quality and creative minds. The origin of AKU can be trace back to the Ankang University of 1958, which was suspended in 1963 because of national economic difficulties.After reopened in August 1978, it was renamed “Ankang Teacher's College” with the approval of the Shaanxi Provincial Government in June 1984. In February 2006, with the authorization of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, it was approved as an undergraduate university mainly offering undergraduate programs with bachelor degrees for both domestic students and overseas students.

About Ankang City

AKU is located in Ankang City, in southern Shaanxi Province, among the Qinling-Bashan Mountains, lying on the shore of Hanjiang River, adjacent to Hubei Province, Chongqing municipality and Sichuan Province. Ankang city is the geometric center of The Central Shaanxi, Chengdu-Chongqing and Jianghan Economic Zones. Ankang city boasts an extraordinary ecological and geographical environment with pleasant climate, rich natural resources and beautiful landscape, and also compromises a diversity of traditions and cultures, which together makes the city to be an ideal place to live and study.

General Information of AKU

Now AKU is composed of two campuses: Jiangnan Campus and Jiangbei Campus, covering an area about 55 hectare in total. The present AKU, with 11,252 enrolled full-time undergraduate students, consists of 14 affiliated schools, including International Education School, School of Mathematics & Statistics, School of Electronic & Information Engineering, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, School of Literature & Media, School of Marxism, School of Foreign Studies, School of Physical Education, School of Art, School of Education, School of Economics & Management, School of Modern Agriculture & Biotechnology, School of Tourism & Resources Environment, and Medical School, offering 41 undergraduate degree programs, covering about 10 academic subjects, such as Law, Education, Literature, Science, Engineering, Agriculture, Management, Art, Economics, and Medical Science. Currently, AKU has established 4 key characteristics disciplines: Modern Agricultural Research (including Tea, Konjak, Pig-breeding and Se-enriched foodstuff), Pedagogical Education (characterized by teachers training), Humanity Social Science(characterized by the folk cultural study of southern Shaanxi), and the protection and development studies of natural resources in the Qinling and Daba Mountains(including ecological economy, ecotourism, and research of water resources of Hanjiang River).

Currently, AKU has a high level team of faculty and staff of nearly 800 members, including 520 full-time teachers, 188 professor or associate professor holders, 393 master or doctoral degree holders, 124 teachers with industry engineering background,  6 provincial well-known teachers and 1 famous contemporary Chinese writer. Also, 17 teachers are employed as PHD or Master supervisor for other universities and 144 talents are employed by AKU as our counselors, visiting professors and part-time teachers, including academicians, well-known experts and scholars, and talents with industry working background.

Scientific Research

AKU owns 11 provincial scientific research platforms, 12 municipal scientific research platforms and 9 university scientific research centers, including Sericulture Key Laboratory of Shaanxi Province, Research Center of Folk Cultural in Southern Shaanxi, Ecological Economy Research Center of Southern Shaanxi, Se-enriched Circular Agriculture Development Research Institute and Research center of rural vitalization in Southern Shaanxi, and establishes 6 innovation teams. By now, teachers of AKU have undertaken 1313 research projects in different levels and different categories, published about 5724 academic articles in domestic or foreign academic publications and 343 books or teaching materials, obtained 112 national patents, and won 403 prizes and awards at different levels and fields, including scientific and technical awards, philosophy and social sciences awards and teaching achievement awards. “The Journal of Ankang University” has been entitled as the outstanding social science journal among national universities and the national top-quality journal among regional universities.

Applied Talents Cultivation

Upholding in the direction of “serve the elementary education, serve the rural issues, serve the regional economical and social development”, AKU strengthens the central importance of teaching, energetically explores the cultivation mode of applied talents, vigorously improves its education conditions and quality. The reputation of AKU has obviously been improved, and is showing a good trend of development. In December 2014, AKU has become the pilot university of transformation among Shaanxi provincial public undergraduate universities.

Upholding the motto “Sincere in learning, Initiative in action, Tenacious in pursuing, and Progressive in innovation”, AKU energetically promotes the reform of teaching and education methods, and perfects its teaching quality guaranteeing system. Since 2006, the university has undertaken 20 educational reform projects at provincial and ministerial level, has been awarded 18 teaching achievement awards at provincial level, and has established 27 vocational skills verification platforms of at both national and provincial levels. In the past 3 years, AKU has undertaken 163 national-level or provincial-level innovation and entrepreneurship training projects for undergraduate students. And students of AKU have been awarded 200 national  awards and 399 provincial and ministerial awards in different competitions. Employment rate of undergraduate graduates averaged to more than 90 percent in the past 3 years.

International Cooperation and Exchange

Insisting on developing the university with an open mind, AKU has conducted substantial educational cooperation with more than 30 overseas universities in USA, UK, France, Italy, Poland, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan Region, having sent hundreds of students and teachers to study abroad through various joint programs.

Overseas Students Cultivation

With the development of AKU, scale of overseas students rises at a steady pace. In 2018, AKU established International Education School, and positively accepts overseas students from B&R countries, providing extraordinary conditions for them to live and study here. Now, about 100 international students, from 13 countries, are enrolled and studying different undergraduate programs in AKU.

Overseas High-level Talents Recruitment    

To meet the needs of further development, AKU welcomes talents from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds to join us. Overseas doctorate holders with rich research experiences and high-quality academic achievements with great potential are preferred. For more detailed information about overseas doctoral holders recruitment, please contact the International Cooperation and Exchange Office via akuoverseas@hotmail.com.