Ningbo University (NBU) is a key university of Zhejiang, China and one of the universities in the country's “Shuang Yi Liu” (“Double First-Class”) Initiative, enjoying the joint support from the provincial government of Zhejiang, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ningbo Municipality, as well as from the State Oceanic Administration and Ningbo Municipality.

NBU was set up in 1986 with the donations from Sir Yue-Kong Pao, the shipping magnet in Hong Kong. Mr. Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name of Ningbo University in Chinese characters “Ning Bo Da Xue” to express his best wishes for the new-born university.

In the early years, NBU owed a lot to five prestigious universities in China for their great support, namely, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China, Peking University, and the former Hangzhou University.

In 1992, it was listed among the first batch of colleges and universities in China to admit students. In 1995, it passed the evaluation of the undergraduate education organized by the former State Education Commission (present MOE). In 1996, the former Ningbo University, Ningbo Teachers College and Zhejiang Fisheries College Ningbo Branch merged into one to become a new Ningbo University. In 2000, NBU was listed as the key university by Zhejiang Provincial Government in 2000. In 2011, the State Oceanic Administration and Ningbo Municipality agreed to jointly develop NBU. In 2012, it became a university co-funded by Zhejiang Provincial Government, the MOE and Ningbo Municipality. In 2015, it was selected as one of the first batch of key universities in Zhejiang Province. In 2017, it was approved as a “Shuang Yi Liu” university of the country.

NBU has received great support from a great many personages at home and abroad, especially Ningbo-native merchants overseas. Today's NBU has made way to the Top 100 in China in comprehensive strength.

NBU is a teaching and research-oriented university, with disciplines covering economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management, and art. Consisting of 24 colleges, the university has 7 Class-A disciplines and 6 Class-B disciplines of Zhejiang. According to ESI, NBU's engineering, clinical medicine, chemistry and materials science have ranked top 1% in the world.

There are 6 primary doctoral programs, 3 post-doctoral research stations, 30 primary master programs, 23 professional master programs including engineering master program and 75 undergraduate programs.

It is entitled to exempt students from postgraduate examinations,and toenroll international students having obtained Chinese government scholarships and students from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The campus is home to 16,469 undergraduate students, 6,923 graduate students, 2,368 international students (including 1,820 studying for academic degrees), and 12,431 students for continuing education.

NBU has got 2,826 faculty members,1,843 of whom are teachers.

There are 401 professors, 783 associate professors and 1,158 doctoral degree holders; 1 CAS academician, 1 CAE academician, 2 Canadian academicians, 1 academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), 16 people in the National Outstanding Talents Program, 2 members of the State Council Discipline Review Group, 7 people in the national “Bai-Qian-Wan Talent Program”, 1 “cultural master” conferred by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, 3 Changjiang Scholars, 3 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Fund, 15 persons enjoying special allowances from the State Council, 3 winners of the National Excellent Youth Fund, 14 winners of the New-Century Excellent Talents Program of the MOE, and 2 people funded by the Outstanding Young Teachers Funding Program of the MOE, 10 national and provincial outstanding contributing experts, 1 provincial-level special expert, 13 Qianjiang Scholars, and 18 excellent talents of Zhejiang Province.

Upholding the concept of “delivering the right to choose to students”, NBU has carried out the training model reform by giving students more alternatives in choosing their major. To date, NBU has won 1 first prize and 5 second prizes for national teaching achievements. There are 6 Distinctive Specialties, 3 comprehensive reform projects, 2 national outstanding talent training programs, 1 national teaching team, 2 national experimental teaching demo centers, 1 national virtual simulation center, and 1 national practice base for college students, 1 experimental reform zone for talent training of the MOE, 1 innovation experimental zone for talent training mode of the MOE, 1 national university cultural quality education base; 5 State-level Excellent Courses, 1 State-level Boutique Open Video Course, 4 courses for educational resource sharing, 4 national-level MOOCs, 3 national bilingual teaching demo courses, 2 courses of teach-international-students-in-English of the MOE, 1 reform project of industry-university collaboration of the MOE and 6 industry-university collaboration talent development projects of the MOE.

In terms of quality of postgraduate education, NBU ranks among Top 100 in China.

The university is a national-level self-employment innovation experimental area and a national university student innovation and entrepreneurship training base.

In 2017, it was recognized by the MOE as one of “the first batch of demo universities in deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform”. In 2018, it was rated as “Model Entrepreneurship University of Zhejiang Province” and “Zhejiang Mass Entrepreneurship Innovation Demo Base”.

The employment rate of its graduating students ranks among the top in the province, and is also one of the Top 50 in employment work in China.

To be geared to the strategic needs of the state and the region, NBU attaches great importance to academic, scientific and technological innovation. The campus is home to 1 national key laboratory cultivation base, 1 local joint engineering laboratory, 1 national university science park, and 1 international sci-tech cooperation base of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), 1 national-level achievement promotion agency, 2 key laboratories of the MOE, 1 international cooperation laboratory of the MOE, 1 engineering center of MOE, 1 provincial collaborative innovation center of MOE, 2 "111 plans" for discipline innovation and brains introduction base, 1 collaborative innovation service platform for efficient aquaculture, 1 research workstation for MOE, 1 key research base for social sciences of the State Sports General Administration, 8 key laboratories for Zhejiang, 1 key research base of philosophy and social sciences in Zhejiang, 1 key think tank in Zhejiang, 1 high-level innovation team in Zhejiang, 3 “2011 Collaborative Innovation Centers” in Zhejiang, and 2 new-type think tanks in Zhejiang and 1 China United Front Theory Research Association research base.

These years, NBU has won 1 second prize of the National Natural Science Award, 1 second prize of the National Technology Invention Award, and 2 second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, which are breakthroughs ever made in history. The research level in social sciences ranks among the top 10% of the national colleges and universities. It has obtained a Top 10 outstanding cases of industry-university cooperation. In 2017, it won the highest honor in the country for government-industry-university collaboration, and The Golden Bridge Award, the highest award in the national technology market, in 2018.

The university has established cooperation and exchanges with more than 180 higher institutions in more than 70 countries.

NBU has established a cooperative education institution with Angers University of France. The university offers other 3 Sino-foreign cooperative programs approved by MOE, including the China-Australia MBA program, the Sino-US mathematics and applied mathematics undergraduate program, and the China-Canada Hanber Project. Besides, it offers 17 master’s and 7 doctoral level internationalization majors and has run Confucius Institutes in cooperation with the University of Iceland and the Matafu University of Madagascar.

The university has established close ties with universities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, such as the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It has also signed cooperation protocols with about 30 universities in Taiwan, such as Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan Ocean University, Yunlin University of Science and Technology, and Taiwan’s Soochow University.

In 1993, NBU took the lead in Chinese Mainland in initiating student exchange programs with universities in Taiwan. To date, it has exchanged student visits with Taiwan universities for 24 times. Its exchange program with the Hong Kong Chinese University was listed as the “10,000 Talents Plan” project of MOE.

NBU has its main campus in the North Higher Education Park of Ningbo, and several other campuses like Meishan Campus and Botanical Garden Campus.

The campus covers an area of 202 hectares, with floor space of 974,600 square meters.

The existing fixed assets total 2.22 billion yuan (or 322 million US dollars), and the instruments and equipment total 980 million yuan in worth. There is a Ningbo Branch of Zhejiang Higher Education Digital Resource Center. It has a library of total area of 51,000 square meters, with a collection of 2.51 million paper books and 2.3 million e-books. The university has got two affiliated hospitals (one under construction), 10 non-direct affiliated hospitals and 9 teaching hospitals.

Today's Ningbo University adheres to the motto of “Seeking the Truth from Facts and Putting Knowledge to Practice” and the spirit of “inclusiveness, self-improvement, pragmatic innovation, and keeping pace with the times”, pressing ahead towards the goal of becoming a research-oriented university with distinctive characteristics.