In 2000, the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of the Graduate School; in 2011, it became the key construction university of the "985 Project Advantageous Discipline Innovation Platform"; in 2017, it entered the national "double first-class" construction sequence, and now has three departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics Science and Technology, Mechanics, and Control Science and Engineering. The three disciplines of aerospace science and technology, mechanics, control science and engineering were selected for the second round of "first-class disciplines" construction list. The university is now under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and in December 2012 and April 2021, MIIT and Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) signed an agreement to jointly build Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), and in December 2018, MIIT, the Ministry of Education (MOE), and Jiangsu Province jointly built NUAA.
In more than 70 years of school history, the people of China Southern Airlines, adhering to the tradition of "serving the country with aviation", follow the excellent school spirit of "unity, frugality, pragmatism, and innovation", and practice the school motto of "Wisdom surrounds everything, and the Way helps the whole world". The school motto of "Wisdom surrounds all things, and the Way helps the world" is practiced, and the school is constantly promoting the leapfrog development of the school. At present, the university has developed into a high-level research university with the characteristics of aerospace and civil aviation, focusing on engineering, combining science and technology, and coordinating the development of multiple disciplines such as engineering, science, economics, management and literature. The university now has 18 colleges and 218 research institutes, including 7 national key laboratories, 1 National Defense Science and Technology Industry Innovation Center, 1 Provincial-Ministry Co-Innovation Center, 1 National Local Joint Engineering Laboratory, 2 national teaching bases for basic engineering courses, 1 national base for cultivating top-notch students in basic disciplines, and 4 national experimental teaching demonstration centers. There are 66 undergraduate majors, 32 master's degree authorization points, 17 doctoral degree authorization points, 4 doctoral degree authorization categories, 16 master's degree authorization categories, and 17 postdoctoral mobile stations. There are 2 national key disciplines of aviation and astronautics science and technology and mechanics, 9 national key disciplines of secondary disciplines, 2 national key (cultivation) disciplines, and 10 national defense characteristic disciplines.
The university now has three campuses in Ming Palace, General Road and Tianmu Lake, covering an area of 3,046 mu and a building area of 1,893,000 square meters. The university library has a collection of more than 3,168,000 printed documents, 170 Chinese and foreign language databases, and more than 13,660,000 volumes of various electronic and digital literature and information resources. There are 3,715 faculty members, including 2,296 full-time teachers. Among the full-time teachers, there are 1,613 senior titles, 675 doctoral supervisors, 35 academicians, foreign academicians and "Qian Weichang Chair Professor" academicians, 97 other national high-level talents, 128 national young talents, and 964 talents selected for provincial and ministerial-level talent programs. There are 36,660 students (including 19,701 undergraduates, 16,138 graduate students and 821 international degree students) and 2,138 adult education students.
The school has become an important base for training high-level talents. Since its foundation, the school has trained more than 180,000 high-level specialists of various kinds for the country, and 24 academicians of the two academies, dozens of provincial and ministerial-level party and government leaders and generals, as well as a large number of famous scientific and technological experts and management specialists have emerged among its alumni. The university is committed to cultivating social pillars and engineering talents with sense of responsibility, spirit of innovation, international vision and humanistic sentiment, continuously promoting education and teaching reforms, gradually establishing an innovative talent cultivation system with the characteristics of SAC, and achieving a number of high-level teaching achievements. It has won 22 national teaching achievement awards, 32 national first-class undergraduate courses, 11 national boutique shared courses, 6 national boutique open courses, 6 national excellent teaching teams, 37 national first-class undergraduate major construction sites, 6 national featured majors, 8 key majors of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), 5 key majors of the Ministry of National Defense (MND), and 3 shortage majors (directions). Students of China Southern Airlines have made a number of remarkable achievements in various competitions at all levels: in the last five sessions of China International "Internet Plus" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for College Students, a total of 32 gold medals and 24 silver medals were won, which ranked among the top three in the national colleges and universities. In the "Challenge Cup" National College Students' Extracurricular Academic and Technological Works Competition, a total of 12 special prizes, 23 first prizes and 16 second prizes were won, and the "Cup of Excellence" was won for ten consecutive years. In the "Challenge Cup" China University Students' Entrepreneurship Program Competition, a total of 26 gold awards and 10 silver awards were won, and the "Winning Cup" was won for five consecutive years since 2014. In the International Drone Grand Prix, it won the Grand Prize for four consecutive times. In the "Zhou Peiyuan Cup" National Student Mechanics Competition, "China Software Cup" National Student Software Design Competition, Electronic Design Competition, Mechanical Innovation Design Competition and other competitions, students of NAC have won the laurels time and again.
The scientific research capacity of the university has been continuously enhanced. Since its establishment, the school has won 1,782 scientific and technological awards at the ministerial and provincial levels, including 82 national awards, 10 national scientific research platforms such as the National Key Laboratory of Aerospace Structural Mechanics and Control, and 91 ministerial and provincial scientific research platforms, which have contributed to a number of firsts for the Republic, including China's first unmanned large-scale target aircraft, the first unmanned nuclear test sampling aircraft, and the first unmanned aircraft on the plateau, The first unmanned helicopter, the first microflight vehicle, etc., and the successful launch of the independently-developed "Sky Patrol 1" microsatellite. In the field of basic research, the university has made a number of achievements in the fields of "generalized vortex theory of helicopter", "nonlinear dynamics theory of vibration control system", "theory of coordinated accuracy and tolerance distribution in aircraft manufacturing", etc., which are of great importance both at home and abroad. "Theory of Coordination Accuracy and Tolerance Distribution in Aircraft Manufacturing" and a number of other theoretical achievements with great influence at home and abroad. In the field of national defense science and technology, the university has participated in the pre-research, technical research and experimental research of almost all the important models of China's aviation, and a number of technologies have been successfully applied in space projects such as the "Chang'e" series, which have made important contributions to the development of China's aerospace industry. In the field of national economy, the university focuses on the national major strategic plan, actively promotes the cooperation among the government, industry, academia and research institutes, promotes the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and builds up the achievement transformation mode of "International Innovation Harbor + Campus Research Institutes + Joint Laboratories + Technology Transfer Institutes". It has been approved as a national technology transfer demonstration organization, a national intellectual property demonstration university, and a base for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and technology transfer for higher education institutions, providing strong support for economic and social development.
The university vigorously pushes forward the open running of schools, actively carries out collaborative innovation, has established a number of industry-university-research cooperation research bases; carries out a wide range of international exchanges and cooperation, and has established long-term and stable cooperative relations with nearly one hundred famous universities and research institutions abroad, forming a new pattern of open running of schools with the theme of "Serving the Aerospace and Civil Aviation Industry and Jiangsu Province, Facing the Nation and Facing the World". It has formed a new pattern of "serving aerospace and civil aviation, serving Jiangsu, facing the whole country and the world".
Following the example of Xixihe, we will harness the heavenly horses and aspire to herd the stars in the sky. Entering the new era, SAC will fully implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress, be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, under the leadership of the Party Group of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, insist on taking the road of reinforcing characteristics, the road of strengthening the university by talents, the road of innovation, the road of opening up in-depth, the road of cultural leadership, forge ahead, and move forward unswervingly towards the goal of becoming a world-class university with distinctive civil aviation and aerospace characteristics. We will strive to achieve the goal of a first-class university with distinctive aerospace and civil aviation characteristics, and make new and greater contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
