Descended from Suzhou Industrial Junior College founded in 1911, Suzhou Vocational University (hereafter abbreviated as SVU), is a full-time school of higher vocational learning, approved by Jiangsu Provincial Government, put on record with the Ministry of Education and funded by Suzhou MunicipalGovernment. Since its founding in 1981, SVU, carrying forward the school motto of “industry, bravery, loyalty and integrity”, has become a regional brand school, well acclaimed by the public. The school authorities are committed to the schooling in the direction of socialism, to the fundamental tasks of helping both teachers and students make their way in moral discipline and career, and to the vigorous efforts to advance the structural supply-side reform of education and to strengthen the overall planning, while insisting upon the precedence of quality, precisely-targeted growth and the cultivation of talents with “good qualities, excellent skills and remarkable adaptability”, in the hope of achieving cooperative, innovative, inter-connecting and win-win outcomes in common with the local social and economic advancement, forging a nationwide top-notch quality school and ultimately upgrading it into an application-oriented undergraduate college. 

　　There are currently four campuses, respectively located at the Stone Lake, Ganjiang Road, Tanshan Hill, and Lishenong Alley, covering a total area of 1262 mu (about 841.34 hectares) with about 500,000 square meters in floor space of buildings. It boasts a collection of 1, 670,000 copies of paper booksand 360,000,000 RMB worth of equipments for scientific research and teaching. There are 12 schools or departments offering 56 specialties including science, engineering, arts, normal education, and P.E. for over14,000 full-time students. The school enjoys a galaxy of 796teachers, of whom 69 bear senior professional titles, 375 secondary senior professional titles and 79 per cent master’s degree or above. Furthermore, 1 teacher is entitled “middle-aged or young expert with prominent contributions in Jiangsu Province”, 3 candidates for “the project of peak talents in six fields in Jiangsu Province”, 19 candidates for Jiangsu “333 high level talent project”, 39 candidates for “Jiangsu blue project”, 1 “provincial-level prestigious teacher” and 3 teams are entitled “provincial-level excellent faculty team” and 3“provincial-level team in scientific and technological innovation.  

　　To address the shortage of badly-needed talents required by the local key industries and social undertakings, SVU is dedicated to cultivating high-quality technical and readily applicable talents by pushing forward teaching reform and fostering distinctive features in this field. It has secured 3 key specialties or experimental specialties of teaching reform listed by the Ministry of Education, 3 key specialty groups listed by Jiangsu Province under the 12th Five-Year Plan, 9 brand specialties or distinctive specialties at provincial level, 1 item from A-list of “Jiangsu higher school brand specialtiesproject” (phase one), and 3 provincial high-level backbone specialties.In addition, there are 8 excellentor qualitycourses at provincial level, 1 excellent course group at provincial level, 9 provincial-levelexcellent textbooks for higher learning, 13 provincial-level key textbooks, and 400 textbooks compiled by SVU’s teachers as chief or key editors. 

　　To this day, 93 comprehensive on-campus practical training bases have been built integrating teaching, training and service, with one listed by the Ministry of Education as “construction program of vocational practical training base” and 4 entitled “provincial-level training base”. SVU has signed comprehensive strategic cooperation agreements with Suzhou’s Wuzhong District Government, Xiangcheng District Government and Suzhou Quality Supervision Bureau, and has launched cooperation with the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Center for Information Industry Development, in an effort to advance an in-depth cooperation between school and the local authorities in an all-round way and throughout the whole process, another form of deepening the integration between industry and education. The schoolauthorities initiate the founding of Suzhou Vocational Education Group on Modern Equipment Manufacturing and Suzhou Vocational Education Group on Modern Photo-electricity. SVU has also established 19 enterprise or industry colleges and 339 outside-campus practical training bases to conduct in-depth school-enterprise cooperation with such renowned companies as Alibaba Network Technology Co., Ltdand Iflytek Co., Ltd, and the Hengtong Group. 

　　SVU also commits itself to accumulating technology and skills and providing such services for society. Itclosely combines technological innovation with the cultivation of innovative technical talents, and persists in the synergetic propulsion of knowledge innovation, technological innovation and achievement transformation, and social services. As a result, it has founded 3 project centers at provincial level, 5 research institutes (or bases) at provincial level, and 8 key research labs (or platforms) at municipal level. In the last five years the faculty of SVU has undertaken 770 research projects at various levels in different fields, with 6 at the national level and 22 at ministerial or provincial level, in sole or joint efforts. SVU has also won 86 awards for achievements in scientific research at provincial or municipal level, with 2for scientific and technological progress at provincial or ministeriallevel, 1 for achievements in philosophy and other social sciences at provincial level. The school has been granted 309 patents in total. 

　　In order to do its share in boosting the local economic growth and social undertakings, SVU has set up among others the Research Centre on the Cultural Brand of the Grand Canal,the Research Centre of the Wu Culture Inheritance and Innovation, and the Stone Lake Think Tank, offering references of decision-making for the local governments, industries and enterprises in a variety of fields, and undertaking research projects. All these efforts have contributed a lot to the protection of the Wu Culture, the inheritance and innovation of the silk crafts, the restoration or rebuilding of Suzhou’s ancient city walls, the appraisal of Suzhou’stouristcompetitiveness, the innovative development of mold-featured towns, etc.   

　　SVU lays stress on international cooperation and exchanges, embracing the state strategy of opening up domestic education and Jiangsu’s economic internationalization strategy, offering intellectual support for the going-global practice of the enterprises, and fueling “the Belt and Road Initiative” of the state. Centering on the development of the local industry and the intellectual demand, the schoolmakes efforts to introducehigh quality resources abroad in education by collaborating in specialty building, curriculum developing, teachers and students exchanges and credit transfer with the following schools among others: Australia’s Chisholm Institute, U.K’s University of Bolton, New Zealand’s Otago Polytechnic.The specialty programs of mechatronics, accounting and auditing run in collaboration withAustralia Chisholm Institutehave been recognized by Jiangsu Provincial Education Department as a high level, exemplary cultivation project for Chinese and foreign cooperation in running schools. Anindustry college has been established in Malaysia, offering degree programs of industrial robot technology for international students.In collaboration with the Training Department of Industry and Manufacture, and the Training Department of Culture, Art, Tourism and Sports under South African Higher Education Ministry, SVUcommits itself to cultivating skilled and managerial talents for China’s organizations stationed in South Africa involved in manufacture and engineering. The school’s “The Training Project of the Internationalized Talents in Advanced Manufacturing Technology” is listed as a High-skilled Talents Training Project under Jiangsu Province Excellent Talents Training Programs for Foreign students.SVU is a chairman member of the South-east Asian Coalition of Industry-Education Integration in Vocational Education, and a vice chairman member of China-South Africa Vocational Education Cooperative Coalition.  

　　SVU has won the following titles in succession: Unit of CivilizationJiangsu Province, the First Batch of Campuses of Civilization Jiangsu Province, the First Batch of ExemplaryColleges or Universitiesin Safe Campus ConstructionJiangsu Province, Advanced Unit of Vocational EducationJiangsu Province, Advanced Higher School in Scientific and Technological Undertakings Jiangsu Province, Model School of the Home of Teaching Staff Jiangsu Province, Advanced Collective in Higher School Graduates Employment Jiangsu Province, Advanced Collective of the Archives Work of Higher School Jiangsu Province, Suzhou’s Advanced Vocational School Serving Economic Transformation and Upgrading. It has been listed among the top 50 vocational colleges in China for years in a row and also granted Grade A in the inspection of talent-cultivating assessment for vocational colleges, and is one of Suzhou’s first exemplary talent trainingbasesand service outsourcing talent cultivating and training bases.  

　　　　(All the statistics updated to January, 2020)