Chang’an University, or CHU, is a national key university. Directly under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, it is listed under Project 211, Project 985 Innovation Platform, and Double First-Class Project of China. Located in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, CHU has two campuses and three training bases, with a total area of 250 hectares.

CHU was originally known as Xi’an Highway University, which was built in 1951. Merged with Xi’an Engineering Institute and Northwest Institute of Construction Engineering, it was later renamed as Chang’an University in 2000. Since 2005, CHU has been successively financed and supported by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transport, Shaanxi Provincial People’s Government, Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

CHU has 25 schools (departments, and centers), that cover the entire process of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral education and cultivationin 11 major fields, namely, philosophy, economics, law, literature, natural sciences, engineering, management, education, agriculture, arts, and interdisciplinary studies. In the new era, facing major national strategies, a number of physical research institutes have been established, such as Modern Transportation Research Institute, Qinling Ecological Environment Research Institute, Yellow River Research Institute, Sichuan-Tibet Railway Engineering Research Institute, and Xiong’an Modern Industry Research Institute. At present, there are 4 academicians, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Singapore Academy of Engineering, and more than 1,400 professors and associate professors, including 505 doctoral supervisors and 1,614 graduate supervisors. We have over a hundred outstanding talents who undertake national key research and development plans and major engineering projects. There are currently over 25,000 full-time undergraduate students, over 13,000 doctoral and master's students, and over 2,300 international students.

CHU currently has 13 first-tier doctoral disciplines, 4 categories of professional doctoral degrees, 34 first-tier master’s disciplines, and 21 categories of professional master’s degrees. There are 9 postdoctoral research centers. Seven disciplines, including engineering, earth sciences, materials science, environmental science and ecology, general social sciences, chemistry and computer science, have entered the top 1% of ESI globally, with engineering in the top 1‰, and environmental science & ecology, materials science, and earth science all in the top 3‰. There are currently 84 undergraduate majors, of which 50 have been selected as first-class construction majors in the national "Double Ten Thousand Plan", and 28 have passed the national engineering education certification. The university is firmly ranked among the top 100 universities in China. In the U.S. News & World Report rankings, the university’s discipline of “Civil and Transportation Engineering” is ranked 8th in the world. CHU is known for cultivating highway transportation talents and the "golden card" for technological innovation.

CHU has achieved fruitful results in education, and has sent over 340,000 outstanding graduates both domestically and internationally, including over 10,000 international students. Outstanding alumni are all over the world. A group of "chief engineers" have emerged, represented by Su Quanke, chief engineer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, who undertakes major engineering construction, and a group of "scientists", represented by Ding Han, an academician of the CAS Member, who leads the academic frontier, represented by Feng Zhenglin, the director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the political elites and the business elites who have created a group of listed companies. CHU has been selected as the "National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Practical Education in Higher Education Institutions" and "National Universities with Typical Experience in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform for College Students".

CHU research platform is well-equipped, with 5 national-level experimental teaching centers, 19 provincial-level experimental teaching demonstration centers, 2 national engineering laboratories, 1 international joint laboratory, 1 national applied mathematics center, and 91 provincial-level key research bases. The only "Connected and Automated Vehicle Test Field" for domestic universities has been recognized by the Ministry of Transport as one of the three "Autonomous Driving Closed Field Testing Bases" in China.

CHU is committed to original innovation and has built a  “six-in-one” scientific and technological innovation system featuring “big team, big platform, big project, big achievement, big service, and big contribution”.The annual scientific research funding has exceeded 960 million yuan. Over the past five years, the university has taken the lead in 13 national key R&D programs and major national sci-tech initiatives, as well as 44 major research projects. It has been awarded two National Science and Technology Progress Awards and secures an average of over 1,000 authorized patents annually. We have successively overcome a complete set of scientific and technological difficulties in highway construction in special areas, developed a warning system for loess landslides and large-scale collapses, and solved the risk prevention and control problems of ground fissures in subway construction. In the new era, we actively layout interdisciplinary strategies such as "smart+, green+, and big data+", aiming to transform and upgrade industries in the future.

CHU pays attention to the promotion of achievements, and scientific research achievements are applied to the construction of super projects such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which is known as the national treasure, and the Beijing  Daxing International Airport, which is a new benchmark for global airports. It supports the construction of many century projects with significant international influence such as the world's largest cable-stayed bridge for both highway and railway, the Hutong Yangtze River Bridge, the world's highest altitude Qinghai-Tibet Highway, the longest highway tunnel in Asia, the Qinling Zhongnanshan Tunnel, the first desert expressway, and the Yujing Expressway. We have established deep strategic cooperation relationships with dozens of Fortune 500 companies. CHU adheres to excellent leadership and meticulously builds a group of world-class academic journals. The eight academic journals edited and published by the university have firmly established themselves at the forefront of academic publishing in Chinese universities.

CHU has established Sino-foreign cooperative educational institutions such as the "Chang'an Dublin International College of Transportation", "China-Uzbekistan College of Transportation", the Chinese Language Center of the Maldives Villa College (Confucius Institute), the International Cooperation Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Development of Highway Transportation Infrastructure in Special Regions, the Joint Bachelor Program of Artificial Intelligence between Chang'an University and EPITA, and six "111 Plan" subject innovation and talent introduction bases. We collaborate with large enterprises such as China Road and Bridge Corporation, China Communications Corporation, China Railway Corporation, and China Railway Construction Corporation to promote the Going Global partnership plan for Chinese enterprises.

(Data last updated: Jan 2026)