Shanghai Maritime University (SMU) is a multi-disciplinary university that encompasses such areas as engineering, management, economics, law, liberal arts, and science, with special emphasis on shipping, logistics and ocean. Chinese maritime education originated at Shanghai and grew out of the Shipping Section of Shanghai Industrial College founded in 1909 (towards the end of the Qing Dynasty). SMU was established by the Ministry of Communications in 1959. According to the university layout adjustment in Shanghai, and for better service of construction of Shanghai International Shipping Center, Lingang new campus inaugurated in 2008. On October 20 2019, SMU celebrated its 110th anniversary.
At present the university runs 3 post-doctoral research stations, 17 doctoral programs, 63 master’s degree programs, 49 bachelor’s degree programs, and 13 associate degree programs. SMU boasts 16 provincial and ministerial key research institutes and laboratories, 1 state-level key discipline, 5 state-level specialties with special features, 9 ministerial or municipal key disciplines, and 17 Shanghai municipal “educational heights”. Besides,engineering discipline of SMU has ranked top 1% in ESI ranking across the globe. SMU owns a newly-built 48-thousand-ton Yangtze handymax bulk carrier for teaching and internship training ship, named Yuming ship.
In the MOE evaluation of undergraduate education in 2004, SMU was awarded an “A”(Excellent). Then in 2006 the SMU English-language specialty won another “A” in the MOE assessment. The university has won multiple awards for research including national awards for science and technology projects and awards for scientific and technological progress above the municipal and ministerial level in 2017.
SMU presently consists of Merchant Marine College, College of Transport and Communications, School of Economics Management, Logistics Engineering College (Sino-Dutch Mechatronics Engineering College), School of Law, College of Information Engineering, College of Foreign Languages, College of Ocean Science and Engineering, College of Arts and Sciences, Scientific Research Academy, etc. SMU has over 26,600 full-time students, of whom over 16,000 are undergraduates and over 7,200 are postgraduate students. Of the nearly 1,300 full-time teachers, 190 are professors and 69.2 percent hold a doctorate. Over the past decades the university has cultivated specialists of various types at various levels for the country’s shipping industry. The graduated students are employed in shipping companies, port enterprises and government institutions. Deservedly, SMU has been honored as a “cradle of international shipping specialists”.
SMU has always attached much importance to exchange and cooperation with overseas academies, institutions and industry companies, and has established close ties with over 100 institutions in aspects of teacher communication, joint school-running, scientific research cooperation, students exchange, etc, and close contacts with international noted shipping organization/institution, (e.g.) International Maritime Organization, The Baltic and International Maritime Council, Classification society in Norway. SMU has opened up “international class”, which attracts students of maritime institutions in USA, Korea, Poland, Russia, German, Ukraine, etc. Approved by the Education Ministry of China in 2011, the Bachelor of Science program in Logistics Management, offered by Shanghai Maritime University in collaboration with Regional Maritime University is open to applicants from Central and West Africa, which is the pioneering overseas program that can be awarded Chinese bachelor's degree among Shanghai universities. Since 2012, SMU is approved to accept the Chinese Government Scholarship students, which will be more conducive to promoting the process of internationalization of SMU. (Last updated May, 2021)
