How the university and colleges work

Shanghai Ocean University is a multidisciplinary, applied research university, co-established by the State Oceanic Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. In September 2017, it was elected into China’s “World First-Class Disciplines Project”. In February 2022, it was included on the list of the second round of “Double First-Class” universities and disciplines (i.e., world-class universities and first-class disciplines).

School motto: “Diligence, Simplicity, Loyalty, Creativity” (established on September 1, 1914). Original aspiration: “Sea rights extend to the limits of fishing zones.” Educational tradition: Write the thesis on the rivers and lakes of the motherland and the oceans and seas of the world.

The university was formerly known as Jiangsu Provincial Fisheries School, founded by Zhang Jian and Huang Yanpei in 1912. In 1952, it was upgraded to be the first undergraduate fisheries college, namely, Shanghai Fisheries College. In 2008, it was renamed Shanghai Ocean University.

Currently, the university has 14 colleges (departments), with nearly 12,000 full-time undergraduate students and over 5,700 full-time registered graduate students. The total number of teaching and administrative staff at the university has exceeded 1,500, including over 800 teaching and scientific research personnel, over 490 with senior professional and technical posts, and over 570 Doctoral and Master’s supervisors on campus. So far, the university has 44 undergraduate specialties, eight national first-class undergraduate specialty construction programs, 15 municipal first-class undergraduate specialty construction programs, five national characteristic specialties, one specialty certified by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), two specialties certified by the German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics (ASIIN), and 4 specialties certified by the China Engineering Education Accreditation Association (CEEAA). In addition, the university has eleven national first-class courses, 27 Shanghai municipal first-class courses, three national excellent courses, 45 Shanghai municipal excellent courses and demonstration courses, one national teaching team, and four Shanghai municipal teaching teams. There are also two national experimental teaching demonstration centers, one Shanghai municipal experimental teaching demonstration center (approved for construction), 163 undergraduate teaching internship bases (including seven overseas internship bases, three national virtual-simulation experimental teaching projects, and 13 Shanghai municipal projects). Since 2013, the university has won one special prize, nine first prizes, and 16 second prizes of the Shanghai Teaching Achievement Award. The university is also known for its rich and colorful campus culture, which is inseparable from the blossoming of more than 90 student clubs, including the College Students Art Troupe and other cultural and sports as well as scientific and technological clubs. Notably, it has won a gold award in the “Entrepreneurship Youth” China College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition; a first prize in the “Challenge Cup” National Undergraduate Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Contest etc.The university has also built a series of museums and educational venues, like the University History Museum (composed of the History Museum of Traditional Disciplines, Specialties, and Courses and the Campus Culture Exhibition Hall for College Students), the Museum (composed of the Science Museum of Aquatic Organisms, the Whale Museum, the Pelagic Fishery Exhibition Hall, the “Rainbow-fish” Deep-sea Science Popularization and Experience Base, and the “China Fishery Administration Ship 206”), etc.

The university currently has four first-level discipline Doctoral degree conferral programs, 14 first-level discipline Master degree conferral programs, 8 professional Master degree conferral programs, and three Post-doctoral research stations. Besides, it has one national first-class discipline, one national key discipline, three “Summit and Plateau” disciplines in Shanghai institutions of higher learning, three first-class disciplines in Shanghai institutions of higher learning, and nine key disciplines of provincial and ministerial levels. Five of its disciplines (i.e., Plant and Animal Science, Agricultural Science, Environment/Ecology, Engineering, and Biology & Biochemistry) have entered the world’s top 1% of the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) International Discipline Ranking. The discipline of fisheries science has been rated A+ in the fourth round of national discipline assessment. The university also has Center for Ecological Aquaculture(CEA),a National Engineering Research Center, a National Engineering Laboratory, a National Center for International Joint Research under the Ministry of Science and Technology, a National University Science Park, and more than 30 key laboratories and platforms of provincial and ministerial levels (including those under the Ministry of Education). Moreover, it has built a number of university-level scientific research platforms, including the International Center for Marine Studies, the Sino-Australian Joint Research Centre for Ocean Engineering, the International Performance Research Center for Pelagic Fishery, and the Institute of Marine Science. Besides the first pelagic fishery resources research vessel in China (Songhang) and the only laboratory for ship’s ballast water testing certified by CNAS, CMA, DNV GL, and USCG in China, it has also built Asia’s largest and the world’s third largest dynamic water tank, and developed a 10,000 m-level lander with a underwater depth capacity of 10,918 m. The university also serves as a guiding unit of the Shanghai Society of Fisheries, the Shanghai Society of Food Science, and the Shanghai Research Society of Fishery Economy. Since 2011, it has made multiple breakthroughs in the research fields of natural sciences and humanities & social sciences, and won one National Award for Progress in Science and Technology and 36 provincial and ministerial-level awards as the first completion unit. By leveraging its disciplinary and scientific research advantages, the university has achieved significant results in serving society. Since 2011, it has guided rural households in Miaoli County of Taiwan in the breeding of hairy crabs, setting an example of cross-Straits agricultural cooperation. The “Professor & Doctor Service Group of Fishery Science and Technology”, set up to provide scientific and technological services throughout the country, has engaged in targeted poverty alleviation in Tibet, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Guizhou, and other provinces, with remarkable achievements. The project has been elected among the second and fifth batches of Typical Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Targeted Poverty Elimination Projects at Provincial Institutions of Higher Learning released by the Ministry of Education. The team of the International Performance Research Center for Pelagic Fishery, which has fully undertaken the task of fulfilling our obligations under regional fisheries management conventions on behalf of China since the 1990s and made important contributions to safeguarding China’s pelagic fishery rights and interests, has been selected among the first batch of “National Huang Danian-style Teacher Teams in Institutions of Higher Learning”.

Currently, the university has two campuses, namely, the Hucheng Ring Road Campus in Pudong New Area and the Jungong Road Campus in Yangpu District, as well as a 386 mu coastal base and a 56.7 mu Xiangshan Scientific Education Base. To be specific, the Hucheng Ring Road Campus (the main campus) covers a floor area of over 1,600 mu, with a planned construction area of 586,000 m2. The university has also built its modern campus network, and established the National Data Center for Distant-Water Fisheries of China and the Super-computing Center for Marine Science. The university currently has over 1.54 million paper books, nearly 1.12 million electronic books, and more than 50 databases. The collection resources have highlighted its features in marine, fisheries, and food sciences. In 2016, it sponsored the Aquaculture and Fisheries, the first English journal of fisheries science in the Chinese Mainland, which was later included by three major databases, i.e., Scopus, BIOSIS Previews (BP), and Biological Abstracts (BA). The Journal of Fisheries of China and the Journal of Shanghai Ocean University, also sponsored by the university, are Chinese core journals, Chinese science and technology core journals, and source journals of the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD). Notably, the Journal of Fisheries of China has won the titles of “China’s Top 100 Newspapers and Periodicals”, “China's Top Quality Periodicals”, and “Top 100 Outstanding Academic Journals of China”.

The university actively expands its external cooperation, and has maintained close exchanges and cooperation with colleges and universities in the US, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Ghana, and other countries (regions), as well as international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS), and signed cooperation agreements with over 140 overseas institutions of higher learning as well as research institutions. Since 2011, it has dispatched over 4,000 students abroad through the channels of study tours, overseas study, exchange programs, and so forth; has been elected as an “Asian Campus” among China, Japan, and South Korea” for two consecutive sessions; has obtained approval for projects such as the International Cooperative Training Programs for Innovative Talents under the China Scholarship Council; and has launched the Erasmus program of mutual recognition of credits with institutions of higher learning in Spain, Portugal, etc. By these means, the university provides a series of platforms for Chinese and foreign teachers and students to further expand their international vision, cultivate international communication skills, and strengthen international competitiveness.

The development goal of the university for the new era is to turn into a high-level characteristic university with important international influence by 2035. By the middle of this century, the university will have become a world-class characteristic university.