Located in Chengdu, a time-honored city famous for its history, culture and landscapes, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) is reputed as " the cradle of China’s national electronic industry ".
In 1956, the inception of Chengdu Institute of Radio Engineering (CIRE), now UESTC, ushered in the first higher education institute of electronic information of new China under Premier Zhou Enlai's personal disposal and care. CIRE was, and then created from combination of the electronic divisions of such well-established universities as Jiaotong University, Nanjing Institute of Technology and South China Institute of Technology. As early as in the 1960's, it was ranked as one of the nation's key higher education institutions. In 1997, UESTC was included in the first group of universities in the "211 Project", a national program of promoting China's higher education. In September 2001, UESTC was selected as one of the Chinese universities that gain special financial support from both the Ministry of Education and the local Provincial Government (Project "985").
Today UESTC has developed into a multidisciplinary university directly under the Ministry of Education, which has electronic information science and technology as its nucleus, engineering as its major field, and incorporates science, management and liberal arts.
UESTC now consists of 13 schools and the Department of Physical Education, plus Chengdu College and Zhongshan Institute. It offers 41 undergraduate programs, 62 master-degree granting programs, and the MBA and Engineering master programs. UESTC has 36 specialties authorized to confer PhD and 9 for post doctorates.
UESTC is known as the only higher institute in China, which covers all the 6 state key disciplines in electronics and information science.
UESTC has two campuses, occupying 2.67 km2 with a total floor space of<