Situated in the historical and picturesque city of Suzhou, a metropolis well reputed in the world for its classic gardens, Soochow University is a national key institute listed in the Project 211, a first-class member in the "2011 Program" and a top comprehensive university in Jiangsu Province. Under the same school name, the predecessor of Soochow University was founded in the year 1900 as the first Chinese university that had a modern disciplinary system, alaw major (Anglo-American Laws) andan academic journal, and also as the first university that offered postgraduate education for master degrees. Throughout the Century, the University has made significant contributions to the development of the country and society by cultivating over 400,000 experts and talents in various fields. Generations of students and teachers of the university have lived up to the school motto of "Unto a Full Grown Man", and devoted to nurturing model citizens with free spirit, excellence, independence and social responsibility.
With the goal of fulfilling its fundamental mission of morality education, Soochow University enhances the excellence of talents by focusing on their comprehensive quality, horizon, competency and creativity. In order to integrate general education with the cultivation of versatile professionals, the University attaches great importance to the combination of quality nurturing, vision broadening, competence strengthening and knowledge acquisition. By promoting the innovation and reforms on education unswervingly, the University, by virtue of those brilliant achievements, has been selected as a national model university inenhancing the innovation and entrepreneurship education and a pilot university for national doctorate program reform. Meanwhile, its College of Nano-Science and Technology has been enlisted in the first group of pilot colleges together with other 16 top colleges in China. In addition, the University has established C. W. CHU College and Tang Wenzhi College to develop elites through exploring new systems for the talent cultivation in interdisciplinary areas.