Under the direct administration of the State Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China (OUC) is a comprehensive university with its strength in oceanography and fisheries science. OUC offers courses in Science, Engineering, Agronomy (Fisheries), Economics, Liberal Arts, Pharmaceutics, Management, Law, and Education. OUC has been approved as one of the national key universities with “Project 985” and “Project 211”. The motto of OUC is “Ocean Embraces Streams All; Exploring Promises Reaching Far”.

Ocean University of China originated from the Private Qingdao University which was first founded in 1924, and subsequently went through several historical changes respectively as National Qingdao University, National Shandong University and Shandong University. In 1959, it evolved into Shandong College of Oceanography. In October 1960, it was defined by the Central Government as one of the 13 national key comprehensive universities. In 1988, the name Ocean University of Qingdao was formed and inscribed by Mr. Deng Xiaoping, the late chairman of China. In October 2002, the present name, Ocean University of China, was given with the ratification of the State Ministry of Education.

Currently OUC has three campuses including Yushan campus, Fushan campus and Laoshan campus. There are over 22 colleges and departments with 71 undergraduate programs. OUC is one of the first universities approved to confer PhD degrees, Master’s degrees and Bachelor’s degrees by the State Academic Degree Committee. At present, OUC boasts five national key disciplines, six disciplines entitled to confer Doctoral degrees, seven post-doctoral mobile stations and 44 programs for Ph.D. degrees, 17 disciplines conferring Master’s degrees, 131 programs for Master’s degrees. OUC also has 13 areas of specialized engineering entitled to confer master’s degrees, and two programs in Agriculture Promotion entitled to confer master’s degrees including specialized programs such as MBA and MPA. There is one National Research Center for Marine Pharmaceutical Engineering Technology and one Chinese Center of Marine Biotechnology under UNESCO at Ocean University of China. Six disciplines have posts for professorship in the Cheung Kong Scholars Program. In addition, OUC has two centers for fundamental research and teachers training in Oceanography, Marine Chemistry and one training base for professionals in life science & technology.

The University has over 24,400 registered students, including 5,115 doctoral or master’s degree students, over 11,691 undergraduates and 1,200 international students. OUC is staffed with qualified faculty members, several nation-wide and world-recognized scientists and scholars are currently engaged in research and teaching here. There are altogether over 1230 full-time faculty members, including five academicians with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, three academicians with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, three dually employed academicians, nine professors in the Cheung Kong Scholars Program and five visiting professors. In addition, over 217 supervisors for Ph.D. students are on staff. 47.1% of our faculty members have Doctoral Degrees and the number of professors under the age of 45 accounts for 85.8% of the total faculty. Mr. Wang Meng, a famous modern Chinese writer, is a professor at OUC, and also an Honorary Dean of the College of Literature, Journalism and Communication. Six Nobel Prize winners have been awarded honorary professorship by OUC, together with over 500 scientists and scholars from both home and abroad, who have formed the “Corps of Visiting Professors” of OUC.

With over 70 laboratories for teaching and experiments with distinctive features in marine sciences, OUC boasts advanced teaching conditions and complete facilities. The University owns the “Dong Fang Hong 2”, a research vessel with a displacement of 3,500 tons. This vessel is used for both teaching and scientific research. The University Library has established a foreign language database for oceanography and fishery science, which is quite comprehensive and complete compared with other databases of its kind in the world. It is now the National Center for Marine Science Literature Information Retrieval.

While conscientiously implementing the national policy on education, OUC constantly seeks to deepen reform in education and teaching, and has gradually set up a dynamic, rational, sustainable and brand-new teaching system for undergraduate students. The education for post-graduate students has also been improved in terms of scale and level as well as its distinctive features.

During the 10th “Five Year Plan”, OUC was ranked first among the marine-related institutions in terms of number of projects undertaken including the national Project 973 and Project 863 with funds granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. OUC has been awarded one national second prize in natural science, two second prizes for science progress, one top prize for science and technology in Shandong Province and 54 first or second prizes at provincial and ministerial levels. There are approximately 2864 articles published in the three largest information retrieval systems as SCI, EI and ISTP. From 2001 to 2004, OUC was granted 93 patents, including 54 patents for invention. The National Research Center for Marine Science of Qingdao has been approved and now is well under construction. In addition, OUC has been ratified to set up an innovation base for studies of philosophy and social science in marine development under Project 985, which is an important force in the research of national marine development strategy.

The 21st century is an ocean-focused century. The development goal of Ocean University of China is to build a high-level university with strength in oceanography and fisheries so as to lay an initial foundation for a research-oriented university in 2010. By 2025 OUC will be further developed into a top-level comprehensive research university with strong emphasis in marine sciences.