Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the oldest and most renowned higher education institutions in China, both domestically and internationally. It is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education and jointly established with Shanghai. After more than 120 years of unremitting efforts, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has become a "comprehensive, research-oriented, and international" first-class and internationally renowned university in China.
At the end of the 19th century, the defeat in the First Sino Japanese War led to national crisis. Sheng Xuanhuai, a famous industrialist and educator in modern China, adhered to the belief that "self-improvement begins with talent storage, and talent storage must first promote education". In 1896, he founded the predecessor of Jiaotong University, Nanyang Public School, in Shanghai. At the beginning of its establishment, the school established the purpose of "seeking practical learning and serving industry", with the educational goal of cultivating "first-class talents". With diligence and perseverance, it has become a well-known higher education institution in China in the 1920s and 1930s, known as the "Oriental Massachusetts Institute of Technology". During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the majority of teachers and students went through difficulties, transferred to the concessions, relocated to Chongqing, and persisted in running schools. Many students joined the army and shed blood on the battlefield. On the eve of liberation, the majority of teachers and students actively participated in the democratic revolution, and the school was known as the "fortress of democracy".
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to meet the needs of national economic construction and build a higher education system for the country, schools adjusted a considerable number of advantageous majors and faculty equipment to support the development of domestic sister colleges. In the mid-1950s, the school responded to the call of the country to build the Northwest and underwent westward relocation and separation, dividing into the Shanghai and Xi'an parts of Jiaotong University. In March 1959, both parts were listed as national key universities, and in July, they were independently established with the approval of the State Council. The Shanghai part of Jiaotong University adopted the name "Shanghai Jiao Tong University". In the 1960s and 1970s, the school was successively under the leadership of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission and the Sixth Ministry of Machinery Industry, actively participating in the training of national defense talents and national defense research, and making great contributions to the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" and national defense modernization.