(SWJTU) was founded at Shanhaiguan in 1896, named then Imperial Chinese Railway College. It is one of the oldest universities in China majoring in engineering. In 1905, it was moved to Tangshan, Hebei Province, and was renamed Tangshan Jiaotong University, Tangshan Railway Institute, and so on. In 1972, the university was removed to Emei, Sichuan province, and began to use its present name-Southwest Jiaotong University. In 1989, it was moved to Chengdu, and in 2002, the construction of a new campus covering an area of over 3,000 mu was started in Chengdu. With this, a new pattern of “ one university, in two places, with three campuses” is coming into being.

As one of the national key universities directly under the State Ministry of Education (MOE) as well as one of the State “211 Project” universities enjoying privileged construction in the Ninth Five-Year Plan period, the present Sichuan University (SCU) was first incorporated with Chengdu University of Science and Technology (CUST), another national key university under the MOE in1994, and West China University of Medical Science (WCUMS), a key university directly subordinated to the State Ministry of Health in 2000. The present Secretary of the Party committee is Prof. Yang Quan-ming, and the President currently in office is Prof. Xie He-ping (academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering).