Soochow University

Mission Statement

The School of Art at Soochow University was founded in 1960.In the past 58 years, we have played a leading role in art and design education in China and have been committing to combining design, art, crafts and science together in our education. We balance theoretical and practical in our research and teaching based on the knowledge of social needs. We require rigorous academics.

We stress on research-oriented and problem-oriented high quality teaching. We are dedicated to offer BA, MA, DA programs to students and have a strong desire to lead them to grow into art and design professionals with social responsibility, creativity, innovative perspective and practical competitiveness. We encourage diversity development of students and also regard exploring the potential of each student as our duty.

We hold a positive attitude and a quite open mind to the new trends in scientific and technological innovation in the world, as well as to the new changes in social and cultural life. In this international perspective, we focus on cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural research on diverse areas in art and design. We also devote to inheritance and innovative application of intangible cultural heritage of traditional art and crafts.

International Role

Soochow University was founded in 1900 which was originally named Central University in China. In Chinese history, it was the first modern university and the first university with a master's degree. In 2018, Soochow University is ranked NO.15 among Chinese universities of World University Rankings 2019 by Times Higher Education, UK. At present, it is one of the key comprehensive universities of the Project 211, 2011 Plan and Double First-Class Project in China. It has established partnerships with over 180 universities and institutes abroad. Every year, over 3,000 international students from more than 60 countries and regions are recruited. Moreover, Soochow University has been selected as a member institute in the "20+20 Cooperation Plan of Chinese and African Institutions of Higher Education" launched by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. In 2011, Soochow University in Laos was founded, which was the first overseas university branch in Chinese history.

The School of Art at Soochow University plays a very active role in participating in the above international cooperation and exchange projects. Furthermore, we focus on the comprehensive cooperation in the bachelor's degree, the master's degree and the doctor's degree programs. We offer abundant options of international exchange programs for the students as well as a large number of workshops, courses cooperation and academic exchanges, such as workshops and courses cooperation with School of Design at Politecnico di Milano Italy and workshops with the El Mundo Spain, etc. We organize international seminars and lectures, such as seminars with the Animator of the Walt Disney Company and DreamWorks Studios USA, the Department of Asian Art of Yale University Art Gallery USA, the Royal Society of Cambridge University UK, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison USA, etc. We attend and lecture in international conferences. We even have exchange programs for our staff. We have recruited four international experts to teach as our staff. We do our best to be consistent with our colleagues in the world.

We have signed the cooperation agreements with overseas universities and academic institutions from United Kingdom, France, Italy, Hungary, United States of America, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Hungary, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We are working to seek more international opportunities for all the best.

In the list of our international partners that we already have and are going to have are University for the Creative Arts (UK), University of Plymouth (UK), University of Southampton (UK), L’ Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique (France), Université de Toulouse (France), Univeristé de Haute-Alsace: Mulhouse (France), Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (France), Galileo Global Education (France), Ukrainian National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Ukrain), University of Western Ontario (Canada), BINUS University (Indonesia), National Taiwan Normal University (Taiwan), National Yunlin University of Science & Technology (Taiwan) and Daegu University (Korea). We are always ready to welcome more partners.

National Role

Our School of Art is one of the initiators to establish design disciplines in China. We are pivotal in promoting the development and reform of Chinese modern design education. We are one of the best art and design schools in China, ranking joint NO.5 among the long list of over 1,900 competitors. Our design discipline is rated as A level in the evaluation result of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. A few of our staff are the national consultants of the Chinese painted pottery art archaeology, the consultants of aesthetics, the executive council member of the National Education Calligraphy and Painting Association (ECPA) Higher Art Education Society, the member of the National Art Professional Degree Graduate Education Steering Committee, the member of the Fine Arts Professional Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the Vice Chairman of the China Fashion Association, the deputy director of the China Artists Association Apparel Arts Council, the member of the Jiangsu Provincial Artists Association Watercolor Art Committee, and the vice chairman of the Suzhou Artists Association.

In the past 58 years, our graduates have earned a very good social reputation. They work in different countries. A large number of them have become outstanding art and design talents, senior executives and industry leaders both domestic and overseas. It is worth mentioning that many of our graduates work as academic leaders, professors, principals, rectors, deans in the famous art and design institutions and the national key universities in China. These institutions and universities include Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University, China Academy of Art, Jiangnan University, Donghua University, Nanjing University of the Arts, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Guangzhou Academy of Fine

Arts, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sichuan University, Qingdao University, Jilin University, Nanjing Normal University and Hunan Normal University. Meanwhile, our School of Art has collaboration with all these universities mentioned above as partners.

We have also established partnerships with other universities in specialized fields, such as Shanghai University Of Engineering Science, Jiangsu University, Jiangsu Normal University, Xi'an Polytechnic University, Yangzhou University, Nantong University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qufu Normal University, Xuzhou University of Technology and Wenzhou University.

Our School of Art has been actively involved in the collaboration with national and regional associations and institutions, including the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association, the Suzhou Silk Museum, the Suzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, the Suzhou Brick Sculpture Museum,

Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection and Management Office Suzhou (municipal).

Our School of Art has a strong tradition in partnership with industry. Our partners from industry includes Heilan Group, Jiangsu Sumec Group Co., Ltd., Gold Mantis Construction Decoration Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Longrich Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Golden Sun Textile Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Yunfan Embroidery Crafts Co., Ltd., Suzhou Jinda Silk Co., Ltd.

Main Focus

Our main focus is to offer comprehensive research-oriented education to students in BA, MA and DA in design, art and crafts related subjects. We focus on intrinsic connection research on traditional and modern design and theory.

We also focus on four compulsory modules as a connection between research and teaching: design thinking, research methods, design principles and applications, design practice.