Xiamen University School of Architecture and Civil Engineering

The history of the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering can be dated back to 1937, when the major of civil engineering was set up at Xiamen University. It was discontinued in 1953 due to a nationwide adjustment of disciplines. In 1987, the Department of Architecture was founded at Xiamen University with assistance from Southeastern University. In 1999 the major of civil engineering was reestablished with the approval from the Ministry of Education. The School of Architecture and Civil Engineering was formally founded in 2004, consisting of two departments (i.e., the Dept. of Architecture and the Dept. of Civil Engineering) in the beginning. Later in 2007, a new department, the Department of Urban Planning, was also established in the school.

There are total 73 full-time faculty members in the school, including 14 professors and 27 associate professors. About 60% of the teachers hold doctor's degree. Currently, two professors have been selected in the New Century Outstanding Talent Supporting Program by the Ministry of Education. Besides, there are one "Minjiang Scholar" Distinguished Professor, one professor listed among the 100 Best Architects in Contemporary China, two professors with the title of "Masters of Engineering Survey and Design in Fujian Province",  one professor owning the Excellent Young Architect Award (the highest award for young architects in China), and one professor honored as Teaching Master in Fujian Province. Young scholars in the school have also won some distinguished awards, such as “The Young Investigator Awards of both Asian-Pacific Association for Computational Mechanics and International Chinese Association of Computational Mechanics”and“Excellent Young Researcher Fund Awardee of National Natural Science Foundation of China”. In addition, to enhance the quality of teaching and research, the school has also recruited over twenty adjunct professors, guest professors, and honorary professors from around the world.

Besides three departments, there are also four research institutes in the school, including the Institute of Architecture and Planning, the Cross-Straits Institute of Urban Planning, the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Disaster Monitoring, and the Transport R&D Center.

Currently, the school offers three undergraduate programs as well as three postgraduate programs. It has been granted to award the Bachelor of Engineering degrees in architecture, civil engineering, and urban planning. It has also been granted to award the Master of Engineering degrees in these disciplines. In 2012, the discipline of architecture and the discipline of civil engineering in the school were both rated as the Provincial Key Disciplines of Fujian Province.

Moreover, there are nine laboratories in the school. They are the Building Material Laboratory, the Architectural Modeling Laboratory, the Architectural Physics Laboratory, the Digital Design Laboratory, the Architectural Material and Structure Laboratory, the Material Mechanics laboratory, the Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory, the Civil Engineering Survey Laboratory, and the Structural Engineering Laboratory. The school is also equipped with satisfactory education facilities, such as multi-media classrooms, audio classrooms, specialized classrooms for painting and design, computer rooms, and seminar rooms. Its library has collected 20000 books and journals, as well as audio and video documents.

The Department of Architecture was established in 1987 with the assistance of the Department of Architecture at Southeast University, and two professors from Southeast University, Prof. Husheng Guo and Prof. Zhichang Lu, were commissioned as the earliest chairmen. Since the 1990s, under the leadership of Prof. Ren Huang, Prof. Shide Ling, and Prof. Shaosen Wang, the department has been developing markedly. The department was granted to confer master degree of Architectural Design and Theory in 1999. In 2003, it successfully passed the National Assessment of the Professional Education of Architecture in Higher Education Institutions, and was approved the first-tier discipline of Architecture to award the bachelor degree of Architecture directly. Two years later in 2005, it was approved the first-tier discipline to award the master degree of Architecture. In 2007, it successfully passed another round of National Assessment of the Professional Education of Architecture in Higher Education Institutions.

The Department of Civil Engineering is one of the oldest departments at Xiamen University. Since its first enrolment in 1938, it has educated many excellent professional talents who are shining not only at home but as abroad. The academician of the US National Academy of Engineering Y.K. Lin, the renowned geotechnical engineering specialist Guoxi Zeng, and the national-level Master of Engineering Survey and Design Zidi Wu, are among the best ones. Since its reestablishment and recruitment in 1999, the department has been granted to award the bachelor degree of Civil Engineering, the master degree of Civil Engineering, as well as the master degree of Mechanics.

The Department of Urban Planning was opened in 2007. Under the leadership of the first head, Prof. Wuding Ma, the department has been developing smoothly. Now the department offers both undergraduate program and postgraduate program in the discipline of urban planning. It has been granted to award the bachelor degree of Urban and Rural Planning, and the master degree of Urban Planning and Design. It also offers a "Sandwich" "dual-degree”master program, cooperating with Cardiff University (UK)．Since 2009, the department has become one of the co-sponsors of the academic journal of Urban Planning Forum. Also since 2009, the Cross-Straits Institute of Urban Planning has started running as a platform of integrating the research work in the department and communicating with other academic institutions, especially the institutions from Taiwan.

With arduous endeavor, this school has formed its characteristics in talent training and professional education:

1) Persisting in a development way of teaching-centered, but combined closely with scientific research and engineering practice. Through involving in many research projects and engineering projects held by the teachers in the school, as well as taking part in various professional contests, students can learn both the cutting-edge academic theories and useful professional skills, and therefore can be more competitive in the job market. Students in the school often get awards in National University Student Contest of Architecture Design, the National Academic Contests of Civil Engineering, as well as the National University Students Contest of Urban Planning and Design. Some of them even won the first place in several international and region design contests.

2) Setting up the concept of "comprehensive quality education", constantly enriching and adjusting the teaching plans, and making full use of the multi-disciplinary advantages of Xiamen University as a comprehensive university. Oriented by this concept, a subject system with five modules of "Base, Technology, Ability, Theory, and Intersection" has been configured in order to constantly provide high quality talents for the society.

Meanwhile, the school is also associated with two entrepreneurial institutes - the Research Institute of Architectural Design as well as the Research Institute of Urban Planning and Design. With market-oriented operation and enterprise management, these two institutes are running just like those enterprises in the related industries, and therefore can provide a kind of simulation training base for the students. The former institute has got the national first-level qualification, and the latter institute has got the national second-level qualification.

The school is also very active in international academic exchange and cooperation. So far it has conducted cooperation with Cardiff University (UK), University of Pavia (Italy)，ENSAB(France),Lund University (Sweden)，and the National University of Science and Technology of Taiwan, in the areas of joint training courses, exchanges of teachers and students, and collaborative research. It has also built close academic ties with San Francisco State University (USA), the University of London (UK), the Technical University of Berlin。In recent years, the school has invited a number of renowned foreign scholars to visit Xiamen University as guest professors, and meanwhile has assigned dozens of students and faculty members to study or participate in an academic conference abroad. Approximately 35% of our full-time teachers here in the school have the experience of studying abroad.

Contact Us

Address: School of Architecture and Civil Engineering , Xiamen University ，Fujian Province，P.R.China

Postcode：361005                                  

Tel：86-592-2188958             Fax：86-592-2188958
E-mail：archt@xmu.edu.cn          Web：http: