Introduction to Polytechnic College
Polytechnic College of Hebei University of Science and Technology is approved by Ministry of Education and People’s Government of Hebei Province as a full-time independent college offering undergraduate programs, and is running attached to Hebei University of Science and Technology which is the backbone university in Hebei Province.
Founded in 2001, Polytechnic College was firstly named Changan College of Hebei University of Science and Technology which was located at Shijiazhuang Changan Medical College. In the following year, the Polytechnic College merged with Hebei Textile Industry School and was renamed High Technology College of Hebei University of Science and Technology and then was officially named Polytechnic College of Hebei University of Science and Technology in 2003. In 2012, the Polytechnic College was moved from Central Campus of Hebei University of Science and Technology at downtown Shijiazhuang to High Technology Development Zone in the eastern Shijiazhuang.
Since the establishment, the Polytechnic College has achieved leap-forward developments in terms of increasing the original seven majors to fifty-five majors, enlarging the scale of undergraduates from three hundred and ninety in 2001 to more than fifteen thousand today and extending the students’ recruitment sources from Hebei Province to current eighteen provinces after construction for many years. Currently, the Polytechnic College has become a comprehensive independent college with favorable campus facilities and comprising engineering, science, arts, law, art, economics and management units.
Polytechnic College has developed an educational conception proposing “student-oriented, steer students to success after training and fostering for four years” and has gradually explored a sustainable development road for independent college in accordance with the intelligence and talents advantages of Hebei University of Science and Technology and characteristics of undergraduate students’ recruitment sources and reasonable position. The Polytechnic College is the first in Hebei Province to propose independent college talents training projects, to organize young teachers teaching competitions and to set up independent college teaching science and research projects. The Polytechnic College’s brand teaching projects such as freshmen orientation education priority, students’ habit-form education, student’s personal tutor system, students’ academic study planning reply, students’ Party members forum and graduates’ morality education forum are in the leading position in the domestic independent colleges.
Attaching great importance to promoting students’ comprehensive qualities, the Polytechnic College recruits teachers with rich teaching experiences from the Hebei University of Science and Technology and shares provincial and ministerial key laboratories, engineering technology research centers and experimental teaching demonstration centers. Paying great attention to cultivating and training students’ occupation skills, the Polytechnic College is the only independent college with the occupation skill appraisal qualification approved by Human Resources and Society Security Bureau. The Polytechnic College has established seventy-six practice education bases with partners such as China Unicom Shijiazhuang Branch, Hebei Hengli Group Co., Ltd., Jinzhou Municipal Service Center and Tianjin Nuoer Electric Company and etc. Through four-year study, experiments, internship, training and practice, students can get not only Bachelor’s Degree, but also one or two related professional occupation qualification certificates.
Increasingly strengthening open education, the Polytechnic College has signed cooperation agreement with overseas colleges and universities in South Korea, Britain, United States and Canada etc. For instance, the Polytechnic College has cooperated with Canada Fraser Valley University and held 2+2, 3+1 international exchange programs. Besides, many graduates in Polytechnic College were allowed to study Master Degree in related universities in South Korea with exemption from entrance examinations. Furthermore, the Polytechnic College carried out Summer Camp program with London South Bank University and introduced students to United States for paid summer practice project. Moreover, to further enhance the qualities of the students, the Polytechnic College has implemented short-term exchange undergraduate students program with Gengdan College of Beijing University of Technology, Institute of Science and Technology of Jiangxi Normal University, Hebei University Business School and other independent colleges.
In recent years, Polytechnic College students have won great prizes in national subject contests. Students won the second or above awards in National College Students English Speech Contest for three consecutive years. For example, students won the first prize in the National College Students English Speech Contest in 2009. Besides, in 2010, student Yuan Yinlong, who won two second prizes in the fourteenth “FLTRP CUP” National English Debate and Speech Contests attended by one hundred and twenty-eight universities, was the only independent college student entered into the final contest and won prizes. Moreover, in National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest in 2009, Polytechnic College students won the first prize, the highest prize in record for independent college students. The Polytechnic College students won the second prize in National “Challenge Cup” Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology, won the third prize in Shanghai World Expo Special Program and the first provincial prize and won the first prize in Hebei Province and the second prize in National Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling for three consecutive years. Furthermore, in 2012, Polytechnic College students won two gold medals in National Aeronautics and Space Model Championships, the best awards in the national aeromodelling competition for Polytechnic College. In addition, Polytechnic College students won the third prize in the fifth National Energy-Saving Emission Reduction Social Practice and Science and Technology Contest for university students, won two provincial third prizes in the seventh National Information Technology Application Level Contest and won provincial special award and the national second prize in “Dragon Cup” National Three-Dimensional Digital Innovation Design Contest.
The prospects of Polytechnic college graduates entering into postgraduate college and employment are satisfactory. In recent years, the average postgraduate rate is over fourteen percent. In 2012, the postgraduate examination level rate of Applied Chemistry major stood at fifty-four percent and over forty percent respectively in Pharmaceutical Engineering major, Environmental Engineering major and Textile Engineering specialty. Polytechnic College graduates are highly welcomed by employers and society, and the initial employment rates maintain at more than ninety-five percent over many years. The Polytechnic College was firstly awarded “Hebei Province Advanced Education System” in 2007, then was awarded “Hebei Province Civilized Unit” by provincial Party Committee and provincial government in 2008, 2010 and 2012, the only independent college to win three awards till now. Bright Daily Newspaper, China Education Newspaper and many other authoritative media have repeatedly reported the outstanding achievements of the Polytechnic College.