National University of Defense Technology
National University of Defense Technology (NUDT, Chinese: 国防科技大学) or People's Liberation Army National University of Defense Science and Technology in full (Chinese: 中国人民解放军国防科技大学) is a top military academy, as well as a research type national key university located in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. It is under the direct leadership of China's Central Military Commission, and dual management of Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China and Ministry of Education. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Double First Class University. It is designated for Project 211 and Project 985, the two national plans for facilitating the development of Chinese higher education. Its authority level equals the Deputy Military Region (see Military regions of the People's Liberation Army).
NUDT was ranked as one of the Top 4 Universities in China, the only 4 universities with a 7-Star status, along with Peking University, Tsinghua University, and University of Chinese Academy of Science, when it was ranked the 2nd time with Chinese civilian universities in year 2015. Since being founded as China's supreme military academy (最高军事工程学院）Harbin Military Academy of Engineering in 1953, the university has been regarded as the indisputable No.1 military academy in China, and a symbol of modern Chinese national defense science and technology. It has produced a great number of outstanding graduates for China, played an important role in major state scientific and technological activities such as the Manned Space Flight Project (see Shenzhou program), and has accomplished a significant number of scientific research achievements, prominently represented by Tianhe Supercomputers (see Tianhe-2).
NUDT has always been at the forefront of China’s national defense research. For fulfilling the demand arising from the strategies of strengthening national defense by means of science and technology, and building an innovative country, NUDT fully utilizes its integrative disciplinary strengths in science, engineering, management, military science, humanities and social sciences, to provide vigorous support for the modernization of the Chinese armed forces, to provide talent and technical support to China’s national economy and social development, and, ultimately, to make contributions to world peace and development.
NUDT is a leading institute in the Chinese space program and China's Supercomputer development (see Supercomputing in China).
As one of the most difficult universities to enter in China, NUDT admits freshly graduated high school students into its undergraduate programs through the rigorous Chinese National Higher Education Entrance Examination. （This is different from PLA National Defence University that generally admits current army personnel from their military posts into its programs, as career training program in the military).
