Wuhan Polytechnic (WHPT) is a public institution of higher vocational education (IHVE) founded in 1972 with the approval of the Ministry of Education of China and directly sponsored by the government of Hubei province. It is located in the centre of Optical Valley, China's biggest photoelectron information industry base in Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province. This geographic advantage provides WHPT with incomparable opportunities and potentials in the development of higher vocational education. WHPT has grown into one of the best IHVEs in Hubei province in terms of operational condition and school-running strengths and standards, and set an example in the regionalization, internationalization and modernization of higher vocational education. These achievements make WHPT a well-known educational brand of Hubei province in higher vocational education and an institution with significant impacts on China’s higher vocational education.
WHPT has gained a large number of awards and honors in the past years. It is a National Demonstrative IHVE, a National Training Base for Urgently-needed Talents, a National Key Teacher Training Base for Vocational Education and a National Advanced Institution of Vocational Education. It is also assessed as a National Starred Demonstrative IHVE in Employment, the national top 50 in employment quality in IHVEs, a National Institution of Higher Education with Experienced Graduate Employment Services, and an Advanced Institution in Graduate Employment Services in Hubei province. In addition, it is rated as one of the most influential brands of Hubei province in the 60 years since the founding of PRC, one of the most influential institutions in China in providing scientific and educational services in 2010, an Advanced Institution in Providing Scientific and Technological Services for Hubei province, an Institution of Higher Education with Good Fame, one of the Best Civilized Institutions in Hubei province, and the top 10 of Hubei educational industry. It has also been appointed such academic titles as the chairman institution of Hubei Association of Higher Vocational Education and the vice-chairman institution of China Association of Higher Vocational Education, Vocational Education Branch of China Electric Education Association, Production-Learning-Research Education Branch of China Association of Higher Education, Hubei Association of Higher Education, and Hubei Association of Vocational Education.
The motto of WHPT is to stress virtue, to devote to study, to aspire after truth and to blaze new trail. Its school-running philosophy is to develop itself higher-vocational-education-orientedly, to meet to the largest extent the demand of society for diversified higher vocational education and that of students for knowledge, skills and employment, to integrate education with production, education with scientific research and theories with practice, and to be people-oriented in WHPT, teacher-focused in school-running, student-centered in education and competence-based in talent training. Its developmental roadmap is to integrate production, learning and research with focuses on the provision of services for different stakeholders and the facilitation of employment for students, and its developmental strategy is to base itself on quality, to rejuvenate itself though features and to reinvigorate itself via brand. All these constitute the unique characteristics of WHPT in terms of school-enterprise cooperation, talent training mode, teaching system, professional course reformation, educational quality management and international cooperation.
WHPT covers an area of over 1 million square meters, with a total floor space of more than 0.6 million square meters. Its total fixed assets amount to RMB 1.12 billion, and total value of teaching equipment reaches 0.186 billion. It is equipped with 51 in-the-school training bases or centers and 211 well-equipped laboratories, among which 3 training bases in numerical control, telecommunication and biology are of national level, 14 of provincial level. It also has 437 out-of-the school training bases, a library with 1.435million volumes of various paper book resources and 12 TB of electronic books, and a campus network with a total output bandwidth of 4.1Gbps, a backbone bandwidth of 10Gbps, a total data of 45TB, and 18811 access points.
WHPT establishes 14 schools in accordance with the developmental needs of society and economics and offers 63 disciplines in the field of telecommunication, mechanics, computer, construction, business, art design, foreign languages and trade, culture and media, tourism and aviation services, textile and fashion design, biology, and light industries etc. These disciplines develop into 3-level pyramid-style groups, with 9 disciplines at national level at the top, 30 at provincial level in the middle and 33 at school level at the bottom, strengthening the potential of those disciplines to promote the development of regional industries. Five disciplines have been listed as the Disciplines in Piloting Modern Apprenticeship, The discipline groups in Modern Manufacturing and Tourism are listed as Top 10 Vocational Education Brands, and 13 disciplines have been listed as National Disciplines of Excellence. Therefore, the ability of WHPT to serve regional development has been greatly strengthened in recent years.
WHPT is implementing the strategy of reinvigorating itself through human resource development. Its faculty and staff number is 1,444, including 895 full-time teachers, among whom 449 are professors or associate professors, 90% are those with both senior academic qualifications and industrial practice experiences, 15 are foreign experts, 7 are experts with State Special Allowance, 4 are National Teachers of Excellence. WHPT also has one national level teaching team and 5 provincial level teaching teams.
WHPT has been actively engaged in international cooperation, and has so far established long-term collaborative relationship with 107 universities and educational institutions in 25 countries or regions, with more than 2000 alumni studying or working in Singapore, Australia, and the U.S, etc. It has also founded 4 vocational education groups of provincial level with relative industries in the field of Modern Manufacturing, Electronic Information , Tourism and biology, and established 437 out-of-school training bases in companies, and undertakes production-learning-research cooperation with more than 300 companies such as IBM, Foxconn, Lenovo, Haier and Huazong Numerical Control.
Students are admitted to WHPT from more than 30 provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions of China. The current student number is over 23000, and the employment rate of students remains constant at over 95% in the past decades. WHPT has therefore gained 7 awards for its career services for students. It has established 13 research institutes in such fields as vocational education, tourism and mechanical and electrical technology, offer vocational training for over 400 teachers from secondary vocational schools and for over 20,000 people altogether per annum. In addition, WHPT has provided financial and resource aid for more than 10 vocational institutions in central and western China, and has established Bozhou Branch of WHPT in Xinjiang province, which is an educational brand of Hubei province in aiding Xinjiang province.
WHPT is now undergoing a new talent training mode reformation to strengthen its management and promote its development in terms of leadership, execution, teaching, culture and academics. Teachers and students in WHPT are now working as a whole to structure its modern vocational education system and strengthen the construction and development of its connotation in the hope of making WHPT a well-known brand in higher vocational education in China with international influence.