Wuhan Institute of Shipbuilding Technology(WIST), which is built up by both the central and local government and mainly under the administration of the People's Government of Hubei Province, is a full-time academy, awarded National Advanced Organization in vocational education, the Best Institution of Hubei Province and Excellent Unit in the evaluation for higher vocational Institutions organized by the Ministry of Education, China. The institute was established in 1950, and from that time on it has attached great importance to humanism, high-quality education and characteristics of specialties, and adhered to the guideline that the institute should be based on shipbuilding industry, serve the military industry and be oriented towards the need of society. For half a century, it has fostered thousands upon thousands of graduates for the construction of our national industrialization and national defense modernization. Wuhan Institute of Shipbuilding Technology is a host to students from all over the country and now it has 10,000-odd resident students from more than 20 provinces. The institute is located beside the beautiful Moon Lake, just in the central place of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, which is known as "the thoroughfare leading to nine provinces in China." It covers an area of 600 mu and has a construction area of 308,000 square meters. With Haniiang River to its north and Moon Lake to its south, green trees scattering all the year and water twinkling all around, the institute is seeming in a picturesque out-looking. There are large bright multi-functional teaching buildings, first-class scientific and technological research centers, modernized library, and rounding-lake dormitories, which make it a desirable place for the students to study.
    As greater efforts have been strengthened to the quality of education for many years, the institute has set up a creative teaching staff with strong sense of responsibility. They are not only specialized theoretical teachers but also can work as professional technicians. Among them, there are seven young academic experts who have been awarded Government Special Prize by the State Council for their considerable contribution to local province, four professors who have been selected as members of the committee directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education to supervise the education in higher vocational institutes and two professors who are the experts appointed by the Ministry of Education to assess the qualification of higher vocational institutes.
   The institute has five departments: Mechanical Engineering, Dynamic Engineering, Shipbuilding Engineering, Electrical & Electronic Engineering,Economics and Management. Besides, it has an International Culture Exchange College, a Continuous Education School,an Education Technology Center, and a Research Center of Higher Vocational Education.
    At present, the institute offers 36 four-year undergraduate programs with bachelor's degree and three-year programs with non-academic credential, including one important excellent state-level specialty project, six key military specialties directly supported by the Commission of Science Technology and Industry of National Defense, one provincial preponderant and characteristic discipline in higher education and six key specialties which are the emphasized projects supported by Hubei Province. Paying more attention to the practical ability training, the institute set up nine modernized comprehensive training centers and sixty-eight advanced and perfect laboratories, which are responsible for training urgently-needed talents with professional numerical control techniques nowadays. In detail, the centers include Shipbuilding Center, Modern Manufacturing Center, Electrical Automation Center, Net-work Information Center, Business Center, etc; the laboratories are almost involving every aspect such as ship-building & repairing, ship engine room simulation, numerically-controlled manufacture, CNC simulation, PLC & automatic control, assembling of electronic products, computer net-work technology, hotel business, etc, and among them, there are six laboratories which are the emphasized construction projects supported by the Ministry of Finance. Furthermore, a medium-sized factory with excellent technical talents, self-contained manufacturing methods, and RMB30,000,000-yuan annual output, can provide considerable superiority for training students' practical ability. The factory is the only one in China that has been qualified by API (American Petroleum Institute) and it is also the appointed factory to produce diesel engines for China's shipbuilding industry.
    The institute has a sanguine and industrious work-team, who have paved their way ahead with great enthusiasm and effort. For half a century, it has brought up a great number of specialized talents of various kinds, who are playing or have played an important part in various fields in China and overseas. On this land, there once lived and worked the forerunner of the Westernization Movement (19th cent.), whose name is Zhang Zhidong, the advocator of "the strategy to revive China through the development of industry and commerce". On this land, there left the footprints of Wu Yunduo---China's Pavel Korqagin. Now in the new era, with full lofty sentiment and confidence, all the staffs of the institute decide to make efforts together to boost the modernization and industrialization of China with their own enthusiasm,efforts and intelligence.