In China, only Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) is multidisciplinary and research-focused and is simultaneously creating education and research programs in the domains of marine technology engineering, astronautics, and aeronautics. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology presently oversees it (MIIT). NPU has consistently been a major institution of higher learning in the country ever since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The State Council authorized it as a state-key university in 1960. In the state’s 7th and 8th Five-Year Plans, it was placed among the top 15 universities in China, and NPU is one of the first 22 universities to start a graduate program. In 1995 and 2001, it was among the first colleges to join the 211 Project and the 985 Project.
