The School of Architecture and Arts was established in 2001 based on the former Department of Architecture that was established back in 1958. In 2008 the Major of Architecture passed the National Assessment on Architecture with the Remark of Excellence valid for 7 years. In 2010, the Major of Architecture was ranked as the National Featured Specialty.
The school covers seven undergraduate majors: Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, Landscape Planning & Design, Visual Communication Design, Environment Design, Industry Design and Advertisement Science. The school is authorized to award Master’s Degrees of first grade discipline for five majors, namely, Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, Landscape Planning &Design, Design Studies and Fine Arts, and to award Professional Master and Engineering Master as well. Among them the discipline of Architecture Design & Theory is the key subject in Anhui province and the major of Architecture is National Featured Specialty which offers two Provincial Quality Courses, namely, Public Building Design and Urban Design. There are several institutes within the school including Engineering &Art Research Center for Protecting and Developing Huizhou Architecture, Engineering Research Center for Huizhou Culture, the Architecture’s Heritage Protection Technology Standardization Committee in Anhui Province, Urban & Rural Construction and Planning Institute, Green Architecture Designing Institute and so on.
Currently, the school has a faculty of 99, among them are 89 full-time teachers including 9 professors, 30 assistant professors. In addition, the school has 23 non-resident professors.13 of the faculty have doctoral degrees and 17 of the faculty are doctoral candidates. The teachers and alumni of the school won the Young Architects Awards of Architecture Society of China 7 times successively (the highest award for young architects), which brings the school to the leading position among China’s schools of architecture. The faculty team is of high quality in terms of knowledge, passion, competence, and innovation.
The school has about 1, 370 undergraduates and 380 postgraduates. In terms of student education, innovation is a matter of priority both on ability and thinking; crossing and integration in the multiple subjects are strengthened to cultivate students’ artistic attainments; regional architectural culture is stressed to clarify the teaching direction. Students in the school had won achievements in top matches both at home and abroad many times, such as Architecture Design Competition of International Union of Architects, College Students Architecture Design Work Viewing and Evaluating of China, The Landscape Design Contest for College Students, National College Students Advertising Art Contest, and so on. Many alumni have already become chief architects and backbone of prominent design agencies both in China and abroad. Most of them have been playing a leading role in the professional field of architecture.
The school effectively carries out international communication and cooperation and builds friendly relationship with famous universities in USA, UK, Germany, Spain, Canada, Japan and other countries and regions. At present, the school carries out the joint training project of a double master in the major of architecture and urban planning with Cardiff University as well as the joint bachelor and master program with University of Portsmouth. The school cooperates with Kyoto University on the project of National Natural Science Foundation under the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Postgraduate major in architecture design &theory has received the teaching of joint-design with students from Ryerson University, Canada. Students of the school hold joint exhibition of architecture design with students from Hanseo University, Korea. Excellent students can be chosen to do field work in Arqtel Architecture Office in Spain. The school has students exchange program with Feng Chia University, I-Shou Univerity and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan of China. Thanks to the high quality of education and research, graduates of the school have been popular in the job market throughout the years.
In its history of more than 50 years, the School of Architecture and Arts bears in mind the school motto that “pursuing virtue and knowledge, seeking truth and innovation” and adheres to the good tradition of diligence, excellence, self-improvement and self-advance. The school has made great progress in education, research, development of courses and degrees, practice and international exchange. The School has cultivated a large number of talented graduates in the field of architecture, design and survey, finished over many projects commissioned by the government of various levels, as well as international collaborative research projects and contribute significantly to the development of relevant fields.
