School of Animal Science and Nutritional Engineering

Introduction

In 1984, Wuhan Polytechnic University took the lead in setting up the specialty of Animal Nutrition and Feed Processing which was affiliated to the Department of Food Chemistry. Its name was changed into Department of Feed Science in 1986 and then School of Animal Science and Nutritional Engineering in May 2009 to meet the needs of discipline construction. Currently, there are three undergraduate specialties in the school, namely, Animal Science, Aquaculture and Animal Biotechnology. Animal Nutrition and Feed Science is a provincial key and featured discipline, authorized to confer M.A. degree and establish PhD degree program. Animal Science and Aquaculture are brand specialties in Hubei province, with the former one being ranked into the “Featured Specialties of National Institutions of Higher Learning.” Animal Biotechnology is an undergraduate specialty approved by Ministry of Education in 2007.

At present, the school has more than 750 undergraduates and postgraduate students in total and more than 30 staff members, among whom 60 percent are professors and associate professors and more than 90 percent hold Master’s degrees or Doctoral degrees. The school also possesses 1 specially-appointed Professor with the title of “Chutian Scholar”, two foreign professors – “Chutian Scholar” visiting professors, one expert who is qualified to receive the special allowance from the State Council, 1 selectee for the National New Century BaiQianWan Talents Project, two young and middle-aged experts of Hubei province with outstanding contributions, two experts enjoying special allowance from Hubei provincial government, one outstanding teacher of Hubei province, and one talent qualified as New Century Excellent Talents of Ministry of Education. In the past three years, the school made great achievements, including, among others, two second prizes of National Science and Technology Progress Award, ten Scientific Research Awards at the provincial/ministerial level, one first prize of Teaching Achievements of Hubei province, nine national patents for invention, seven textbooks and treatises edited by ourselves or co-edited with others and more than 220 papers published in all sorts of national periodicals or magazines, among which over 40 are collected in SCI, EI and ISTP. The teachers from the school are now presiding over more than 30 research projects of national, provincial and ministerial levels. In addition, the school now possesses four key scientific research platforms (ministerial or provincial level), including the Engineering Research Center on Feed Resources of Protein from Agricultural By-Products (Ministry of Education), Observation Laboratory of Feed Resources and Processing Science (Ministry of Agriculture), the Feed Engineering Technology Research Center and Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science (Hubei province). It also possesses a municipal research platform – “Research Centre of Animal and Feed Engineering Technology in Wuhan city”, and a research institute in our university – “Research Institute of Animal Health Care Products of Wuhan Polytechnic University”, and has established a research center of Aquatic Animal Nutrition collaborating with Hunan TRS (Tangrenshen) Group. The total laboratory area of the school covers more than 5,000 square meters and the total value of various instruments and equipment reaches more than 13 million yuan which provide undergraduate and postgraduate students with good teaching and research conditions.

The school sticks to the education philosophy of “industry and agriculture intermingling with each other” and cultivates high quality talents. The number of the graduates of our school is less than one third of the demand in recent years, leading to the employment rate remaining 100%.

And the rate of graduate entrance examination recruitment is about 30%. With the good performance, the school was granted the title of “National Advanced Collective of Scientific and Technological Progress in Feed Industry”. Now, the school has 6 types of scholarship funds set up by several companies including Hunan TRS Group, Wuhan Sunhy Group, Shenzhen Alpha Feed Group, Charoen Pokphand Group, Hangzhou Esigma Animal Health Co., Ltd and so forth.

The school has therefore been honored with “Advanced grass-roots unit of ideological and political education work in colleges and universities in Hubei province” and “Advanced grass-roots organization of CPC of colleges and universities in Hubei Province”. The school has a rigorous management system and creates a good study atmosphere to cultivate talents with unique characteristics and good overall quality.