Suzhou University of Science and Technology (SUST) was established on September 1, 2001, with the approval of the National Ministry of Education and the Government of Jiangsu Province, through the merging of the former Suzhou Institute of Urban Construction and Environmental Protection and the former Suzhou Railway Teachers College. The newly established university is a multi-disciplinary institution of higher education with engineering as its focus, covering other well-coordinated disciplines as engineering, technology, natural sciences, liberal arts, management and art. Centering upon undergraduate programs, actively developing postgraduate programs and concurrently carrying out the adult further education, the University undertakes the responsibility of training application-oriented talents.

        Situated in New District, the west of Suzhou, SUST now consists of three campuses: Jiangfeng Campus, Shihu Campus and Tianping Campus, with a total area of 2,011 mu (approximately 134 hectares) in addition to a new campus area of 727 mu (approximately 48 hectares) to be constructed. SUST has 21 teaching departments such as Department of Architecture, and 34 institutes and service organizations such as Institute of Applied Technology of Environmental Protection. The University offers 42 undergraduate programs covering 7 general fields, namely engineering, natural sciences, arts and humanities, management, history, law and agriculture. As of 2006, SUST boasts an enrolment of 13,837 full time students on campus, including 12,159 undergraduate students and 316 postgraduate students. SUST presently offers 10 master programs: Urban Planning and Design, Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering, World History, Disaster Prevention and Reduction Engineering and Protection Engineering, History of Particular Subjects, Fundamental Mathematics, Applied Chemistry, Municipal Engineering and Ethics. There are 3 key provincial disciplines: Environmental Engineering, Structural Engineering and World History; 1 provincially featured specialty: Urban Planning and Design; 3 key construction sites of provincially featured discipline: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and History; 2 key provincial laboratories: Environmental Science and Engineering Lab, and Structural Engineering Lab; 3 construction sites of the Fundamental Experiment Teaching Model Center of Jiangsu province.

        SUST has 833 full-time teachers, 362 of whom are associate professors or full professors, and 465 of whom hold a master's degree or above. There are 6 doctor supervisors and 78 master supervisors. Of the teachers, 2 have been honored “Excellent Teacher of the Nation,” 7 have been awarded “Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Experts” by the state or the province or the Ministry of Education, 6 have been elected members of the Guidance Committee for Teaching in Higher Institutions of the Ministry of Education, 11 have received “Government Special Allowance” granted by the State Council, 39 have been awarded “Outstanding Young Key Teacher” by the province. SUST has also received 14 scientific or technological prizes at provincial or ministerial levels or above and 3 prizes for teaching achievements at national level.
SUST has a total of over 10,000 square meters of floor area for labs, including 14 special labs in different disciplines, 13 of which are listed as projects jointly subsidized for construction by the state and the local provinces. The three libraries of the University house 1,086,500 volumes of paper documents and 718,000 electronic documents.

        SUST has established international links with colleges and universities in the countries and regions such as UK, Norway, Singapore, Italy, Australia, Finland, USA, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. SUST enrolls international students from Singapore, Japan and South Korea for the study of the Chinese language or for field practice. Since 1993, entrusted by the Ministry of Commerce, the university has 12 times held the training courses on environmental protection to train technicians and officials for the countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Oceania, annually expanding its scopes and areas of the international academic exchanges.

        SUST advocates the teaching-centered ideology to substantially improve its education, and strives to strengthen and standardize its teaching administration in order to improve its undergraduate teaching by further reforming the training modes, teaching contents, and curriculum system. SUST attaches great importance to cultivating the hands-on ability and innovative ability of the students so as to enhance their all-round qualities, and so far satisfactory results have been witnessed. Over the years, quite a number of students have won awards in national or provincial contests and a large number of outstanding students have been admitted into the master's programs in the University or other universities. The graduates are well received by the society, with the rate of employment-upon-graduation averaging above 97% in recent years.

        Setting as its objective to cultivate application-oriented, high-level, and specialized talents who have solid basis of specialty, broad scope of knowledge, spirit of innovation and hands-on ability, SUST is striving to build itself into a multidisciplinary teaching and research oriented university with its own distinctive features, enjoying significant influence in Jiangsu and certain popularity in the whole country by maintaining its foothold in Jiangsu, serving the grass-root level society and catering to the whole country.