The School of Animal Science and Technology (SAST) originates from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1958 at Anhui Agricultural College. It was re-built as the School of Animal Husbandry and Aquiculture in 1994, the same year when Anhui Agriculture College was promoted to Anhui Agricultural University, and was renamed the School of Animal Science and Technology in 2004.
The school offers three undergraduate programs (Animal Science, Veterinary Medicine, and Aquiculture), 10 master’s degree programs and two doctoral degree programs. SAST has one National Characteristic Specialty (Veterinary Medicine), one National Comprehensive Reform Demonstrative Specialty recognized by the Ministry of Education (Animal Science), and 1 Provincial Characteristic Specialty (Aquaculture). SAST owns a six-storey high teaching and research building of 6,400 square meters construction area, and over 20 standard labs for teaching or scientific research are housed in the building. Moreover, the school is equipped with two provincial key laboratory, one national agriculture-science-education base, and 5 Anhui engineering technology research centers.
Currently, there are 74 faculty members in the school, including 26 professors and 33 associate professors. Among them, two are post scientists of the national modern agricultural industry system; 12 are Anhui academic and technical leaders or reserve candidates. Each year, SAST enrolls about 260 undergraduate candidates, 110 graduate students and 6-8 PhD candidates. At present, there are about 1,000 undergraduates, 300 postgraduates and PhD candidates studying at SAST.
In the past five years, a number of major or key projects were undertaken by our school, including 30 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation and over 70 key projects at national and provincial levels, with an annual research grant of 17 million Yuan. Faculty have published more than 700 papers, including 160 SCI-indexed papers.
Additionally, we have made 30 regional or industrial standards and received 70 authorized patents including 34 national ones for invention. The school has won over 30 awards, including 20 national or ministerial prizes, 13 prizes from Anhui Science and Technology Progress Awards.
Today, we have established a relationship of academic exchange and technological cooperation with universities and research institutes in the Unites States, Japan, Germany, Australia, etc. More than 10 well-known experts at home and abroad usually will be invited as visiting professors/scholars for in-depth academic cooperation and exchange.
