The school of Mathematics and Statistics of Ningbo University (NBU), founded in 2018, can trace its history back to the Ningbo Normal College in 1958. With great efforts of pioneers and professors for decades, from the previous Department of Mathematics of Ningbo Teachers College in 1978 to the Department of Mathematics of NBU, from the merger of former NBU, Ningbo Teachers College , and Zhejiang Fisheries College Ningbo Branch in 1996 to the establishment of the School of Science of NBU in 2000. The school has been developed a Sino-foreign cooperative cultivation system that base-oriented, education-oriented, application-oriented and international-oriented for mathematical and statistical teaching and research with three stages of academic degree, namely, Undergraduate, Master and PhD.
The school sets up three departments of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics & Financial Engineering. It currently has four undergraduate majors: Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Base Major), Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Normal Major), Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Sino-US Cooperative Actuarial Science and Risk Management), and Financial Engineering. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics was awarded as the National First-class Major, the Provincial 13th Five-Year Superior Major, Ningbo Municipal Brand Major (Level A), the first batch of international construction majors and the first-class professional construction projects in NBU. The school now has first-level doctoral and master programs in mathematics. Mathematics was awarded as the Provincial 12th Five-Year Key Discipline, Ningbo Municipal Key Discipline (Level A) and in the fourth group of Key Discipline of Ningbo’s universities.
The school adheres to the principle of morality, and regards it as the basis to promote teaching and learning, and integrates the core socialist values into the whole process of teaching and cultivating students and talents development. The school persists in improving teachers' research and teaching abilities by leading teachers with high moral character, academic excellence, and outstanding teaching. A discipline team with young and middle-aged key teachers as principal part, having a reasonable structure of staff age, professional title and knowledge, has been formed. There are 83 faculties in total, of which there is 1 winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 1 national youth top talent, 1 winner of the State Council's special allowance, 2 new century outstanding talents of the Ministry of Education, 1 winner of the Ministry of Education's Outstanding Young Teacher Funding Program, 1 special expert of Zhejiang Province, 3 winners of the Zhejiang Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 3 talents trained by the provincial 151 talent project, 1 outstanding young teacher of provincial universities, and 3 young and middle-aged discipline leaders of provincial universities, 1 provincial excellent mathematics teacher, 1 expert with outstanding contributions in Ningbo, 5 leading and top talents in Ningbo, 4 talents in Ningbo Yongjiang Talent Introduction Project, 1 "Four Haves" good teacher in Ningbo, 3 East Zhejiang scholars in Ningbo University, and 1 young scholar in East Zhejiang. The school also has introduced 1 foreign high-level talents full-time, 1 Bao Yugang chair professor and 1 part-time professor.
The faculty and staff of the school have made great achievements in scientific research. In the past five years, they have presided over more than 100 scientific research projects, with a total of 27.42 million yuan in scientific research funds. Among them, there are 33 national projects, such as key projects, general projects, international cooperation and exchange projects, are worth about 17.18 million yuan, and 18 provincial and ministerial projects are worth 1.86 million yuan; 9 projects between industry,university and reserch, are worth about 1.09 million yuan. They published 496 academic papers, including 389 SCl papers and won 1 second prize of Zhejiang Natural Science Award, 1 first prize and 1 second prize of scientific research achievements of Zhejiang Mathematics Society, and 1 second prize of Shanghai Marine Science and Technology Progress Award. The big data application experimental teaching laboratory transformation and upgrading project were selected as the key construction project of Ningbo University's undergraduate teaching laboratory. Famous scholars at home and abroad were invited to hold more than 200 "Yongjiang Mathematics Forum" to provide a platform for teachers’ and students ‘ exchanging and learning.
Student scientific research has also achieved certain results, including 5 national undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship projects, 9 provincial new talent plan projects, 39 school level SRIP projects. The team of Innovation and entrepreneurship has won 1 gold prize in the National Challenge Cup, 1 gold prize in the Internet plus provincial competition, 3 silver prizes, and 5 bronze prizes. In 2020, it won 6 national first prizes and 6 second prizes in the National Undergraduate Mathematical Modeling Contest. The number of national awards ranked first in China, and the level and number of awards reached a record high.
Over the decades, a large number of excellent talents with both ability and moral integrity have been trained for the country and the local government. Our graduates are employed in prestigious institutions in the country and overseas, and play important roles and contributions in all walks of life in education, politics and business. They are hard-working, with an international perspective and creative spirit, a solid theoretical understanding to Mathematics and Statistics, making great contributions to promote the construction and development of NBU and the school.
School of Mathematics and Statistics of Ningbo University (NBU), facing new development opportunities and challenges, has been adhering to the university motto “Seeking the Truth from Facts and Putting Knowledge to Practice”. The school will take discipline construction as its priority, the construction of key university in Zhejiang Province as an opportunity and talent cultivation as the base to pool the talents, so as to constantly enhance the comprehensive strength and core competitiveness of the school through united hard work , and strive to make the school a research-oriented institute with a great influence at home and abroad. (data updated to Nov. 20th, 2022)
Talent Cultivation
Based on the characteristics of the school basic discipline, the school conscientiously implements the "student-oriented" work philosophy, and earnestly combines ideological and political work with the construction of good academic study style, and implements these to the right place for talent training, and the school is committed to cultivating innovative quality talents with adaptability for society, always put good academic study style and talents cultivation the mainstream on student affairs, make it whenever students need, promote the three-wide education (namely, whole course education, overall education, all-member education), and conserving patriotism.
First. Study Style Construction
The school strengthened the students’ sense of honor by organizing the display of postgraduate recommendation students, the appraisal of outstanding students, the experience sharing session of postgraduate entrance examination and postgraduate recommendation students, the excellent dormitory appraisal, and the demonstration of class style of study. And release the Management Measures for Innovation and Entrepreneurship of School of Mathematics and Statistics, NBU and Awarding Administrative Measures for Postgraduate Entrance Examinations of the School of Mathematics and Statistics of NBU. Teachers and students who performed well will be reward 150,000 yuan or 23,300 dollars in the following projects, like discipline competitions, thesis publication, patent application, postgraduate entrance examinations, etc. After recent years of hard work, mathematics students have won gold medals in the National Internet + Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and Youth Entrepreneurship Competition, and have repeatedly won good grades in the Sino-US University Students Mathematical Modeling
Competition. According to the survey, the average employment rate of school graduates in the past three years is over 97%, and employers’ satisfaction with graduates is as high as 100%!
In 2020, the admission rate of undergraduates exceeded 52%, 77 people have been admitted
as postgraduates at home and abroad, and the admission rate for postgraduate entrance examination has been among the top for many consecutive years in NBU. In the 2020 Higher Education Press Cup National College Student Mathematical Modeling Competition, the school modeling team won 12 national awards, top of the nation, achieving the grand slam of the competition. The school students also won the "New World Mathematics Gold Award", won the Gold Award of "Challenge Cup" China University Student Entrepreneurship Plan Contest, 1 gold
1 silver and 1 bronze award of "Internet +" provincial competition, and 2 North American associate actuaries, forming a good atmosphere to win bonus for the school and glory for the country.
Second. Internationalization of Education
Relying on the major of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Sino-U.S. Cooperation Actuarial Science and Risk Management), the school actively promotes the internationalization of education, introduces international high-quality educational resources, invites internationally renowned experts to teach in English, and promotes the reform and development of education in the school through internationalization. Through the development of international exchanges and cooperation such as "curriculum, discipline, management", promote cross-cultural exchanges and enhance students' understanding and experience of different countries and various cultures. Every academic year, the school has special funds to subsidize students to go abroad for exchange and study, and expand their international vision.
Approved by the Ministry of Education, the school offers the major of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Sino-US Cooperative Actuarial Science and Risk Management). This major is a Sino-Foreign cooperatively-run undergraduate education program. It has been enrolling students since 2013. This program has always attached importance to training students' mathematical foundations and international vision and insisting on cultivating international actuarial talents, 95 people have gone abroad for exchange and study, 87 of them have obtained offers from universities in Europe and the United States, and the enrolment rate of professional students has reached 60%. Many of them have obtained chances for further studies in prestigious universities, like Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and Boston University in the United States, University of Waterloo and in Canada and Fudan University in China.
International students, from the United States, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Morocco and other countries started to major in financial engineering in the School of Mathematics and Statistics since 2016. The active promotion of international schooling has brought in advanced foreign teaching methods, teaching management experience and high-quality educational resources, which has helped us cultivate more quality talents recognized by the world. At the same time, after NBU was selected as a national "double first-class" university, the significance and importance of international schooling became more prominent.
Third. Local Service
The school actively promotes teacher training and adult education undergraduate. Since 2010, more than 17,000 elementary and middle school teachers have been trained. The training projects involve more than 440 items in mathematics, general technology, multimedia technology, class headteacher work, principal work and teacher sub-health, and teacher education technology ability training. The adult education special class enrolls nearly 200 students, and the training involves in financial management and international finance.
The school actively promoted local service work, selected 56 professors and doctors to join the company, formed 2 local service teams, obtained 1 scientific research project of the Ningbo Marine Environmental Testing Center Station of the State Oceanic Administration, 1 project from Ningbo Science and Technology Association Service Technology Innovation in 2014, and established a group of student internship bases. In addition, the school has organized more than 20 expert service groups to the grassroots, with service income of more than 300,000 yuan or 46,600 dollars per year.
Alumni work carried out in an orderly manner. Ye Jianrong, an alumnus of the school,
donated 30 million yuan or 4.66 million dollars to the special fund of the university. Shen Feng and other three alumni, who were born in 1980s, donated 200,000 yuan or 31,000 dollars to rebuild the bronze statue of Wang Yangming, the famous ancient Ningbo Confucianism scholar.
Fourth. Social Honor
Over the years, the school's achievements in talent training have also attracted attention and reports from all walks of life and the media. In 2018, the China Youth Daily had a special report towards the school on the gratifying results of the construction of the style of academic study. In 2019, the Zhejiang Education News had a special report on the training of international talents in actuarial science. The patriotism education in the opening ceremony of new students, in the second half of 2019, has been widely reported by national media such as China Youth Daily and China Science and Technology Journal. In 2020, People's Daily reported on the construction of the academic style of the school and the success of the postgraduate entrance examination. According to statistics, over the past three years, there have been more than 40 media reports and more than 100 news on the website above the municipal level.
