The Southeast University Excellent Engineer Training Program for Professional Degree Graduate Students, hereinafter referred to as the “Excellent Engineer Program,” is a professional degree graduate training program that takes industry-education integration and science-education integration as its main approaches, and focuses on cultivating students’ engineering practice capabilities and engineering technological innovation capabilities as its core competitiveness. The program aims to train urgently needed high-level, cutting-edge, specialized, and scarce professional technical talents for major national strategic industries and strategic emerging industries.
In accordance with theImplementation Measures for Southeast University’s Excellent Engineer Training Program for Professional Degree Graduate Students (Trial) (Attachment I), the application work for the program is hereby launched. Relevant matters are notified as follows.
I. Eligible Applicants
The Excellent Engineer Program shall be organized by the National Institute of Excellent Engineers of Southeast University, hereinafter referred to as the “Institute of Excellent Engineers,” together with relevant schools and departments of Southeast University.
Project advisor teams from multiple schools or departments are encouraged, especially those involving multiple professional degree categories or multiple professional fields. The Excellent Engineer Program adopts a project advisor group system. In principle, each advisor may supervise no more than two master’s students and no more than one doctoral student under the Excellent Engineer Program each year.
II. Application Requirements
Applications for the Excellent Engineer Program shall meet the following requirements.
1. A Distinctive Theme
The Excellent Engineer Program shall focus on key engineering and technological bottlenecks, actively respond to the needs of major national strategies and emerging industries, and serve the national innovation-driven development strategy.
The application for this round of the Excellent Engineer Program will focus on the following fields:
No. | Application Field |
01 | Next-generation information and communication technology |
02 | Integrated circuits |
03 | Smart energy |
04 | New materials |
05 | Artificial intelligence |
06 | Cybersecurity |
07 | Critical software |
08 | Advanced testing and measurement |
09 | Biomedicine and high-end medical equipment |
10 | Ship and ocean engineering |
11 | Aero-engines and gas turbines |
Projects with professional fields or research directions similar to the Excellent Engineer Programs approved in 2025 and 2026, as listed in Appendix I and Appendix II, are not recommended for application.
2. An Excellent Team
Each Excellent Engineer Program shall establish an innovative engineering education team led by a chief expert. The team shall include one chief expert, who may be a high-level professor from Southeast University or a leading industry expert, as well as several high-level university advisors and industry or enterprise advisors.
If the chief expert is from Southeast University, the program shall appoint one chief engineer, who should be a high-level expert from industry and is usually from the industry-education integration base on which the program relies.
The Excellent Engineer Program adopts a chief expert responsibility system. The chief expert may appoint one program director as needed.
Each Excellent Engineer Program shall have one leading school or department. If the chief expert is from Southeast University, the school or department of the chief expert shall serve as the leading school or department. If the chief expert is from industry, the school or department of the program director shall serve as the leading school or department.
For programs involving multiple professional degree categories or multiple professional fields, the university advisor team should generally include 5 to 15 members. The team should focus on the same key direction or major project, form a closely integrated group, and have at least three partner organizations. The number of enterprise advisors should generally be no fewer than five and should match the number of university advisors.
In principle, each advisor may participate in only one ongoing Excellent Engineer Program.
The chief expert and key team members shall have undertaken national-level, provincial- or ministerial-level, or major engineering technology projects from industries or enterprises in the past five years that are highly aligned with the program theme. The research funding shall be sufficient to support the training needs of graduate students.
3. A High Level of Collaboration
The Institute of Excellent Engineers is responsible for the daily management of the Excellent Engineer Program and provides comprehensive services. The applying schools or departments shall provide disciplinary support.
The Institute of Excellent Engineers and the applying schools or departments shall establish a collaborative mechanism based on joint consultation, joint development, and shared resources. They shall work closely together in enrollment, training, ideological and political education, employment, and other aspects, provide mutual support, jointly invest resources, and ensure effective service and support for the program.
4. Industry-Education Integration Organizations and Projects
In principle, the program should be jointly developed with well-known enterprises in the relevant industry. The partners should have co-established provincial- or ministerial-level key laboratories, engineering centers, industry-education integration centers, Excellent Engineer Technology Centers, or other research cooperation platforms, as well as Jiangsu Province Graduate Workstations, Excellent Engineer Joint Training Bases, or other talent training platforms. A university-enterprise agreement should have been signed and remain valid, and substantive university-enterprise joint research and graduate joint training should already have been carried out.
In addition to enterprises, research institutes, national laboratories, new R&D institutions, and other organizations with R&D functions, ongoing engineering projects, and expected employment opportunities may also serve as joint training partners.
In principle, the university and enterprise should have ongoing research projects that cover the graduate training cycle. Copies of project contracts shall be provided as supporting materials for the application.
5. A Distinctive Training Plan
Each Excellent Engineer Program shall develop an education and teaching curriculum system that reflects the goals of value-oriented education and the distinctive features of the program theme. The training plan should highlight the comprehensive development of students in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor education, as well as the characteristics of solid engineering and technical foundations, strong engineering practice capabilities, and strong engineering technological innovation capabilities.
The training plan shall include a high-quality professional practice module based on an industry-education integration base. The professional practice shall meet the relevant requirements of the National Steering Committee for Engineering Professional Degree Graduate Education.
Priority will be given to programs with interdisciplinary modules or engineering entrepreneurship education modules, as well as programs capable of undertaking the special master’s and doctoral training tasks assigned by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.
III. Application Procedure
Before 12:00 noon on June 30, 2026, relevant teams shall complete theApplication Form for Southeast University’s Excellent Engineer Training Program for Professional Degree Graduate Students (Template) (Attachment II). The Word version of the application form, together with the scanned PDF version bearing the official seal of the school or department, the official seal of the joint training enterprise, and the signatures of the project members, shall be sent to the Admissions and Degree Office of the Institute of Excellent Engineers by email at:zg_zsxwb@pub.seu.edu.cn.
Applications that do not meet the requirements of this application guideline will not be accepted.
To facilitate review, the application form shall be named according to the following rule:
Application field code + name of leading school or department + project name + name of project leader
For projects that pass the formal review, the Institute of Excellent Engineers will organize expert review and evaluation in accordance with the principles of objectivity, impartiality, and fairness. Projects will be approved on a competitive basis.
Approved Excellent Engineer Programs will be publicly announced within the university. The publicity period will last five working days.
Approved projects shall submit the list of advisor team members, which will be reviewed and approved by the Southeast University Graduate Admissions Leading Group and the Admissions and Degree Office of the Institute of Excellent Engineers.
After approval, the Excellent Engineer Programs will receive separately allocated enrollment quota support for master’s and doctoral admissions in 2027, in addition to the basic quota. The support will be provided for three consecutive years starting from the 2027 cohort and will be regarded as incremental quota, including quota for recommended students exempted from entrance examinations.
IV. Other Matters
Excellent Engineer Training Programs approved in 2024 that wish to continue receiving enrollment quota support must participate again in the project application and review process.
Excellent Engineer Cultivation Programs approved in 2026 will receive enrollment quota support only for the 2026 cohort. If they wish to continue receiving enrollment quota support, they may participate again in the project application and review process, provided that substantial achievements are made during the one-year cultivation period.
Applying units shall be responsible for the authenticity of the submitted materials. Materials involving technical confidentiality shall be desensitized before submission. If any falsification is discovered, the application qualification will be revoked.
For inquiries, please contact:
Address: Room 506, Excellent Engineer Building, South Gate, Jiulonghu Campus, Southeast University
Tel: 025-52091576
Email:zg_zsxwb@pub.seu.edu.cn
National Institute of Excellent Engineers
May 14, 2026
Appendix I: Excellent Engineer Programs Approved in 2026
No. | Program Name |
1 | Intrinsic Security of Industrial Internet |
2 | Integrated Interventional Diagnosis and Treatment Guided by Smart Imaging |
3 | Data-Empowered Complex Intelligent Systems |
4 | Excellent Engineer Training for Cross-Domain Collaboration in Heterogeneous Intelligent Computing |
5 | Smart Transportation Technologies Empowered by Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence and Communication Technologies |
6 | Carbon-Neutral Cities and Low-Carbon Smart Building Environments |
7 | Collaborative Electromagnetic Cognition and Countermeasure Technologies for Cross-Domain Unmanned Systems |
8 | High-Efficiency Computing Platform Based on an Independent RISC-V Architecture |
9 | Smart Energy Planning, Trading, and Operation Technologies for Regional Carbon Neutrality |
10 | Safety and Resilience of Railway Transportation Infrastructure |
11 | Excellent Engineer Center for Marine Energy Development and Transmission |
12 | Explosion Safety and Protection of Major Engineering Targets |
13 | Key Technologies and Applications of Low-Carbon Transportation-Energy Coupled Systems |
14 | Intelligent Network Technologies for Next-Generation Wireless Communications |
15 | Embodied Intelligence Technologies and Applications for Deep-Sea Environments |
16 | Vehicle-Road-Cloud Integrated Smart Highways |
Appendix II: Excellent Engineer Programs Approved in 2025
No. | Program Name |
1 | Wearable Medical and Healthcare Technologies |
2 | Intelligent Construction, Operation, and Maintenance of Ocean Engineering |
3 | Excellent Engineer Training Program in Millimeter-Wave Technologies |
4 | Research and Application of Intelligent Communication and Information Processing Technologies Based on Domestic Computing Platforms |
5 | Key Technologies and Applications of Land-Based Intelligent Unmanned Systems |
6 | New-Quality Electromagnetic Digital Twins and Information System Technologies for Next-Generation Aerospace Platforms |
7 | Key Technologies of Intelligent Unmanned Equipment for Antarctic Scientific Expedition |
8 | Intelligent Sensing Technologies and Applications for Full-Traffic Security Situational Awareness |
9 | Flexible Integrated Devices and Systems |
10 | Digital and Intelligent Power Grid |
11 | Future Intelligent City Science |
12 | Design and Control of New Energy Autonomous Vehicles |
13 | Safety, Longevity, and Health Maintenance of Long-Span Bridges |
14 | Smart Cities |
15 | Smart Airports and Low-Altitude Economy |
16 | Intelligent Power Integrated Chips and Microsystems |
