Established in 1951 as Tianjin Medical College, Tianjin Medical University was the first medical institution approved by the State Council after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The first president of TMU was Professor Xianyi Zhu, a renowned endocrinologist and medical educationist. In 1993, Tianjin Medical College and Tianjin Second Medical College merged to form Tianjin Medical University, one of the national "211 Project" key universities in China. Currently Professor Yongfeng Shang, a prestigious biochemist & molecular biologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is serving as TMU’s president and the university’s sixth president overall.
The university is a dedicated and preeminent research and education institution with medical science as the core subject and life science as its foundation. It has developed the university into a multi-disciplinary medical university.
The university faculty is made up of a large group of distinguished professors and scholars from home and abroad. There are 8683 teaching, research and administrative staffs, including 8161 professionals. Of these professionals, 563 are professors and 987 are associate professors. Included in this number are an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, nine visiting and specially appointed professors of "Cheung Kong Scholars", four national "Thousand Talents Plan" professors, two national leading experts of "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", four winners of the "National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars", four candidates of the "National Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents Project in New Century" appointed by the Ministry of Personnel, 17 "New Century Excellent Talents" appointed by the Ministry of Education, 11 "National Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions" appointed by the Ministries of Personnel and Health, 164 experts who enjoy the "Special Allowance from State Council", 229 doctoral supervisors and 737 graduate supervisors.
The university consists of 17 schools, one department, three branches and one independent medical school. The Schools include the School of Basic Medicine, School of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, School of Medical Laboratory, School of Medical Imaging, School of Nursing, School of Biomedical Engineering, International Medical School, School of Medical English and Health Communication, School of Medical Humanities, School of Continuing Education, the First Clinical School, the Second Clinical School, Clinical School of Oncology, Clinical School of Metabolic Diseases, Medical School of Dentistry and the School of Optometry and Ophthalmology. The only one department is the Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. Branches include Branch of Social Sciences, Branch of Foreign Studies and Branch of Physical Education. The one independent medical school is Tianjin Medical University Clinical Medical School (Dagang Clinical Medical School).
There are 9694 full-time medical students studying at the university, of these students 5353 are undergraduates, 2845 are graduate students, 434 are doctoral students and 1062 are international students. Tianjin Medical University is the second medical university approved by Chinese government for eight-year medical education following Peking Union Medical University and is one of the first 15 institutions that offer seven-year medical program. Currently, the university has 15 disciplines authorized to confer Bachelor’s degree, They are clinical medicine (7-year and 5-year programs), Dentistry (7-year and 5-year programs), Anesthesiology (5-year program), Medical Imaging (4-year and 5-year programs), Medical Laboratory (5-year program), Preventive Medicine (5-year program), Nursing (4-year program), Biomedical Engineering (4-year program), Pharmacy (4-year program), Pharmaceutical Preparation (4-year program), Law of Science (4-year program), Optometry (4-year program), Sports Health and Rehabilitation (4-year program), Health Administration (4-year program). Meanwhile, TMU was the first university that offers the subjects of nursing, biomedical engineering and medical imaging among the Chinese medical universities.
