In 1971, the College of Locomotive and Rolling Stock in Shanghai Jiaotong University and College of Railway Engineering in Tongji University were integrated into Shanghai Railway Institute and transferred to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province with a new name East China Jiaotong University. Originally affiliated to the Railway Ministry of China, ECJTU witnessed conversion in its running mechanism in 2000, becoming a school “co-sponsored by both central and provincial governments, but mainly under the administration of the latter”.

ECJTU is co-constructed by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) and People’s Government of Jiangxi Province, and National Railway Administration and People’s Government of Jiangxi Province, it has grown into a provincially key university, a participant to the “Central-Western Chinese Universities Capacity-Building Project” and a university that has the right to confer doctoral degrees.

Centering on its orientation of “transportation as characteristics and track as core”, ECJTU has implemented the “Pagoda” plan in depth, by dividing disciplines into three levels. Through the integration of professional resources, ECJTU has built a discipline system of “comprehensive transportation” as its brand, focus and uniqueness.

Communication and Transportation Engineering, Control Science and Engineering, and Civil Engineering were selected as the “First-Class Disciplines in Jiangxi Province”.