Southern University of Science and Technology — guide for international students

SUSTech (南方科技大学) is one of China’s newest research universities. Its own Milestones page traces it from a Shenzhen Municipal Government report approved in August 2007, through the appointment of founding President Qingshi Zhu in June 2009, to December 2010, when "The Ministry of Education approves the plan for establishing SUSTech". The first convocation ceremony followed in March 2011, and in April 2012 "The Ministry of Education endorses the establishment of SUSTech" — so both 2010 and 2012 appear as its founding year. This guide uses 2010, which is also the base for its 10th anniversary in December 2020.

Growth has been fast. SUSTech earned the right to confer doctoral degrees in May 2018, and in February 2022 "SUSTech and its mathematics discipline were selected into the national Double First-Class University initiative." In July 2022 the total number of students exceeded 10,000 for the first time. The Facts page now lists 35 departments and centers, 41 bachelor’s degree programs, 23 master’s degree programs, 17 doctoral degree programs, 7 residential colleges, 14,000+ students (5,700+ undergraduates and 8,300+ postgraduates), nearly 1,300 faculty members and 52 academicians, on a campus of 1.98 km² in Nanshan District. The page gives no "as of" date. QS’s profile gives a lower total of 10,691 students, so treat headcounts as approximate. The SUSTech-King’s College London School of Medicine was approved in November 2021 and admitted its first class in September 2024, and a School of Artificial Intelligence was established in January 2026.

International students are a small, recent part of the community. SUSTech Global says the first cohort arrived in 2016 and that students now come from about a dozen countries, including Cambodia, Russia, Malaysia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, the USA and South Korea. QS’s profile counts 361 international students, 84.8% of them undergraduates. The university stresses that teaching is international: its Admissions page says most classes are taught in English, as are the majority of teaching materials, and SUSTech Global says over 90% of the faculty have work or study experience at an overseas institution.

SUSTech admits international students at two levels, through two different offices. Undergraduate admission is run by the Office of International Cooperation (SUSTech Global), whose remit includes "recruit undergraduate international students and inbound exchange students", with its own site at infoadmin.sustech.edu.cn. Master’s and doctoral admission is run by the Graduate School and published as the "Admission Guide: 2026 Postgraduate Programs for International Students". Both use the same SUSTech Application Portal (sustech.at0086.cn). The postgraduate route is the better documented one: 14 disciplines, all taught in English, two application rounds (3 November 2025 – 18 January 2026 and 16 February – 1 April 2026), and a scholarship for every admitted student. Only first-round applicants can be considered for the Chinese Government Scholarship. The undergraduate route is harder to check. The international admissions site has pages for General Requirement, Document Checklist, Scholarship and Cost for Reference, but their content loads by script and could not be read for this guide, and no official undergraduate admission guide for 2026 or 2027 could be found on a readable SUSTech page. The undergraduate fees, deadlines and entry tests are therefore not stated here as official figures. Write to intladmissions@sustech.edu.cn, or check the portal, before you plan around a date. Note also that the Facts page lists 23 master’s and 17 doctoral degree programs, but the 2026 international guide opens only the 14 disciplines listed below to international applicants.

Degree programs

Select a degree level to see tuition, duration and entry requirements.

Non-degree programs

Documents to prepare

Application timeline

These are the dates Southern University of Science and Technology published for the 2026 intake. That cycle has closed. Use them as a guide to when each step falls in the year, and check the official pages for the 2027 dates before you plan around them.

At postgraduate level SUSTech’s funding is close to universal: the 2026 guide states that "All admitted international students will be evaluated based on their application materials and awarded a comprehensive scholarship." The Chinese Government Scholarship is the prestige award, but only first-round applicants (3 November 2025 – 18 January 2026) are considered. Everyone else admitted receives the SUSTech First-Grade Scholarship, and new postgraduates without the CGS can also receive a one-off Guangdong Government award. All scholarships last up to 4 years for doctoral and 3 years for master’s students, subject to an annual review of academic performance and conduct. For undergraduates, SUSTech Global runs a scholarship and financial-aid scheme under the Interim Regulations for the Management of SUSTech International Student Scholarships, and recommends students for the Guangdong Government scholarship. Results are posted each semester, but amounts appear only as images, so coverage could not be verified.

SUSTech is research-led despite its age. Its Research page reports 1,276 competitive research projects approved in 2022, with total funding of over RMB 1.70 billion, and 6,515 academic papers that year, including 4,845 SCI papers. It also reports a 2022 Nature Index fractional count of 287.33, which placed the university 12th in China and 25th in the world. At the end of 2022 it had 106 research platforms: 3 national, 34 provincial or ministerial, and 69 municipal. It also had 20 research institutions, three of them Shenzhen Nobel Laureate Labs. More recent milestones: Materials Science became SUSTech’s first discipline in the ESI top 1‰ in January 2024, followed by Chemistry (May 2024) and Engineering (November 2024), and Neuroscience & Behavior entered the ESI global top 1% in March 2026. In June 2024 President Qikun Xue received the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award. The Research page’s figures date from 2021–2022.

International engagement is run by SUSTech Global, the Office of International Cooperation. Its remit covers exchanges, study abroad, research internships and recruiting international undergraduates and inbound exchange students. The university’s Cooperation page highlights a highly international faculty: "over 90% of our faculty having worked or studied overseas" and over 60% at a top-100 university. It names partners including the University of Michigan, Temple University, Columbia University, UC Riverside, the University of Edinburgh, Stony Brook University, the University of Queensland and the University of Copenhagen. SUSTech does not publish a total count of partner institutions on the pages reviewed. In June 2025 it joined the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and in June 2026 it hosted the APEC "Shenzhen, AI Together" youth event, which brought 300+ young scholars from 49 countries and regions.

SUSTech sits in the middle of Shenzhen’s technology economy. The Cooperation page names Huawei, DJI, BYD, Tencent and China Merchants Bank among its corporate partners in the city, and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program places visiting students in Shenzhen startups and companies. SUSTech does not publish employment or salary outcomes for international graduates on the pages reviewed, and no careers guidance for international students was found on SUSTech Global’s pages. Note the 2026 guide’s rule that students with expired visas or residence permits may not stay on campus or take part in university activities.

SUSTech has a single campus of 1.98 km² at 1088 Xueyuan Avenue in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District. Undergraduate life is organised around residential colleges: the Campus Life page describes six, many with a lake or mountain view and most classes no more than 10 minutes away, while the Facts page counts 7. There are over 100 student-run clubs, from sports and academics to dance, entrepreneurship, arts, technology, volunteering and self-defense. SUSTech Global provides university-wide support with visa applications and renewals, insurance, scholarships, legal policies and cultural exchange. Insurance is compulsory: under Ministry of Education and SUSTech rules, every international student must buy comprehensive medical insurance, from the provider the university appoints. For degree students, SUSTech does not publish dormitory prices on the pages reviewed. Postgraduate scholarships cover a shared room.

Accommodation

Dining

The Campus Life page says the student cafeterias are rated Grade A, "with a focus on quality, flavor, and freshness". SUSTech does not publish meal prices for international students on the pages reviewed. Budget for food separately.

Facilities

Reach the Office of International Cooperation (SUSTech Global) — Office of International Students, for undergraduate and non-degree students; Graduate School admissions, for master’s and doctoral students for questions about applications, documents, scholarships and arrival. Type university programs and offices are based on campus in Shenzhen.