The University of Science and Technology of China is on track to become one of the most infl uential universities in Asia in terms of academic research.

According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-2017,released by the London-based magazine Times Higher Education on September 21, USTC ranks 153rd among the world's best universities and third on the Chinese mainland.

Domestically, USTC is only behind Beijing-based Peking University and Tsinghua University,based on their performance across the four main indicators underlying the methodology of the rankings:Teaching, research, citations and international outlook.

USTC is highly competitive globally in a range of sciencespecific areas such as quantum manipulation, nanotechnology and high-temperature superconductivity.

Located in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province,USTC was founded in 1958 to both meet the country's growing science and technology needs and boost its international competitiveness.

Just one year later, the new university was listed as one of the 16 national key universities in China, ranking fourth on the list. Originally established in Beijing, USTC relocated to its current home in Hefei in 1970.

Today, USTC is home to more than 15,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers and researchers who oversee its 15 schools.

With a stated mission to"focus on frontier areas of science and technology and educate leaders in science and technology, both in China and globally," USTC prides itself on off ering cutting-edge technology and developing talented individuals. As a leading Chinese university that focuses on science and technology education and research, USTC boasts some of the country's most advanced scientifi c facilities, such as the Hefei National Laboratory for Microscale Sciences and the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, both of which are based at USTC.

There are only 10 such laboratories nationwide, which represent the country's highest level in specifi c scientific fields.

It is reported that the Anhui provincial government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences inked an agreement in Hefei last month to jointly build a national laboratory of quantum information. On completion, it will be the third national laboratory to be based at USTC.

(China Daily USA 09/30/2016 page10)