Southwest Jiaotong University

Southwest Jiaotong University was founded in 1896 as the Shanhaiguan Railway Officials' College and is China's oldest institution of higher engineering education. It remains among the country's leading universities for railway and transport engineering, with more than 40,000 students. Its specialism connects to Kazakhstan more directly than a ranking would suggest. The China-Europe overland freight corridors run through Kazakh territory, the national rail sector is a substantial employer, and the rolling stock, signalling and high-speed technology those corridors increasingly use are Chinese. It is also ranked first in Chengdu for architecture, which is a less obvious strength worth knowing. Beijing Jiaotong University is the other major Chinese transport university. The two are separate universities, and Chengdu is materially cheaper than Beijing across four years.