Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences (TSGUAS) is the first university of applied technology approved by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. The University originated from former Tianjin Sino-German Vocational College, a merger of Tianjin Sino-German Modern Industrial Technology Training Center (built in 1985) and Tianjin Business Management Training Center. TSGUAS is the largest central governmental level cooperation project among China, Germany, Japan and Spain in vocational education and training. The university, located in Tianjin Haihe Education Park coasting Bohai Sea, is under the supervision of Tianjin Municipal People's Government. In November 2015, the Ministry of Education formally approved the establishment of Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences. Since 2016, Tianjin has invested special funds to support the university's construction of a first-class university of applied sciences, which has been included in Tianjin's "double first-class" university construction system, with a clear construction goal of "striving to become a world-class university of applied sciences and technology". TSGUAS has been approved as a new master's degree-granting unit in 2020 and has been approved for enrollment, building a talent through-training system with effective articulation of "secondary vocational school, higher vocational education, bachelor's degree and master's degree". For three consecutive years, 2019-2021, we ranked No. 1 in the National Faculty Teaching Development Index for New Undergraduate Colleges and Universities. People's Daily, Guangming Daily, China Youth Daily and other central media have reported nearly 300 times on the school's experience in school management and talent cultivation.

In May 2013, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, visited Tianjin Vocational Skills Public Training Center in Haihe Education Park and communicated with teachers and students of the university. In October 2014, Premier Li Keqiang, during his visit to Germany and attendance at the 7th Chinese-German Forum for Economic and Technological Cooperation, presented the Luban Lock made by students of the university as the state gift to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which greatly improved the influence of Chinese vocational education. By attending the National Vocational Students Skills Competition in June 2008, June 2013 and May 2017, Liu Yandong, then member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council visited TSGUAS three times. In April 2011, Zhang Gaoli, then Secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, Lu Xin, then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education and other relevant leaders visited the university and spoke highly of the planning, construction and relocation of the new campus. In April 2017, Chen Changzhi, then vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Chairman of the Central Committee of China National Democratic Construction Association and Chairman of the China Vocational Education Association, met and had a friendly talk with the university leaders. In October 2018, Li Hongzhong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, attended the opening ceremony of the Lancang-Mekong Vocational Education Training Center built by TSGUAS in Cambodia and highly praised the work and efforts the university had made. In April 2020, Zhang Guoqing, the mayor of Tianjin, visited the university. In August 2022, Huai Jinpeng, the Minister of Education visited the university.

The University covers an area of 165 acres with a building area of 297,300 square meter and has 301 experimental and training labs and workshops integrating teaching, leaning and practicing functions. There are more than 20,000 sets of teaching and research instruments and equipment in the university, with the total worth of over 500 million yuan, most of which are advanced production-oriented equipment imported from Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Besides, TSGUAS has 4 provincial and ministerial level scientific research platforms, such as Tianjin Engineering Technology Center, Tianjin Popular Science Base, etc. In collaboration with China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd., School of Mechanical Engineering of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Tianjin Tianduan Press Co., Ltd., and Inventec Electronics (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., the university has jointly established 15 scientific research platforms, such as the National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center, the National Collaborative Innovation Center, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Enterprise, etc. TSGUAS has "Intelligent Manufacturing Technology of High-end Equipment", which is the characteristic discipline group of service industry in Tianjin universities. Following the concept of "cultivating the best talents with high-end equipment and advanced technology", the university has built a multi-type, industry-teaching fusion "teaching factory" around the manufacturing industry and the manufacturing service industry.

Currently, TSGUAS has 9 major groups of applied disciplines, including Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Automation Technology, Aviation & Aerospace Technology and Service, Automobile Technology and Service, Software and Communication Technology, New Energy Technology, Economic and Trade Management, Cultural Creativity and Art Design, Applied Languages. Besides, there are 22 undergraduate majors and 19 higher vocational majors, with the engineering majors taking the first place and coordinated development of management science and art related majors. At present, the university is focusing on applying for the master's degree programs in Machinery, and jointly cultivating graduate students with Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin University of Technology and Education, etc. There are 12,350 full-time students. In the last three years, the university has provided non-academic educational training for nearly 85,000 people.

There are 741 teaching faculty members, among whom 40% are entitled as associate professors or above, and 85.43% received a master degree or above. Every discipline group of the university is equipped with foreign experts and visiting professors. At present, there are 9 specially-appointed professors and more than 60 visiting professors. Among over 100 foreign experts once worked in the university, 5 had won the National Friendship Award and 7 had won the Tianjin Haihe Friendship Award. The university has 2 national-level teaching teams and a group of high-level talents, including the young and middle-aged technology innovation leading talents of the Tianjin Innovation Talent Promotion Plan, prominent teachers of provincial and ministerial level, and the first-level candidates of Tianjin "131" innovation talent training project. TSGUAS has implemented the mechanism of introducing teachers with "postgraduate degree + 3 years' experience in enterprises", and has a distinctive "dual-teacher" faculty with 3 national-level technical experts, 8 provincial and ministerial-level technical experts, and 1 Tianjin Master Skill Workshop. The university has respectively won 1 special prize, 2 first prize and 7 second prize of National Excellent Teaching Achievement. It has completed 15 national-level excellent courses and 9 national-level excellent resource sharing courses. Throughout the years, the university has planned, designed, undertaken and carried out 31 national skills competitions and was successively awarded the Huang Yanpei Vocational Education Outstanding Principal Award, Outstanding School Award, Outstanding Teacher Award and Theoretical Research Award. In recent years, it has undertaken 12 national research projects, 219 provincial and ministerial research projects, won 13 provincial and ministerial scientific and technological awards, 1145 authorized patents and sent 554 scientific & technological commissioners to serve enterprises from 2017 to 2020, ranking first in terms of funding among other universities in Tianjin for 4 consecutive years. The university took the lead in establishing the Social Science Association of Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences and the Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences Working Committee of the Tianjin China Vocational Education Association.

With more than 30 years of school-running experience, TSGUAS has formed its own school-running feature with 3 development pillars: international cooperation, school-enterprise cooperation, innovation and entrepreneurship. Based on the government-level cooperation among China, Germany, Japan and Spain, the university has established its cooperative relationship with Canada, Australia, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Cambodia, Cuba, Hong Kong (China), Taiwan (China) and other countries and regions. TSGUAS is entitled as "Sino-German (Tianjin) Vocational Education Cooperation Demonstration Base" approved by the Ministry of Education of China, "Talent Introduction Demonstration Base of Tianjin Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs" and "Tianjin Internship and Practice Base for International Students". And the university also was approved as "Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences Intelligent Manufacturing Training Pilot Demonstration Base" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China and awarded as "National Demonstration Institution of Foreign Talents". In addition, TSGUAS is the first in Tianjin to build the joint-running school of junior college education with a foreign country: Sino-Spanish Mechanical and Electrical Engineering School.

TSGUAS took the initiative to serve the industry development by undertaking a series of large school-enterprise cooperation projects with more than 20 companies, including Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Company , Tianjin Airbus, Tianjin Airline, Bosch Rexroth, Volkswagen Automatic Transmission, Flender, Phoenix, GF, Magna, CSIP, DMG, NZWL, Schlote, Sugon, Haier and etc. The university also has organized more than 90 school-enterprise contracted courses of different modes to provide targeted training for more than 3000 technicians. In addition, the university systematically constructed an coordinated educational ecosystem integrating "policy, production, learning, research, funding and application" and was entitled as "National-level Markerspace" by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and "National High Education Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base for Practice Cultivation" by the Ministry of Education of China. Besides, the university and Tianjin Jinnan District government cooperatively built an "Innovation and Entrepreneurship Achievements Transformation Center", which served to the registration of 342 enterprises, completed production value of more than 390 million.

The university seeks support in providing service and achieves development in making contribution. For example, it actively serves the Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and helps the construction of Chengde College of Applied Technology. Additionally, the university also makes contribution to carry out the Belt and Road Initiative by building the Lancang-Mekong Vocational Training Center & Cambodian Luban Workshop and Nigerian Luban Workshop, serves "Made-in China 2025" strategy by cooperating with many elite enterprises like Georg Fischer, Phoenix Contact, Googol Tech, and Tianduan Tech to build "Innovation and Entrepreneurship Platform", supports Military-Civilian Integration Strategy by building the training base for high-skilled personnel in the field of defense-related science and technology industries in Tianjin, undertakes "Targeted Poverty Alleviation" duty by supporting the vocational education for Bijie, Guizhou Province, taking part in building Hetian Polytechnic, providing pairing assistance for Jiuquan Vocational Technical College and Hengshui College of Vocational Technology, enrolling Bilingual Class students from Xinjiang and providing pairing assistance for poverty-stricken villages.  

By adhering to the motto spirit of "Practicality, Perfection and Integrity" and the university essence of "Inclusiveness, Dedication and Harmonious Cooperation", TSGUAS has always been focusing on serving the industrial development, inheriting the craftsman's spirit of "excellence, honesty and trustworthiness" and being committed to training senior technicians, front-line engineers and craftsmen who are "politically upright, highly skilled, honest, trustworthy, rational and moderate". At present, TSGUAS is earnestly constructing a modern vocational education system and heading with every effort toward the goal of building a world-top university of applied sciences.

(data by 2023-03)