Xi'an Jiaotong University graduates toss their caps into the air to celebrate their graduation on campus.

Hu Tao, a 20-year-old senior student from Xi'an Jiaotong University, is preparing to study abroad for a doctoral degree.

"Here, we have greater room for trial and error and more freedom to explore," Hu said, when reflecting on his experience in XJTU's special program for gifted young students.

Initiated in 1985 to bridge the country's severe talent gap, this special program has never been conceived as a prodigy class. Instead, it is built upon the core philosophy of "Passion leads, freedom enables". Over the past four decades, the program has enrolled 3,218 students and produced 2,035 graduates.

In addition, XJTU has set up multiple programs to achieve more targeted and efficient education outcomes, including"Everest Plan" (Comprehensive Reform Experimental Class); the Honors Engineering Program, aka Qian Xuesen Class; the Honors Science Program; the Honors Clinical Medicine Program, aka Hou Zonglian Class; the Artificial Intelligence Experimental Honor Class, and the Energy Storage Science and Engineering Program.

Since 2006, XJTU has adopted a"school plus college" two-track cultivation system, pioneering the development of a "one-stop" student community for management and services.

XJTU now offers 77 undergraduate programs, with 45 first-level disciplines authorized to confer doctoral degrees, and 45 first-level disciplines authorized to confer master's degrees. It also offers 10 professional doctoral programs and 32 professional master's programs, and has 34 post-doctoral research mobile stations.

XJTU boasts eight national key first-level disciplines, eight national second-level disciplines, three key disciplines with national support and 166 national first-class undergraduate courses.

Latest data show the university now has 265 bases at the provincial level or above, along with 12 national experimental teaching demonstration centers and nine national-level teaching teams. It also boasts one national teaching materials base and eight national teaching and training bases.

To respond to the nation's development strategies, XJTU has established the School of Future Technology, the School of Modern Industry and the National School for Engineers.

In May 2025, XJTU launched the AI Pioneer Program, aiming to build an "AI plus education" ecosystem and promote innovative development in talent cultivation, scientific research, and management services.

Led by XJTU, the "Project 101 (Pilot Program for Undergraduate Education and Teaching Reform)" in the AI field released its achievements in July 2025. These achievements included textbooks for 12 core courses, syllabuses and a strategic research report on AI talent cultivation in higher education institutions.

Launched by the Ministry of Education in 2021, the project aims to deepen higher education reform and cultivate outstanding innovative talents.

XJTU has been included in the first batch of national pilot universities for AI-empowered talent cultivation.

Over its 130-year history, XJTU has long served as a spiritual beacon illuminating wisdom, nurturing a large number of statesmen, scientists, social activists, educators, entrepreneurs, artists and medical experts.

Among them are Qian Xuesen (1911-2009), known as the "father of China's aerospace", Zhang Guangdou (1912-2013), a trailblazer for China's hydraulic engineering, mathematician Wu Wenjun (1919-2017) and chemist Xu Guangxian (1920-2015).

In recent years, XJTU students have excelled in top international competitions, such as the SAE Aero Design, the VEX Robotics Competition, the Chinese Debate World Cup and the International Collegiate Programming Contest.