At the 63rd Higher Education Expo China recently held in Changchun, Jilin Province, the 2024 College Student Competition Index for Regular Higher Education Institutionswas officially released. NEU achieved its highest-ever ranking on this authoritative list.
With 916 awards and a total score of 95.68, NEU secured second place nationwide—up three places from last year. The top ten universities in the index are: Harbin Institute of Technology, NEU, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Jiangsu University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Southwest Jiaotong University, and Nanchang University.
In addition, several discipline-specific competition indices were recently released. NEU received an A+ rating in both the 2025 College Student Robotics Competition Index and the 2025 College Student Arts and Design Competition Index, an A rating in the 2025 College Student Computer Science Competition Index, and an A– rating in the 2025 College Student Business Competition Index.
In 2024, the university saw remarkable progress in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship through competitions.It secured 2,856 awards in innovation and entrepreneurship contests at the provincial level or higher—up 36.91% from the previous year. A total of 7,993 students were awarded, marking a 25.05% increase year-on-year. These achievements represent a new milestone in both the number of awards and student participation.
In recent years, NEU has made significant strides in innovation and entrepreneurship education reform, particularly in building practical, competition-based talent development systems. The university has established a “Competition-Team-Course-Workshop-Enterprise” training framework, forming 53 interdisciplinary, faculty–student innovation teams composed of students across undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. These teams integrate research, innovation and entrepreneurship, and teaching. The university has also advanced the development of innovation and entrepreneurship hubs at both university-wide and departmental levels, shaping a new education model for innovation and entrepreneurship practice characterized by the integration of “three types of innovation,” a “four-stage progression,” and a synergy of “five education dimensions.” In 2024, NEU achieved major breakthroughs in several high-level national innovation and entrepreneurship competitions for university students. In the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition 2024, the university won 5 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals—ranking first in the province for number of gold awards. In the 14th “Challenge Cup” Chinese College Student Entrepreneurship Plan Competition, NEU secured the“Victory Cup” once again, placing sixth nationwide by total score. In the 19th “Challenge Cup” National College Student Academic Science and Technology Contest, it won theGrand Prize in the “Open Challenge” Special Track. In the17th National College Students’ Innovation Annual Conference, the university ranked in the national top five for totalpoints for the second consecutive year and received the “Outstanding Organization Award.”
