Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), founded in 1960 and renamed from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 2004, was designated in 1978 as a national key university. NUIST is a national-level key university co-constructed by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). It is also co-established by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA). NUIST has a complete higher education system with undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral programs as well as post-doctoral research centers. The discipline of Atmospheric Science ranks No. 1 in the national discipline evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education of China in 2024, which has great influence in the world.

NUIST is situated in Jiangbei New District, Nanjing, covering over 2,000 mu (approximately 133 hectares). The Jinniu Lake Industry-Education Integration Campus is located in Jinniu Lake New District of Tianchang City, adjacent to Liuhe District of Nanjing. The Wuxi Campus, located in Xidong New Town, Wuxi City, houses the Wuxi College (formerly the Binjiang College) and the NUIST-Wuxi Joint Graduate School. Additionally, the university operates University Science and Technology Parks and cultural tourism parks in Jiangbei New District, Liuhe District, and Yuhuatai District, Nanjing. The university currently enrolls about 38,140 full-time students, including approximately 28,800 undergraduate students, 7,860 master's and doctoral students, around 1,480 international students (degree students), and 450 exchange students.

NUIST has a distinct educational focus, with Atmospheric Science recognized as a World-Class Discipline under China's national development plan. The university achieved excellent results in the latest discipline evaluations by the Ministry of Education. Meteorology is a national key discipline, while nine fields, including Geoscience, Engineering, Computer Science, Environmental Science & Ecology, Chemistry, Agricultural Science, Materials Science, Mathematics, and Social Sciences, General, are ranked in the top 1% globally in the ESI discipline rankings. Notably, Geoscience and Computer Science rank within the top 0.1% worldwide. The university offers seven first-level doctoral degree programs, including Atmospheric Science, Environmental Science & Engineering, Information and Communication Engineering, Management Science and Engineering, Mathematics, History of Science and Technology, and Computer Science and Technology. It also provides 25 first-level master’s degree programs and 21 professional master’s degree programs, and hosts six postdoctoral research stations. With 80 undergraduate majors spanning nine fields, including science, engineering, liberal arts, management, economics, law, agriculture, arts, and education, NUIST offers comprehensive academic opportunities.

The university comprises 25 professional schools, as well as several high-caliber institutions, such as the College of International Education, Reading Academy (China-UK cooperation), Waterford Institute (China-Ireland cooperation), and Changwang School of Honors (for elite cultivation). NUIST boasts a high-level faculty, with over 2,300 full-time teachers and more than 800 part-time faculty members. Among them are two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 overseas academicians, two academicians of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), 117 national-level talents, and over 500 provincial and ministerial-level talents. The university has 54 national and provincial-level teaching and research teams, including a Ministry of Education Huang Danian-style Faculty Team, a National Natural Science Foundation Innovation Research Group, and Jiangsu Province’s Double Innovation Teams.

NUIST actively promotes domestic and international cooperation, focusing on pooling educational resources. It has established comprehensive partnerships with meteorological bureaus in provinces, cities, and regions across China, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the National Satellite Meteorological Center, the National Meteorological Center, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), Xinhua News Media Group, and the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences. Additionally, it has deepened collaborations with companies such as Huawei, Tencent, HP, and BOE, and co-founded university-enterprise research institutes with well-known domestic enterprises including Guodian Nanjing Automation, Nanjing Iron and Steel, Hengtong Optoelectronics, Northern Information Control, Piesat, China Electronics Technology Group, Qi An Xin, and China Electric Power Research Institute. The university has also established research institutes and graduate schools in Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nantong, Yancheng, and Tianchang, Anhui. It is pushing forward the integrated development of industry, education, and research in the China Meteorological Valley and advancing the construction of the Jinniu Lake Industry-Education Integration Park, contributing to the universit’s integration into the development of the Yangtze River Delta.

The university remains committed to opening up education, having established partnerships with over 140 world-renowned institutions, including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Reading, the University of Manchester, and the Russian State Hydrometeorological University. It is also one of the first universities in the Jiangsu-UK High-Level University Alliance. The Reading Academy, jointly established with the University of Reading, serves as the chair unit of the Joint Conference of Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Institutions, and in 2024, it was selected among the Top 20 Best Practices of Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Institutions. The university also co-founded the Waterford Institute with the South East Technological University of Ireland, making it one of the few institutions in China to have two integrated Sino-foreign cooperative educational institutions offering both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Additionally, the university has an International Education College with qualifications to recruit international students under the Chinese Government Scholarship, Ministry of Commerce Scholarship, Ministry of Education's Sino-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center, and the Jiangsu Government Scholarship. It established a Confucius Institute at the University of the Bahamas and hosts the WMO Regional Training Centre and the ESCAP/Typhoon Committee Training Centre, which have trained over 6,000 senior meteorological scientists and managers from 160 countries and regions. These centers have been recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as some of the highest-quality training institutions with the widest global reach.