Established in 1896 from Sheng Xuanhuai as Nang Yang Public School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the oldest universities in China. It is also one of the best universities of the country (it ranked 4^th in 2012) and belongs to Project 211, Project 985 as well as to the C9-League. Since 2005 Jiao Tong University has been a member of Universitas21, the leading global network of research-intensive universities.

The strength of both, the studies and the research programs of Jiao Tong University, are Marine Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Engineering, Computer Science, Pharmacy, Physics, Law, Media Studies, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics. Today this university offers 63 bachelor, 250 master, 2 doctoral and 28 post-doc programs.

Jiao Tong University and Freie Universität Berlin have been partners since 2008.