Ningbo University (NBU) is a key university of Zhejiang, China and one of the universities in the country's “Shuang Yi Liu” (“Double First-Class”) Initiative, enjoying the joint support from the provincial government of Zhejiang, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ningbo Municipality, as well as from the State Oceanic Administration and Ningbo Municipality. NBU was set up in 1986 with the donations from Sir Yue-Kong Pao, the shipping magnet in Hong Kong. Mr. Deng Xiaoping inscribed the name of Ningbo University in Chinese characters “Ning Bo Da Xue” to express his best wishes for the new-born university. In the early years, NBU owed a lot to five prestigious universities in China for their great support, namely, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, University of Science and Technology of China, Peking University, and the former Hangzhou University. In 1992, it was listed among the first batch of colleges and universities in China to admit students. In 1995, it passed the evaluation of the undergraduate education organized by the former State Education Commission (present MOE). In 1996, the former Ningbo University, Ningbo Teachers College and Zhejiang Fisheries College Ningbo Branch merged into one to become a new Ningbo University. In 2000, NBU was listed as the key university by Zhejiang Provincial Government in 2000. In 2011, the State Oceanic Administration and Ningbo Municipality agreed to jointly develop NBU. In 2012, it became a university co-funded by Zhejiang Provincial Government, the MOE and Ningbo Municipality. In 2015, it was selected as one of the first batch of key universities in Zhejiang Province. In 2017, it was approved as a “Shuang Yi Liu” university of the country. NBU has received great support from a great many personages at home and abroad, especially Ningbo-native merchants overseas. Today's NBU has made way to the Top 100 in China in comprehensive strength. NBU is a teaching and research-oriented university, with disciplines covering economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management, and art. Consisting of 24 colleges, the university has 7 Class-A disciplines and 6 Class-B disciplines of Zhejiang. According to ESI, NBU's engineering, clinical medicine, chemistry and materials science have ranked top 1% in the world.