In 1896, the
Nanyang Public School () was founded in
Shanghai based on an imperial edict issued by the
Guangxu Emperor, under the Business and Telegraphs Office of the
imperial government. Four schools were established: a
normal school, a school of foreign studies, a middle school, and a
high school.
Sheng Xuanhuai, the mandarin who proposed the idea to the Guangxu Emperor, became the first president and is regarded as the founder of the university, along with
John Calvin Ferguson, a missionary educator. The university underwent a series of transitions. In 1904, the Ministry of Commerce took over the school, and in 1905 changed its name to
Imperial Polytechnic College of the Commerce Ministry. In 1906, the college was placed under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and its name was changed to
Shanghai Industrial College of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. When the
Republic of China was founded, the college was placed under the Ministry of Communications and its name was once again changed, this time to
Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry. The Republic of China founded the School of Management in 1918. In 1920, the Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry merged with two other colleges and changed its name to
Nan Yang College of Chiao Tung. In 1938, the Ministry of Education took over the university and renamed it,
National Chiao Tung University (). During the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the university moved to the
French Concession, and in 1940 the state-run branch of Jiaotong University was set up in
Chongqing. In 1941, to prevent the
Wang puppet government from taking over the university, it continued operations under the name of Private Nanyang University. In 1942, the Wang government took over Shanghai School. So the Education Department of Guomin Government chose Chongqing Branch as the headquarters of Jiaotong University. In 1943, the graduate school was founded. After the anti-Japanese War was won, Chongqing headquarter went back to Shanghai and merged with Shanghai School. In 1946, the name of state-run Jiaotong University was recovered. After the
Kuomintang were defeated in 1949, a part of the faculty retreated to Taiwan with
Chiang Kai-shek and, in 1958, formed the eponymous
National Chiao Tung University in
Taiwan. The institution that remained in Shanghai was renamed Chiao Tung University to reflect the fact that all universities under the new socialist state would be public. In the 1950s, the
pinyin romanization system was developed in mainland China and Chiao Tung University changed its English name to
Jiao Tong University. The national strategy adopted in 1956 dictated that the majority of Jiao Tong University would be moved to Xi'an, Shaanxi (). During the movement, the national strategy was changed and there were questions on necessity of the move. Since the majority of the facilities, staffs, faculties and students had already arrived in
Xi'an and the campus had started operated, the university decided to operate two campuses, one in
Xi'an and another in
Shanghai. However, the operation with two campuses were difficult and moving the
Xi'an campus back to
Shanghai was impossible. Thus, from July 31, 1959, with the approval from
State Council of the People's Republic of China, two campuses became independent. The Xi'an campus changed its name to Xi'an Jiaotong University and the Shanghai campus changed its name to
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Xi'an Jiaotong University was immediately listed as a
National Key University. Later, it became one of a handful of universities built according to the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" and "Eighth Five-Year Plan." In 2000, the State Council approved a merger of Xi'an Medical University and the Shaanxi Institute of Finance and Economics into Xi'an Jiaotong University. Xi'an Jiaotong University has been part of all major government efforts to establish world-class universities in China, including
Project 211,
Project 985, the
C9 League, and the
Double First-Class Construction (Class A). In March 2025, the university signed an agreement with the Shaanxi
International Communication Center to provide a pipeline of talent. ==Faculty and staff==