Shenyang Institute of Aeronautical Engineering (SYIAE), as the only university of aeronautics and astronautics in Northeast China, concerns itself with educating personnel of senior engineering and administration for national defense and local economic development. It is one of the eighteen non-military universities cultivating officials for the air force. Founded in 1952, the university is, at present, being administrated by Liaoning provincial government and developed with the joint efforts of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The university, with its two campuses, covers an area of 1650 hectares, with a floor space of 570,000 O. The Daoyi campus, located in the New Northern District of Shenyang, covers an area of 1230 hectares, with a floor space of 300,000 O already in use. While the garden-like Beiling Campus, situated on Huanghe North Avenue and neighboring the world famous cultural legacy Zhaoling Tombs of Qing Dynasty, covers an area of 420 hectares with a floor space of 270,000 O. SYIAE now has the possession of 670,000,000 RMB, 110,000,000 RMB of which has been employed for teaching facilities. The library houses a collection of 1,030,000 volumes of books as well as over 2000 sorts of journals, newspaper, and periodicals.

Characterized by aeronautics and astronautics, SYIAE has developed into a multi-disciplinary university with an emphasis on engineering technology, covering such diverse fields as engineering, liberal arts, management, social science, science, etc. At present, the university comprises 21 schools and departments, as well as two collegesNorthern College of Science and Technology and Adult Education College . Currently, it has 1 key discipline of provincial level, 1 first-level master program, 16 second-level master programs, 4 master programs of engineering, 41 undergraduate programs and 4 professional training programs. The university, with its full-time undergraduates and postgraduates, has a total enrolment about 20,000 students.

At present, there are over 400 professors and associate professors in SYIAE. With 135 Ph. D holders, the percentage of Ph.D and Master Degree holders in the teaching faculty exceeds 70%. In addition, there are two Innovation Teams of Provincial Level.

As the basis of educating aviation personnel for Liaoning Province, SYIAE encourages students' specialized skills and innovative potentials. In the past five years, the university has carried out over 200 projects of education reform, and has received 1 award of national level and 20 of provincial level. In addition, the Engineering Training Center has been authorized the Engineering Teaching and Training Center of Liaoning Province. Such specialties as Dynamic Engineering of Aircraft, Manufacturing Engineering of Aircraft and Security Engineering are granted as the key constructive specialties by Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense; specialties of Dynamic Engineering of Aircraft and Manufacturing Engineering of Aircraft have been conferred as the provincial demonstrative specialties. The university also possesses seven excellent courses of provincial level.

In the past 50 years, SYIAE has educated over 40,000 graduates, whose competence, loyalty and achievements have been well accepted by the society. A great number of them are now working as senior engineers or executives. The recent employment of the graduates has been maintained at the average of 98%.

The innovative spirit of the university could be traced back as early as the 1950s, when its independently developed aircraft Shenhang No.1 flew into the sky successfully. Since 1990s, SYIAE has been successively awarded the Torch Research-oriented University by Shenyang Municipal Government. Its Science & Technology Park has been listed as one of the 10 key university Science & Technology parks for construction in Liaoning Province . It has Computer Application Technology as its key discipline of provincial level. SYIAE has 5 key laboratories and research institutes of provincial level for such specialties as Aeronautical Equipment Manufacturing and Measurement & Control Technology. In the past few years, the university has got more than 600 scientific projects at national, provincial and municipal levels, especially its involvement in the National 863 Project. Its annual research funds have reached 32,790,000 RMB in the past five years, with annual research funds of 44,470,000 RMB in 2005. Besides, 1,600 academic papers have been published, of which 140 are collected by SCI, EI or ISTP.

Aiming at developing the students' full potentials, the university actively establishes outstanding clubs and takes part in a variety of high-level scientific activities, which results in the students' achievements in various contests, such as the Aircraft Model Contest, Mathematics Modeling Contest, Challenge Cup, Mechanical Design Contest, Electronic Design Contest, English Speaking Contest, Environment Art Design Contest and Industrial Design Contest.

Every year, the university sends teachers abroad for study, academic exchanges and scientific cooperation. Close academic and cooperative ties have thus been established between SYIAE and foreign institutions, which extends more than 30 universities from different countries, such as the USA, UK, Russia, Australia, Korea, Japan, etc.