[4] The word Soochow in its English name is the old spelling of the city's Chinese name according to the early postal romanisation.

The original Chinese name 東吳 (Tung-wu) refers to one of the Three Kingdoms in the ancient time, of which the region of Suzhou was an important part.

The university was split in 1949 as a result of the Chinese Civil War, and merged with the Southern Jiangsu College of Culture and Education and the Department of Mathematics and Physics at Jiangnan University to form the Jiangsu Teacher's College in 1952.

Today, Soochow University has developed into a comprehensive university with 12 major disciplines: philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, management science, and art.

The campus grounds have been described as among China's most beautiful, in part based on the incorporation of "typical features of the classical gardens in Suzhou".