Founded in 1956 by the instruction of then Premier Zhou Enlai, the university is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China.

Now UESTC is a multidisciplinary research university with electronic science and technology as its nucleus, engineering as its major field, and featured with management, liberal art and medicine.

[2] UESTC is consisted of four campuses: Qingshuihe, Shahe, Jiulidi, and Yongning, with a gross built-up area of 1,490 km2 (370,000 acres) .

As early as the 1960s, it was ranked as one of the nation's key higher education institutions, which represents the importance of this university.

In 2000, UESTC was transferred to the MoE-university system, hence a national key university directly affiliated to the State's Ministry of Education.

[4] Built on the Stanford Model and as a member of both the "Project 985" and the "Project 211", UESTC is an electronics-centered multidisciplinary leading research university, covering all of the 6 National Key Disciplines categorized for higher education in electronic and information science and technology in China and a broad range of subjects.