The Transportation Institute of Inner Mongolia University(IMU)is an engineering college established by the Ministry of Transport(MOT) in the ethnic minority border areas in terms of national strategic layout, whose predecessor was Hohhot Transport Technical College founded by MOT in 1956. In 1996, the college was approved by the Ministry of Education(MOE) as one of the 2^nd batch of pilot colleges for higher vocational education. In 2000, the college merged into IMU to become the Vocational Technical Institute of IMU. In 2008, the institute merged with the Department of Transport of then School of Science and Engineering of IMU and formed the School of Transport of IMU. In 2009, the School of Transport was upgraded to be Transportation Institute of IMU, which is playing an important role in cultivating talents in transportation for ethnic minority areas and the economic and social development of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region(IMAR).

With the years of development, the institute has accumulated rich experiences in education and equipped itself with sound facilities. Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the Communist Party of China(CPC) Committee of the institute has put forward, to boost the rapid and sound development of the institute, its education purpose of “Basing Itself in Transport, Counting on Transportation Industry, Targeting Social Needs and Serving Society”, development strategy of “Two Focuses and Two Improves”(i.e. the institute will focus, on the one hand, on discipline development, i.e. to refine the development targets, organize strong teams, build brand majors and try to get key laboratories, disciplines and degree programs approved and launched; and on the other on securing the employment of students, i.e. to perfect comprehensive education system, implement the target for cultivating application-oriented talents; with the strong support of IMU under “211 Project” , the institute will improve its overall strength and with the strong support of the industries improve its competitiveness among the colleges of the same kind), and “125 Development Plan”(i.e. following 1 mainline to keep focusing on the fundamental task of cultivating students with moral education and integrate the task into ideological education, education of culture and knowledge and social practice education; centering on 2 “improves” to try to improve the quality of higher vocational education and steadily improve the quality and size of its undergraduate students and master students; trying to make breakthroughs in 5 aspects of the development of the discipline, development of talents, quality of talents, innovative capability of scientific research and capability to serve the local economy and industrial development and cooperate and exchange with its partners).

The institute consists of the Department of Civil Engineering(in preparation), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Transportation Engineering and Department of Public Course Teaching. It offers 7 undergraduate majors in civil engineering, transportation, mechanical engineering, automobile service engineering, vehicle engineering, road and bridge and river-crossing engineering and engineering management and 11 majors of higher vocational education in urban rail transit engineering technology, municipal engineering technology, road and bridge engineering technology, road and bridge technology(road engineering and test of material quality) , vehicle use and maintenance technology, logistics management, operation and management of urban rail transit, engineering machinery use technology, engineering machinery use technology(engineering machinery control technology), engineering cost and road maintenance and management(engineering finance).

The institute has Comprehensive Experiment Building and Comprehensive Internship and Training Base. It has such places for practical teaching as laboratories of road engineering, bridge engineering, vehicle engineering, transportation engineering, machinery engineering and engineering management, laboratory of computer and Yuanshanzi Comprehensive Internship and Training Base. The institute also has a lot of advanced instruments and facilities for teaching and research. And the library for transportation has a collection of over 360,000 books.

In 2012, IMU Test Center for Road Engineering which is affiliated to the institute, got Class A Comprehensive Qualification for Road Engineering from MOT, the first comprehensive Class A test institution in transportation industry in IMAR. In 2008, its Laboratory of Materials of Road and Bridge was selected as regional-level Demonstration Center for Experiment Teaching. In 2009, the Laboratory of Structure Testing of the institute was approved by the Education Department of IMAR as the base for the development of key laboratories of universities and included, as one of the laboratories whose development IMU attached importance to, in the program of “public service platform” of the 3^rd Phase of “211 Project”. In 2012, the institute’s “National Institute of Vocational Skill Appraisal” was selected as a national-level demonstration institute. In 2014, its “Research Center for Engineering Technology of Bridge’s Test, Maintenance and Reinforcement” was chosen as an engineering technology research center of the Department of Science and Technology of IMAR. In the same year, the institute was authorized to offer the master’s degree program of the sub-discipline of “Road Environment Engineering”. In 2019, the institute was authorized by the State Council to offer the professional master’s degree program of Transportation. In 2016, IMAR Research Center for Transportation was established which is renamed Research Center for Data Science and Its Application in Uban Transportation -the first regional-level academic institution for research of the transportation strategies.

The institute’s undergraduate majors of civil engineering(road and bridge), transportation engineering and majors for higher vocational education including road and bridge engineering technology, vehicle use and technology and engineering cost are selected as regional-level brand majors. Its major of use and maintenance of engineering machinery for higher vocational education is selected as a brand major of IMU. Its courses for undergraduate students including Principles of Structure Design and Bridge Engineering and courses for vocational college students including Materials in Road Construction, Engineering Surveying, Structure and Maintenance of Electrical Equipment of Vehicles, Roadbed and Road Surface Engineering, Professional English for Road and Bridge Engineering, Testing Technologies for Road Engineering are selected as regional-level Excellent Courses. The course of Road Testing Technologies for vocational college students is selected as Excellent Course of IMU. The teaching team of Testing Technologies for Road Engineering for vocational college students is chosen as a regional-level Teaching Team. The teaching team of Bridge Engineering for undergraduate students is selected as Excellent Teaching Team of IMU under the Program for Improvement of Comprehensive Strength: Development and Reform of Undergraduate Teaching. The institute has attached great importance to the development of its faculty and reinforced its attraction for high-level innovative talents. The quality, ability and competence of its faculty have been improving. Focusing on the quality of cultivating talents is the fine tradition of the institute. Cultivation of application-oriented talents and ensurance of high employment rate have been the focus of the institute in recent years. In 2008, the institute was selected jointly by such news media as China Youth Daily, as one of the 1^st national “Star Demonstration Colleges” of the vocational colleges of China.

The institute has poured energy into the development of its disciplines and kept improving its innovation in scientific research and capability to serve the society. Since 2009, the faculty of the institute have had 16 research projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 27 projects supported by the Natural Science Foundation of IMAR, 1 sub-project of the project for western areas supported by MOT, 1 project supported by Chunhui Program of the MOE, 18 regional-level scientific and technological projects for universities supported, 3 projects supported by the Education Department of IMAR, 1 project supported by IMAR Program for Support of Young Scientific and Technological Talents of Universities, 3 projects for returned overseas students, 19 projects supported by the Department of Transport of IMAR, 1 national project for tundra, 17 IMU’s projects for newly joined high-level talents and 6 projects supported by the Advisory Committee on Vocational Education for Transportation. The grants of these projects total RMB over 18 million. In recent 5 years, the faculty members of the institute have published 547 research articles, of which 167 are EI articles and 15 SCI articles, 96 textbooks and 3 monographs. While carrying out teaching and scientific research tasks, the institute, with its facilities and talents, frequently offers professional technological service and support of talents to the transportation enterprises. It has given better play to its social service function and resulted in the better economic and social benefits.

The institute has actively carried out cooperation and exchanges with the transportation industry, enterprises and universities at home and abroad. And it is becoming more and more socially prestigious. In 2008, IMU and the Transport Department of IMAR signed an agreement to co-build the Transportation Institute of IMU. And the institute will carry out comprehensive cooperation with the Transport Department of IMAR on cultivation of high-level talents, scientific research and technological services. The institute has strengthened institute-enterprise cooperation and cooperated with such leading enterprises as Toyota Motor Corporation, Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen in education. It has also cooperated with the transportation enterprises in Inner Mongolia and other provinces to establish bases for internship and training of its students. The institute has had extensive and in-depth cooperation and exchanges with such prestigious universities as Tsinghua University and Tongji University.

In order to adapt to the new development trend of higher education in the new era and meet the new needs of the transportation industry and social development, the institute will seize strategic opportunities, rely on the transportation industry, highlight the characteristics of its disciplines, pay close attention to the high-quality development, improve the talent training system, constantly improve the comprehensive strength and enhance the ability and level of talent training, scientific research, social service and cultural inheritance. The Transportation Institute will strive to build itself into a high-level engineering base with distinctive characteristics of IMU and a base of the autonomous region to cultivate high-level transportation talents.