The history of Suzhou University of Science and Technology (SUST) dates back to the 1950s. In the early 1980s, the state ministries of China established two institutions of high education to offer undergraduate programs in Suzhou. SUST was established in September of 2001, by merging the former Suzhou Institute of Urban Construction and Environmental Protection and the former Suzhou Railway Teachers College. It is managed jointly by the central and local governments, primarily by Jiangsu Province.

SUST is located in the western part of the city - Suzhou National Hi-Tech District. The university consists of three campuses, Shihu campus and Jiangfeng campus, occupying a total area of 153 ha.. SUST has organized its academic programs into 15 schools offering 59 undergraduate programs and 96 postgraduate programs, covering 10 disciplines including engineering, natural physical science, liberal arts and humanities, business, social sciences and others. There are currently nearly 1800 faculty and staff, including nearly 700 professors and about 400 associate professors. There are over 25,000 full-time undergraduate students and over 2000 postgraduate students on campus.

SUST is one of the key universities in Jiangsu Province. It is consistently improving the quality of education by continuously modifying training modes, teaching contents and curriculum systems, as well as by improving and standardizing academic management. The university pays great attention to raising comprehensive abilities of the students' to learn, to think, to practice and to be creative. It has more than 90,000 alumni who are now in different professional areas all over China and abroad. Many alumni have become elite leaders in different social and economic sectors, including two academicians in CAS and CAE respectively. SUST has also made substantial achievements in the field of scientific research, technological innovation and community service.

SUST takes educational internationalization as one of its important development strategies and has established inter-school cooperation relationship with many foreign universities and colleges. As one of the universities providing China Aid training and education programs entrusted by Ministry of Commerce, SUST regularly undertakes the training courses, seminars and degree education programs for the participants from developing counties for many years.