The Institute of Disaster Prevention (IDP), an arm of the China Earthquake Administration, is the only higher education institute in China focused on disaster prevention, reduction and relief. Established in 1975, it enrolls students from all over the country. Currently, there are more than 8600 full-time students.

Specializing in the field of disaster prevention and reduction and geared to the needs of emergency management and economic and social development, IDP has developed a multi-level modern education system offering undergraduate, postgraduate, adult continuing education programs as well as vocational training.

We offer disaster-related undergraduate degree programs, covering five disciplines of science, engineering, management, literature and economics. Among them, there are 11 central programs (geophysics, geology, natural resources prospecting engineering, groundwater science and engineering, prospecting technology and engineering, civil engineering, mapping engineering, geological engineering, urban underground space engineering, hydroengineering, emergency technology and management), 13 supporting programs (engineering management, electrical engineering and automation, measurement and control technology and instrumentation, computer science and technology, network engineering, information management and information system, communication engineering, geographic science, IOT engineering, data science and big data technology, applied psychology, public utilities management, environmental engineering), and 8 extended programs (finance, investment, accounting, business administration, Chinese language and literature, advertising, network and new media, and English).

IDP has been listed as a pilot unit for professional master’s programs that serve the special needs of the country by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. We offer a professional master’s program in resources and environment with areas of specialization like earthquake dynamics and earth exploration technology, geological resources and disaster geology, disaster prevention and reduction engineering, groundwater engineering and seismic fluid dynamics, disaster monitoring technology and engineering safety, disaster information processing technology, disaster risk assessment and disaster prevention and reduction planning.

IDP is a national-level continuing education base for professional and technical personnel and one of the universities to implement the Excellent Engineer Development Plan. It has one national-level characteristic degree program, one national outstanding teachers’ team, and nine provincial teaching teams. It has undertaken construction projects like a provincial disaster prevention and reduction technology innovation and talent training center, provincial key disciplines, provincial key developing disciplines, ministerial and provincial key laboratories, and laboratories for international cooperation among others. In the past five years, IDP has undertaken more than 600 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Social Science Foundation of China, the National Science and Technology Plans, the National 863 Plan, the Special Fund for Public Welfare Sectors, and the Spark Program for Earthquake Science and Technology. Our researchers have won a 2nd Prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award and 16 ministerial and provincial level science and technology achievement awards.

IDP has made a commitment to the highest quality of research in eight disaster-related fields, namely, earthquake precursory background field, geotechnical engineering earthquake resistance, urban earthquake prevention and reduction planning, urban earthquake prediction, seismogeological disaster, seismic observation information processing, earthquake precursory observation instruments, disaster risk and emergency management, forming a relatively complete disaster prevention and reduction research system. We have been playing a significant role in serving various social communities. Over 200 industrial，technical and social service projects undertaken by IDP have produced great benefits to the public. We were heavily involved in the on-site rescue, scientific investigation and loss assessment of Great Wenchuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake and other major disasters. We did surveys of the damage of primary and secondary school buildings after the disasters. Our proposal to the central government during the Wenchuan earthquake relief—Proposal on the Safety of Primary and Secondary School Buildings—was adopted by the Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries. Soon afterwards, a huge School Safety Project was launched throughout China, greatly improving school building safety against earthquakes.

IDP boasts advanced educational and teaching facilities, such as the modern library, the network information center, the indoor gymnasium, the swimming pool, the high standard sports field among others. The library contains more than one million printed books and over 30 electronic databases. The average value of teaching and research equipment per student reaches 37,000 RMB. There are experimental centers for earthquake science, engineering earthquake, civil engineering and information technology. All 86 different laboratories are equipped with the most advanced and the most comprehensive earthquake monitoring instruments of any higher education institute in China. Our over 100 off-campus training camps provide facilities for hands-on teaching, with a national engineering practice education center, a college student social practice base, a popular science education base for earthquake prevention and disaster reduction and an experimental teaching demonstration center at the provincial level the most prominent.

As a base that offers education and training in earthquake prevention and reduction in China, IDP has turned out nearly 40,000 graduates for the seismological community and the society. Our graduates have been widely recognized for their solid professional knowledge, strong practical ability, great sense of responsibility and hard-working spirit. Many of them have won the science and technology progress awards at different levels and the titles of national or provincial model workers. At present, 70% of the monitoring staff and 80% of the seismic station leaders are graduates of IDP. It is thus honored as the “Whampoa Military Academy of the Seismological Community”.

We resolutely implement the educational policy of the Communist Party of China in the new era and the new concepts for disaster prevention, reduction and relief, follow the path of connotative development, keep improving our teaching and research, and unswervingly advance towards our goals of becoming a key training center for disaster prevention and reduction and a center of scientific innovation, cultural communication, and the exchange of information. With our uniqueness, we are making lasting contributions to China’s economic and social development as well as to the goals of disaster prevention, reduction and relief.