Tongji University has a long history and outstanding reputation. It is one of the earliest national universities in China and a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education and jointly established with Shanghai. After 113 years of development, Tongji University has become a comprehensive, research-oriented, international university with distinctive characteristics and greater influence at home and abroad, and its comprehensive strength ranks among the top universities in China.

The school began in 1907 with the German doctor Erich Paulon, a German doctor, with the support of the Chinese and German governments and all walks of life. In 1912, it was jointly called Tongji German Medical Engineering School with the newly established Tongji German Art School. It was taken over by the Chinese in 1917 and successively changed its name to Tongji Medical School and Private Tongji Medical School. It was named Tongji University in 1923 and became a national university in 1927. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Tongji University moved to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places successively after six relocations. In 1940, it moved to Lizhuang Ancient Town in Yibin, Sichuan, and persisted in running the school. After moving back to Shanghai in 1946, it has developed into a comprehensive university known for its five colleges of science, engineering, medicine, literature, and law.

In the nationwide adjustment of faculties and departments that began in 1949, Tongji University’s original superior disciplines such as liberal arts, law, medicine, science, machinery, electrical engineering, shipbuilding, surveying and mapping have supported other universities or moved to the mainland as a whole. At the same time, the civil engineering related disciplines of more than 10 universities across the country have gathered in Tongji, making it the largest and most comprehensive engineering university in the field of civil engineering in China. After 1978, the school implemented "two transformations"—resuming exchanges with Germany from a closed school to an open school and expanding the scope of subjects from a civil engineering-based engineering university to a comprehensive university of science and engineering. In 1996, the Shanghai Institute of Urban Construction and Shanghai Institute of Building Materials Industry were merged and listed as a national " 211 Project" construction university. In 2000, it merged with Shanghai Railway University to form a new Tongji University. In 2002, it was listed as a national " 985 Project" construction university. In 2003, Shanghai Aviation Industry School was placed under the management of Tongji University. In 2004, it was listed as a middle management university. In 2017, it was listed as a national world-class university construction university.

Tongji University has always been to cultivate top-notch creative talents as a lofty mission and responsibility to undergraduate education as school legislation of the country to graduate school education is a strong road, establish a training model trinity of "knowledge, ability, personality", and strive to make every After studying and nurturing at the university level, a student has the comprehensive characteristics of "general knowledge, professional quality, innovative thinking, practical ability, global vision, and social responsibility", and becomes a social pillar and professional elite leading the future. Since its establishment, the school has successively trained more than 360,000 graduates and created a large number of outstanding politicians, scientists, educators, social activists, entrepreneurs, medical experts and engineering technical experts. Among the alumni, 156 were elected academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.