In 1970 the Academy of Engineering moved southward to Changsha and was renamed the Changsha Institute of Technology. It changed its name to the National University of Defense Technology in 1978. NUDT is located in the urban area of Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province in South-Central China, covering a total area of 373 hectares.
Over the past 50 years NUDT has developed into a comprehensive university of science, engineering, military science, management, economics, philosophy, literature, education, law and history. The university consists of 10 colleges administering to over 40 departments, institutes and laboratories, four national key laboratories and one key laboratory at the Ministry of Education level. NUDT plays a leading role in many subjects, nine of which are national key subjects. According to the National First-Category Discipline Evaluation from the years 2002-2004 organized by the Ministry of Education, five disciplines of NUDT made the ‘top five’ list and the discipline of Computer Science and Technology ranked first nationwide.