Why NUIST Renamed Its Department to Metaverse Engineering – Inside the Trend

After Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) renamed its Information Engineering Department to the "Metaverse Engineering Department".

The metaverse has become a hot topic worldwide, with tech giants like Zuckerberg’s Meta investing heavily, and other companies racing to capture the trend.

Higher education institutions are also joining the movement. On September 24, NUIST’s Artificial Intelligence College (Future Technology College) announced that its Information Engineering Department was renamed to the Metaverse Engineering Department, as approved by the school.

The official document states that the department’s name change was decided by the college’s party‑government joint meeting and approved by the university.

This makes NUIST the first domestic university to have a department named after the metaverse.

Earlier, NUIST explored metaverse topics and hosted the International Forum on Metaverse and Smart Education in July.

Founded in 1960, NUIST is a national "Double First‑Class" university with a history dating back to the former Nanjing Meteorological College.

The Artificial Intelligence College was established in June 2019 by integrating the Information Engineering major from the School of Electronics and Information Engineering and adding an AI undergraduate program. The AI major is among the first 35 AI undergraduate majors approved nationwide. The college now has three research teams: the Metaverse Institute, the Smart Meteorology Institute, and the Smart Medical Institute.

Netizens have mixed opinions: some encourage the move, noting NUIST’s long‑standing connection to the metaverse, while others view it as a gimmick, questioning the value of a name change without substantive curriculum updates.

Some netizens are even asking for metaverse‑related course materials.

If the department can provide appropriate courses and facilities, the renaming could represent a meaningful exploration of metaverse education in Chinese universities.

Reference links: https://www.nuist.edu.cn/main.htm https://www.zhihu.com/question/555284488