Hunan University is situated at the foot of the picturesque Yuelu Hill and on the west bank of the rippling Xiangjiang River in Changsha, Hunan. Hunan University traces its origin to Yuelu Academy founded in 976 A.D. Officially named in 1926, it has always been honored as a “One-Thousand-Year-Old Institution”. Chairman Mao Zedong, one of the founding fathers of the People’s Republic of China, inscribed the name of the University in 1950.
Hunan University is a comprehensive and well-coordinated university featuring studies in engineering, with a strong foundation in science, a unique cultural background in liberal arts and its own characteristics in economics and management. Hunan University, affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China, is included in China’s “211 Project” and “985 Project” for priority investment and construction. It has 30 colleges and departments, offering 12 first-order disciplines authorized to confer Ph.D. degrees, 69 second-order disciplines authorized to confer Ph.D. degrees, 171 master programs, 7 academic degree authorizations, 61 undergraduate programs, and 15 post-doctoral research centers. The programs cover 10 classes of disciplines ranging from philosophy, economics, laws, pedagogy, literature, history, to natural sciences, engineering sciences, management, and medicine.
Hunan University has a staff of over 4,700 of which are more than 1,976 full-time teachers, including more than 1,200 professors and associate professors, 2 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 9 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Engineering working part-time for the university, and 17 Yangtze River Scholars. The student body totals nearly 30,000, of which are 20,800 undergraduate students and more than 10,600 graduate students. Hunan University covers a total area of 1,392, 000 square meters. The university library has a collection of over 400,000,000 volumes, and has well-equipped, widely accessible powerful Campus Computer Networks.
The university attaches great importance to international cooperation and communication and has established cooperative ties with nearly 100 universities in over 30 countries and regions. The cooperation involves the exchange of faculty members and students, joint research projects, exchange of academic materials and references, and joint application for international research projects and funds, etc. Hunan University is also home to over 500 students from 48 countries and regions working for bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, doctoral degrees or studying the Chinese language and culture.