Hunan University

Hunan University is located in Changsha, a famous historical and cultural city in China. It faces the rippling Xiangjiang River in front and the beautiful Yuelu Mountain in the back. It is known as "a thousand-year-old institution of higher learning and a century-old famous school".

The school originated from Yuelu Academy, which was founded in 976 AD. It is the longest-established institution of higher learning in China. After thousands of years of changes, it has always maintained the continuity of cultural education. It is a vivid epitome of the development of higher education in China and a rare miracle of higher education in the world. In 1903, it was restructured into Hunan Higher School, and was officially named Hunan University in 1926. In 1937, it became one of the 16 national universities in the country. After the founding of New China, Li Da, one of the founders and early leaders of the Communist Party of China, served as the first president, and Mao Zedong personally wrote the name of "Hunan University". In 2000, Hunan University and Hunan University of Finance and Economics merged to form the new Hunan University. Since the reform and opening up, the school has successively entered the ranks of national key universities, "211 Project", "985 Project" and "World-Class University" construction universities. On September 17, 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the school for inspection and research, highly praised the school's talent training and cultural heritage, and put forward a major scientific conclusion that Yuelu Academy is the source of the party's pragmatic ideological line.

In the long history of running schools, the school has formed an educational tradition of "preaching and benefiting the people, being patriotic and pragmatic, being practical and inclusive", and has accumulated the spirit of Hunan University with the school motto of "seeking truth from facts and daring to be the first" and the school spirit of "erudition, wisdom, diligence, and knowledge", and established the overall goal of cultivating talents with solid foundation, broad vision, both moral integrity and ability, good humanistic qualities, scientific spirit and innovation ability in the new era. The school has cultivated and nurtured a large number of outstanding talents who have made history, represented by Wang Fuzhi, Tao Shu, Wei Yuan, He Changling, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Guo Songtao, Tan Sitong, Huang Xing, Cai E, Yang Changji, Mao Zedong, He Shuheng, Cai Hesen, Deng Zhongxia, Li Da, etc. 39 academicians and academicians of the "two academies" have emerged among teachers and students. "Only in Chu are there talents, and here they flourish" is a vivid portrayal of the school's talents.

The school has 27 colleges, and its disciplines cover 11 major categories, including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, management, medicine, and art. It has formed a discipline layout with a solid foundation in science, strong strength in engineering, unique characteristics in humanities and social sciences, the rise of life and medical disciplines, and active emerging interdisciplinary disciplines. It has 74 undergraduate majors, 35 first-level disciplines authorized to confer master's degrees, 30 first-level disciplines authorized to confer doctoral degrees, and 28 postdoctoral research mobile stations. There are 2 first-level national key disciplines and 14 second-level national key disciplines. 7 disciplines have been selected as national defense disciplines, and chemistry, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering have entered the ranks of "world-class disciplines".

The school currently has more than 36,000 full-time students, including more than 20,000 undergraduates and more than 16,000 graduate students. It has established cooperative relations with more than 130 overseas universities such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, and University of California, Berkeley, and recruits international students from more than 80 countries and regions. It has established 2 basic disciplines and outstanding students training program 2.0 bases, 4 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, and has been selected as the first batch of national demonstration universities for deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform, national innovation and entrepreneurship typical experience universities, and national universities practice education innovation and entrepreneurship bases. The School of Marxism has been selected as a national key school of Marxism. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the school has won 1 first prize and 2 second prizes in the national teaching achievement awards; 17 national new engineering and new liberal arts research and practice projects have been approved; 34 national first-class undergraduate professional construction sites and 37 national first-class undergraduate courses have been selected; and 20 gold and silver medals in the "Internet +", "Challenge Cup" and "Chuang Qingchun" innovation and entrepreneurship competitions have been won.

The school currently has more than 4,400 faculty and staff, including 2,293 full-time teachers, 12 academicians, 11 members of the discipline evaluation group of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, 65 national special talents, 25 winners of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, 31 winners of the National Excellent Youth Science Fund, 7 national teaching masters, and 14 young and middle-aged science and technology innovation leaders in the Ministry of Science and Technology's Innovation Talent Promotion Plan. It has 6 National Natural Science Foundation "Innovation Research Group" projects, 11 national teaching teams, and 9 innovation teams from the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. 100 people were selected as China's highly cited scholars and 32 people were selected as global highly cited scholars.

The school has strong scientific research strength and outstanding scientific and technological achievements. It has 2 national key laboratories, 2 national engineering technology research centers, 1 national engineering research center, 3 national international cooperation bases, 1 national defense key discipline laboratory of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, 9 key laboratories and engineering research centers of the Ministry of Education, and 5 discipline innovation and intelligence introduction bases of higher education institutions of the Ministry of Education. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, it has won 16 national science and technology awards (11 of which were led by the Ministry of Education) and 9 humanities and social science awards of the Ministry of Education. The school has built a national university science and technology park and has been approved by the Ministry of Education as the first batch of scientific and technological achievements transformation and technology transfer bases for higher education institutions. It has established industry-university-research cooperation with 33 provinces (cities, regions) and thousands of enterprises, and has overcome a number of "stuck neck" technologies in key areas, breaking the foreign technology monopoly in multiple directions. A series of innovative technologies are widely used in key areas of the national economy such as electricity, rail trains, national defense and aerospace. The National Supercomputing Center in Changsha, operated and managed by the university, is the third national supercomputing center, providing high-performance computing, big data, and artificial intelligence services to nearly 2,000 users including universities, research institutions, governments, and enterprises.

The university has a beautiful campus environment and a strong cultural atmosphere. Located in the core area of ​​the national 5A-level scenic spot, the campus covers an area of ​​2.41 million square meters, and the school building area is 1.34 million square meters. The elegant and heavy ancient buildings and the fashionable and cutting-edge new buildings complement each other, and the natural scenery and cultural landscape are deeply integrated. It is known as "China's most poetic and picturesque university".

"Lushan is majestic, Xiangshui is vast, and the university is open and crowded; it inherits the thread of Zhu and Zhang, and takes the strengths of Europe and the United States." From ancient academies to modern schools and then to modern universities, Hunan University insists on pursuing excellence and has always been in the first echelon of China's higher education. At the new historical starting point, Hunan University adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, takes root in China, and is determined to achieve first-class goals. It strives to build Hunan University into a world-class university with Chinese characteristics with rich historical and cultural heritage as soon as possible, and cultivate more builders and successors who are capable of shouldering the great task of national rejuvenation.

(Time ends in March 2022)