Hunan University (HNU; ) is a national

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

in Yuelu,

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. The university is part of

Project 211 Project 211 ( zh, c=, links=no, s=211工程) was a higher education development and sponsorship scheme of the government of China for "preparing approximately 100 universities for the 21st century", initiated in November 1995. There were 115 ...

Project 985 Project 985 () was a higher education development and sponsorship scheme of the Chinese central government for creating world-class higher education institutions, initiated in May 1998. There were 39 universities selected to be part of this ...

, and the

Double First-Class Construction The World First-Class Universities and First-Class Academic Disciplines Construction (), together known as Double First-Class Construction (), is a higher education development and sponsorship scheme of the Chinese central government, initiated ...

. It is also a member in the BRICS Universities League.

History

Yuelu Academy The Yuelu Academy (also known as the ''Yuelu Academy of Classical Learning'', ) is on the east side of Yuelu Mountain in Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan province, on the west bank of the Xiang River. As one of the four most prestigious academ ...

was founded in the year 976, during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

, as a Confucian ''shuyuan''. In 1903, during the final years of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, the Hunan Institute of Higher Education was established. In 1926, the name of the institution was then changed to Hunan Normal College, and then Hunan Public Polytechnic School, before finally arriving at the name Hunan University. In 1937, the academy was transformed from a provincial university into a national university, renamed the National Hunan University, and designated by the Ministry of education, becoming the fifteenth national university. From April 1938 to May 1941, the National Hunan University suffered serious losses and, made it difficult to run the school. During the Battle of Changsha, the National Hunan University was suspended. In 1949, the name Hunan University was again adopted, and the calligraphy of "Hunan University" was written by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

in 1950 as soon as the People's Republic of China was founded. In 1959, Hunan University was officially restored after the national readjustment of higher education institutions. In 1963, HNU was subordinated to the First Ministry of Machinery Industry. In 1978, Hunan University's status as one of the 88 National Key Universities in China was reaffirmed. Yuelu-Academy-Gate

In 1996, Hunan University became one of the universities sponsored by Project 211. In 2000, Hunan University was selected as a member of Project 985. In November 2010, the National Supercomputing Changsha Center was built on the Hunan University campus under the management and operation of Hunan University. It is the first National Supercomputing Center in

Central China Central China () is a List of regions of China, region in China. It mainly includes the provinces of China, provinces of Henan, Hubei and Hunan. Jiangxi is sometimes also regarded to be part of this region. Central China is now officially par ...

and the third of its kind apart from other two national centers situated in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

and

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

. In 2011, HNU participated in the Excellence League, an alliance of 10 Chinese universities with a strong background in engineering. In 2015, HNU joined the BRICS Universities League, a consortium of leading research universities from

BRICS BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The idea of a BRICS-like group can be traced back to Russian foreign ...

countries.In 2017, Hunan University was listed in the

Academics and administration

Hunan University is a national key university under the direct administration of the

Ministry of Education of China The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China is a constituent department of the State Council, responsible for basic education, vocational education, higher education, and other educational affairs throughout the country. The ...

and a member of Project 211 and Project 985, as well as the Double First Class University Plan. The administration is led by a CPC secretary and a president. The current secretary is Deng Wei, and the president is Duan Xianzhong. Central Teaching Building

It has the following colleges and departments: *Architecture *Biology *Business Administration *Chemistry and Chemical Engineering *Chinese Language and Literature *Civil Engineering *Computer Science and Electronic Engineering *Design *Economy and Trade *Educational Science *Electrical and Information Engineering *Robotics *Environmental Science and Engineering *Finance and Statistics *Foreign Languages and International Studies *Journalism and Communication and Film and Television Arts *Law *Marxism Studies *Mathematics and Econometrics *Materials and Engineering *Mechanical Vehicle Engineering *Physical Education *Public Administration *Physics and Microelectronics Science *

*Semiconductors (Integrated Circuits) *Interdisciplinary Institute of Life Medicine *Hunan University Library * Hunan University Press

Students and Academics

There are more than 30,000 full-time students, including more than 20,800 undergraduates and more than 14,000 graduate students. Hunan University has started to recruit international students since 1990s and is one of the Project 985 universities in China to launch an international student program taught entirely in English.

Rankings and reputation

As of 2024, Hunan University is ranked in the top 200 research universities in the world by several global university rankings such as the '' Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking and the CWTS Leiden Ranking''. Hunan University was ranked 259th worldwide in 2024 in terms of aggregate performance by the three widely observed university ranking (

THE ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

ARWU The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...

+ QS) as reported by the ''Aggregate Ranking of Top Universities''.

General Rankings

* In the 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Hunan University ranked #151st globally. *As of 2025, the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking ranked Hunan University # 109 globally, #21 in Asia, and #12 in China.

Research Rankings

* Hunan University ranked 14th worldwide in the 2016

Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries/territories and their scientific output since its introduction in November 2014. Originally released with 64 natural-science journals, the Nature Index expanded to 82 natural-sci ...

Rising Stars. In 2018, Hunan University was elected among 16 universities in the world by ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', called " Movers and Shakers". In the 2024

Research Leaders, which measures the largest groups of papers published in 145 leading high-quality science journals, Hunan University ranked 45th among the leading academic institutions globally and 24th in the Asia-Pacific region. * Hunan University was ranked 105th globally by the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2024 based on the number of their scientific publications in the period 2019–2022. For the proportion of their scientific publications that rank among the top 10% and 50% in their fields by citations in the 2024 CWTS Leiden Ranking Open Edition, Hunan University ranks 7th globally (1st in

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

) and 1st in the world, respectively. *In 2020, a research paper by

Loet Leydesdorff Louis André (Loet) Leydesdorff (21 August 1948, Batavia (Dutch East Indies) - 11 March 2023, Amsterdam) was a Dutch sociologist, cyberneticist, communication scientist and Professor in the Dynamics of Scientific Communication and Technological ...

, a famous scientometrician, employs data from 205 China's leading research-intensive universities, including in the CWTS Leiden Ranking 2020, to classify them into three main groups: Top, Middle, and Bottom. Hunan University (with a Z-score of 10.2) ranks 2nd only to

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

(z=11.0), which leads the "High Group of 32 Universities". *In 2022, 32 HNU faculty members were included in

Clarivate Clarivate Plc is a British-American Public company, publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription business model, subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business intelligenc ...

's list of Highly Cited Researchers, placing HNU at No. 33 globally and third in China, behind only the Chinese Academy of Science and Tsinghua University.

Subject Rankings

* Hunan University has been ranked in the top 30th global universities in "

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

" by several international rankings, including U.S. News Rankings, URAP ranking, and

NTU Ranking The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (NTU Rankings) is a ranking of world universities compiled by National Taiwan University annually since 2012. This publication ranks world universities by a certain criteria of ...

Notable alumni

Among its prominent alumni are *

Cai E Cai E (; 18 December 1882 – 8 November 1916) was a Chinese revolutionary leader and general. He was born Cai Genyin () in Shaoyang, Hunan, and his courtesy name was Songpo (). Cai eventually became an influential warlord in Yunnan ( Yunn ...

, a major leader in defending the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

* Ci Yungui, the chief designer of China's first super computer * Guo Songtao, China's first ambassador to a foreign country * Wang Fuzhi, a celebrated philosopher in Chinese history * Wei Yuan, a reformist who first advocated to learn from the West * Xiong Xiaoge, the first person to introduce high-tech venture funds into China *

Zeng Guofan Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong (; 26 November 1811 – 12 March 1872), birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan (), was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang ...

, the first Chinese to initiate the Modernization Movement (at the time called Yangwu Yundong, a movement to imitate overseas technology and industry) and to make arrangements for a modern factory in China * Zhang Fengxuan, the first Chinese to set foot on the continent of Antarctica * Zuo Zongtang, a national hero who arranged to build China's first modern navy and took great pains to defend and develop

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

References

External links

* *
University history
{{Coord, 28, 10, 49, N, 112, 57, 10, E, region:CN_type:edu_source:kolossus-zhwiki, display=title Universities and colleges in Changsha Universities and colleges in Hunan Project 985 Project 211 Plan 111 Ancient universities Yuelu District 1926 establishments in China Universities and colleges established in 1926