Fudan University was established in 1905 as Fudan Public School. It was the first institution of higher education to be founded by a Chinese person. The two characters, fù (“return”) and dàn (“dawn”) were borrowed from A Commentary on The Classic of History （《尚书大传·虞夏传》）, of which the part on the Yu and the Xia dynasties mentions: “Brilliant are the sunshine and moonlight, again the morning radiance returns at dawn.” In 1917, the institution was renamed Fudan University, which has been kept ever since.
Fudan University was merged with Shanghai Medical University in 2000. Shanghai Medical University was previously the Medicine School of National No.4 Sun Yat-Sen University established in 1927. Currently, Fudan University has 11 faculties: philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, medicine, management and arts. As a world-renowned top Chinese university and comprehensive research institution, Fudan University was selected into the “Double First-Class University Plan” in 2017, which is a state project to sponsor elite Chinese universities, and 27 of our disciplines are listed “double first-class”.
The university is comprised of 35 schools (or departments) and 17 affiliated hospitals (4 are still under construction) with 76 bachelor degree programs, 43 master degree programs of first-level academic disciplines, 37 doctoral degree programs of first-level academic disciplines, 32 master professional degree programs, 4 doctoral professional degree programs and 35 post-doctoral fellowship programs.
Fudan University is home to 13,623 undergraduates and associate degree candidates, 22,610 graduates, 3,672 international students and 3,110 full-time teaching faculty and researchers. Fudan hosts 47 members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and members of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 Distinguished Professor, 13 Senior Professors, and 119 winners of the National Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars.
Currently, we have 19 disciplines that rank 1% globally by ESI, which has put us in the 2nd place (in a tie) in China by the number of top global 1% disciplines. Our Chemistry, Materials Science, Clinical Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology have even entered the 1% band in the world. According to the latest QS World University Rankings, we rank 44th in the world and 3rd in China. We stay ahead in the top 100 in the world in 10 subjects, ranking 3rd in China in terms of the number of subjects in top 100 in the world. We are one of the only two Mainland Chinese universities with all 5 broad subject areas entering top 100 in the world. According to U.S. News & World Report Rankings, 4 of our subjects are listed top 50 globally. We also have 1 broad subject area entering top 50 in the world according to the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In the 4th China University Subject Rankings (CUSR), we are listed A+ in 5 subjects and more than 60% of our subjects evaluated are in the A category. Besides, 14 of our subjects have been selected into the Shanghai Peak (in Chinese: Gaofeng) Subject Project by Shanghai Education Commission.
The university has 5 state key laboratories, 1 state mathematics center, 1 state key research bases for teaching materials, 2 state clinical medicine research centers, 1 state manufacturing innovation center, 7 engineering research centers supported by the Ministry of Education, 14 key laboratories by the Ministry of Education, 9 key laboratories by the National Health Commission, 1 key laboratory by the Ministry of Health, 15 key laboratories by the Shanghai municipal government and 11 engineering research centers by the Shanghai municipal government. We also have 10 key research bases for humanities and social sciences supported by the Ministry of Education, with the Institute of Chinese Studies selected into the first batch of experimental units for the construction of high-end national thinktanks and the School of Marxism into the first batch of national key schools of Marxism. The secretariat of China University Think Tank Forum, an annual conference and assembly for scholars and experts from university think tanks across the nation, is located at Fudan University.
In recent years, Fudan University has entered into cooperation agreements with more than 270 universities and institutions from over 40 countries and regions. Each year, about 8,000 of our students and faculty members study or research abroad, and meanwhile we receive about 5,000 overseas visitors and host about 100 international conferences.
The university consists of four campuses including Handan, Fenglin, Zhangjiang and Jiangwan, covering a total area of 2.4391 square kilometers. The total area of buildings on campus is 1.9822 square kilometers.
(Updated as of May 1st, 2019)
