Fudan University

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 boasts a total area of approximately 2,500,000 square meters that are divided into 4 campuses: Handan (main campus in Wujiaochang area), Fenglin, Jiangwan and Zhangjiang, housing 35 schools and departments that offer 11 broad subject areas, 5 state-level key laboratories, 29 provincial and ministerial-level laboratories, 17 affiliated hospitals, and libraries that hold more than 5.5 million books and countless digital resources. Fudan is home to approximately 4000 international students from all corners of the globe. Students can choose from diverse forms of extracurricular activities including cultural and hobby sessions organized by student societies (17 of which are mainly constituted by international students), public lectures that invite top industrial leaders and scholars from home and abroad (Nobel winners included), etc. Each undergraduate student spends the first two years on general education, while in the next two or three years students will delve into their areas of interest. Student entrepreneurship receives strong support from the University and its global alumni networks. The motto of Fudan University is scientia et studium, quaestio et cogitatio, which means rich in knowledge and tenacious of purposes, inquiring with earnestness and reflecting with self-practice. The University is highly praised for its time-honored tradition of academic independence and free inquiry. Fudan is a member of the elite C9 League, also known as China’s Ivy league, and a Class A Double First Class University according to a national project to build world-class institutions and disciplines by the end of 2050.